3 ms·
How does moderating more accelerate the reaction?
by pests 3y ago
How does moderating more accelerate the reaction?
- Tabular-Iceberg 3y agoMore neutrons will be able to interact with the fissile nuclei rather than just fly out of the reactor, so you get more fission events.
- magicalhippo 3y agoThe fission events produce a high proportion of fast neutrons. The fission cross-section, ie chance of inducing a fission event when struck by a neutron, depends on the speed of the incoming neutron, and is smaller for the faster neutrons than for slower neutrons. edit: I should note there's a sweetspot, as the neutrons have to have enough speed to overcome the repulsive force in order to enter the nucleus. Thus the cross-section has a maximum at some energy (speed), and it varies a lot between elements and isotopes.