Nuclear Reactions and Fission

The first two sections of the chapter present a survey of various types of nuclear collisions and illustrate the cross section concept, which is largely used to describe nuclear reactions. The remaining part of the chapter deals with nuclear fission, the process that is of fundamental importance for the production of nuclear power. Sections 3.3–3.7 examine in detail the distribution of fission fragments, the energy released in the fission reaction, the fission induced by neutron capture, the general conditions for setting up a fission chain reaction, and the way used for slowing down neutrons in thermal neutron reactors. Sections 3.8–3.12 review the basic physical features in fission technology for energy production, and carefully describe the physics and the components of thermal and fast reactors, with a particular attention to reactor control and fuel burnup.