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U234 is very fertile, Np237 is fissile
editU234 nas a neutron abs cross section of 100 which compares to U233 of 575 barns. Np237 wiki says it also fissions but a bad bomb. Seems as though as long as neutrons are irradiating the fuel that the impurities reach a steady state equilibrium. (As the late Chernobyl Engineers not learned about rapidly restarting reactors, follow the damned checklist. Gotcha was Xenon delayed release super poison, neutron absorber; tried to restart before Xenon peak and overshot.) Uranium reactor pages give steady state, in reactor, and "cooled" samples for reprocessing. The elemental analysis seems consistent for each reactor type. My school had a reactor we used in Radiochemistry for neutron activation. Nuclear Fuel before and after use was Atomic Energy Commission tested. Most reactor designs ignore the buildup of steady state fission products. Re light water absorbing neutron (that and oxide complaints), Oxygen neutron absorbtion is doubled by O17 traces. O16 and O18 absorb at only a fraction of Deuterium. Wax/polyethylene is a better moderator than graphite (better neutron efficiency for a breeder reactor). If the core got to hot then the moderator would melt away. Actually re designs that depended on the reaction to stop when moderator is limited; part of Chernobyl's moderation was compressed Helium gas, reaction supposed to stop when Helium ruptured (conjecture that smoke from graphite fire was adequate moderstor). *Bombs do not have moderators. TaylorLeem (talk) 18:28, 27 June 2020 (UTC)
Beta or Gamma?
editShould the 208Tl (β−, 3 min) be gamma? The text above says that 208Tl is a gamma emitter. . — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mythosmann (talk • contribs) 16:44, 5 August 2023 (UTC)
- Thallium-208 is both a beta emitter and gamma emitter. The beta decay of thallium-208 yields lead-208, an electron, an electron antineutrino, and a photon (gamma ray), as the total charge, lepton number, and mass–energy must be conserved. The initial emission of an electron (and antineutrino) produce an excited state of lead-208, which promptly emits a gamma ray to transition to the stable ground state. Complex/Rational 18:44, 5 August 2023 (UTC)