A thermal-neutron reactor is a nuclear reactor that uses slow or thermal neutrons.. ("Thermal" does not mean hot in an absolute sense, but means in thermal equilibrium with the medium it is interacting with, the reactor's fuel, moderator and structure, which is much lower energy than the fast neutrons initially produced by fission.). Most nuclear power plant reactors are thermal …

A nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) is a type of thermal rocket where the heat from a nuclear reaction, often nuclear fission, ... with the maximum operating temperature of the engine instead of being determined by the reactor pressure vessel and neutron reflector material. The higher operating temperatures would be expected to deliver specific ...

A thermal neutron is a free neutron with a kinetic energy of about 0.025 eV (about 4.0×10 −21 J or 2.4 MJ/kg, hence a speed of 2.19 km/s), which is the energy corresponding to the most probable speed at a temperature of 290 K (17 °C or 62 °F), the mode of the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution for this temperature.

In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, ideally without capturing any, leaving them as thermal neutrons with only minimal (thermal) kinetic energy.These thermal neutrons are immensely more susceptible than fast neutrons to propagate a nuclear chain reaction of uranium-235 or other fissile isotope by …

Neutron generator theory and operation. Small neutron generators using the deuterium (D, hydrogen-2, 2 H) tritium (T, hydrogen-3, 3 H) fusion reactions are the most common accelerator based (as opposed to radioactive isotopes) neutron sources. In these systems, neutrons are produced by creating ions of deuterium, tritium, or deuterium and tritium and accelerating these …

Neutron activation analysis (NAA) is the nuclear process used for determining the concentrations of elements in many materials. NAA allows discrete sampling of elements as it disregards the chemical form of a sample, and focuses solely on atomic nuclei. The method is based on neutron activation and thus requires a source of neutrons.The sample is bombarded …

Chemical engineering. Chemical reactions involving thermal runaway are also called thermal explosions in chemical engineering, or runaway reactions in organic chemistry.It is a process by which an exothermic reaction goes out of control: the reaction rate increases due to an increase in temperature, causing a further increase in temperature and hence a further rapid increase in …

A fast-neutron reactor (FNR) or fast-spectrum reactor or simply a fast reactor is a category of nuclear reactor in which the fission chain reaction is sustained by fast neutrons (carrying energies above 1 MeV or greater, on average), as opposed to slow thermal neutrons used in thermal-neutron reactors.Such a fast reactor needs no neutron moderator, but requires fuel that is …

Neutron scattering, the irregular dispersal of free neutrons by matter, can refer to either the naturally occurring physical process itself or to the man-made experimental techniques that use the natural process for investigating materials. The natural/physical phenomenon is of elemental importance in nuclear engineering and the nuclear sciences. . Regarding the experimental …

The effects of a nuclear explosion on its immediate vicinity are typically much more destructive and multifaceted than those caused by conventional explosives.In most cases, the energy released from a nuclear weapon detonated within the lower atmosphere can be approximately divided into four basic categories:. the blast itself: 50% of total energy; thermal radiation: …