Fissions Flashcards
Inelastic scattering
Some KE transferred to target nucleus as excitation energy
Total KE outgoing neutron and nucleus is less than KE of incoming neutron
Elastic scattering
Elastic scattering, (billiard ball effect), is most probable with light nuclides. In an elastic scattering reaction, the neutron does not contribute to nuclear excitation of the target nucleus because of a conservation of momentum
Radiative capture
Incident neutron interacts with the target nucleus forming a compound nucleus
Compound nucleus, with the neutron added - decays to its ground state via gamma emission
Particle ejection
A compound nucleus is formed when the incident neutron interacts with the target nucleus
New compound nucleus, is excited to a high enough energy level for it to:
Eject a new particle with the incident neutron remaining in the nucleus
Ejected particles can be alpha particles, protons, etc
After the new particle is ejected, the nucleus may or may not exist in an excited state depending upon the mass-energy balance of the reaction
Fission
The nucleus absorbs the incident neutron resulting in nucleus splitting into two smaller nuclei, called fission fragments
Excitation energy (Eexc)
The measure of how far the energy level of a nucleus is above its ground state
Critical energy (Ecrit)
The minimum excitation energy for a specific nuclide to fission
