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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
In transition: Commercializing fusion power
Commercial fusion power is closer than ever. There are now around 30 U.S. fusion companies, several of which claim to be on track to connect to the grid as early as the 2030s.
Tokamak and laser inertial confinement approaches benefit from decades of research at facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and ITER, with alternative concepts including stellarator, magnetic mirror, and Z-pinch confinement also making notable progress as private and government funding for fusion increases.
David Regnier, Olivier Litaize, Olivier Serot
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 174 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 103-108
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE12-12
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The average total prompt neutron multiplicity [nu with overbar] of 252Cf spontaneous fission is investigated as a function of the total kinetic energy TKE and the mass split of the fragments through the code FIFRELIN. This Monte Carlo device, already described in a previous work, aims at simulating the neutron evaporation from fission fragments. The observables and TKE and the light fragment mass AL are recorded from a sample of 107 fission events. The analyzed results show a value for the inverse of the slope [[partial differential][nu with overbar](TKE)/[partial differential]TKE]-1 equal to -11.0 MeV/n. In addition to this, the average number of neutrons per fission [nu with overbar](TKE, AL) is determined for every possible TKE and AL. For every fragment mass ratio, differences in behavior between [nu with overbar](TKE, AL) versus TKE and [nu with overbar](TKE) with no discrimination made with regard to AL are observed. Those differences are explained by the TKE dependency of fission yield. The approximation consisting of ignoring this TKE dependency of mass yield when calculating the [nu with overbar](TKE) slope is discussed. We estimate that such a calculation could lead to a significant bias on the absolute value of [partial differential][nu with overbar](TKE)/[partial differential]TKE and could explain the discrepancies between calculations found in the literature.
