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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.
Zhang Huanqiao, Liu Zuhua, Ding Shengyue, and Liu Shaoming
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 86 | Number 3 | March 1984 | Pages 315-319
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE84-A17560
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This research was published (in Chinese) in Chin. J. Nucl. Phys., 3, 2, 149 (1981). The average number of prompt neutron and the distributions of prompt neutron number probability P(ν) for spontaneous fission of 240Pu, 242Cm, and 244Cm relative to (252Cf) have been measured using a large gadolinium-loaded liquid scintillation counter with a co-incidence method. The results were (240Pu) = 2.141 ± 0.016, (242Cm) = 2.562 ± 0.020, and (244Cm) = 2.721 ±0.021. The measured distributions of prompt neutron number were fitted with Gaussian curves by a weighted least-squares method. The widths of Gaussian distribution are 1.149 ± 0.047, 1.159 ± 0.074, and 1.175 ± 0.098 for 240Pu, 242Cm, and 244Cm, respectively. These results as well as a previous measurement of spontaneous fission of 252Cf show the linear variation of σ with at the first order of approximation. The data were fitted by a least-squares method, and the result is given by σ = 0.980 + 0.076. This fact demonstrates the trend that the width of the excitation energy distribution of fission fragments increases with the average excitation energy of the fission fragments in the range of nuclides mentioned above.