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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
H. L. Pai, D. G. Andrews
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 76 | Number 3 | December 1980 | Pages 323-330
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE80-A21322
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The simple statistical model statement relating the yield YP of fission fragments to the effective neutron binding energy , namely YP α exp(−/T), can be used as a basis for parallel developments, one leading to the well-known empirical delayed-neutron statement where Y is the number of delayed neutrons per fission. Repeating the development for prompt neutron emission leads to the analogous result where is the prompt neutrons per fission. This semi-empirical result implies that a semi-logarithmic experimental plot of against (3Z - A) should be a family of straight lines. Currently available experimental results justify this prediction. The theoretical precision of this semi-empirical formula is estimated to be ±10% or better, depending mainly on the part and shape of the fission yield-mass curve taken into account. The existence of the above empirical and semi-empirical formulas strongly suggests that the yield of fission neutrons, as well as their spectrum, can be calculated by using the standard statistical model with non-adjustable parameters.