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Godzilla is helping ITER prepare for tokamak assembly
ITER employees stand by Godzilla, the most powerful commercially available industrial robot available. (Photo: ITER)
Many people are familiar with Godzilla as a giant reptilian monster that emerged from the sea off the coast of Japan, the product of radioactive contamination. These days, there is a new Godzilla, but it has a positive—and entirely fact-based—association with nuclear energy. This one has emerged inside the Tokamak Assembly Preparation Building of ITER in southern France.
Ian R. Terry
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 113 | Number 3 | March 1993 | Pages 282-285
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE93-A24496
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The problem of determining neutron yield from the (α, n) reaction has been the subject of much investigation, mainly experimental, for a number of years. Calculated values depend on cross sections and other nuclear data, which are not available for all isotopes. As a compromise, using the experimental data as a basis, an expression has been derived to provide a simple computation of the neutron yield in any given mixture containing actinides. This has been successfully tested with known (α,n) neutron source strengths in compounds of plutonium.