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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.
Sara A. Pozzi, Imre Pázsit
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 154 | Number 3 | November 2006 | Pages 367-373
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE06-A2639
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a recent paper, a simple analytical model to describe the statistics of the number of scattering collisions undergone by fast neutrons as they slow down until they are absorbed was presented. In that study, it was assumed that the moderator was infinite and homogeneous and accounted for scattering and absorption by a single nuclear species. In the present paper, that methodology is extended to the more realistic case of neutron slowing down in a homogeneous mixture. The formulas are derived and evaluated numerically, and the results are found to be in very good agreement with corresponding Monte Carlo simulations. The average value of the number of collisions that a neutron undergoes before being captured is computed. The results for a capture-gated detector composed of hydrogen, carbon, and boron are discussed.