PHYSICS C10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Cathode Ray Tube, Ernest Lawrence, Plutonium
Document Summary
Discovery of x-rays: rontgen put a piece of metal in front of a cathode ray tube, with a piece of photographic film behind it, and the film was exposed, electrons hitting metal were stopped and emitted x-rays. Also they displaced some of the electrons in the metal, which were then replaced by nearby electrons which then also gave off x-rays. Breeder reactors: plutonium-239 gives off three neutrons on average. Use one neutron to continue the chain reaction, use the other neutrons to bombard u-238 to make more plutonium. So simple that it was never tested before being dropped. Required critical mass was significant lower than it would have been because the bomb was designed to reflect neutrons off the inside. Detonator fires one half of the critical mass into the other. Uranium-238 is bombarded with neutrons to become u-239, decays by beta decay in np-239, which then decays in pu-239. Enrichment of uranium: ernest lawrence invented the calutron.
