CHM 11500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Nuclear Fission, Nuclear Fuel, Boron

• School: Purdue University
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: CHM 11500
• Professor: Chittaranjan Das

Document Summary

Chm 115 - lecture 6 - nuclear chemistry continued. Nuclear fission can occur in a chain reaction. A high energy neutron collides with a large, unstable nucleus, causing fission of the nucleus and release of more neutrons. The resulting neutrons then go on to initiate more fission reactions, and the resulting neutrons from those reactions initiate even more, etc. Control rods are used to determine the speed of the reactions taking place in a nuclear reactor. Control rods are made of substances that absorb neutrons efficiently (e. g. cadmium, boron) By absorbing neutrons, control rods prevent more reactions from being initiated. Caused power lines to no longer function. Caused cooling systems at the plant to fail. As a result of power loss and cooling failure, the fuel rods (tubes containing nuclear substrate) overheated, causing fires, explosions and radiation leaks. Nuclear energy plants and bombs are designed differently. Nuclear fuel consists of 3% u-235 while weapon grade uranium is 97%