{"id":12076,"date":"2016-05-20T17:13:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T17:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sitepourvtc.com\/?page_id=12076"},"modified":"2022-10-14T17:43:13","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T17:43:13","slug":"fissile-material","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sitepourvtc.com\/glossary\/fissile-material\/","title":{"rendered":"Fissile Material"},"content":{"rendered":"
In nuclear engineering, fissile material<\/strong> (nuclide) is material that is capable of undergoing fission reaction<\/a> after absorbing thermal (slow or low energy<\/a>) neutrons<\/a>. These materials are used to fuel thermal nuclear reactors<\/a> because they can sustain a nuclear fission chain reaction<\/a>.<\/div><\/div>\n

For heavy nuclides with an atomic number higher than 90, most fissile isotopes meet the fissile rule<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Fissile isotopes have \u00a02 x Z – N = 43 \u00b1 2 (example for 235<\/sup>U: 2 x 92 – 143 = 41)<\/strong><\/p>\n

where Z is the number of protons and N is the number of neutrons.<\/p>\n

The distinction between Fissionable, Fissile, and Fertile<\/b><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fissile materials undergo fission reaction after absorption of the binding energy<\/a> of the thermal neutron. They do not require additional kinetic energy for fission. If the neutron has higher kinetic energy, this energy will be transformed into the additional excitation energy of the compound nucleus. On the other hand, the binding energy released by the compound nucleus of (238<\/sup>U + n)<\/strong> after absorption of the thermal neutron is less than the critical energy, so the fission reaction cannot occur<\/strong>. The distinction is described in the\u00a0following points.<\/p>\n