{"id":12084,"date":"2016-05-20T18:17:12","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T18:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sitepourvtc.com\/?page_id=12084"},"modified":"2022-10-14T17:43:55","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T17:43:55","slug":"fissionable-material","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sitepourvtc.com\/glossary\/fissionable-material\/","title":{"rendered":"Fissionable Material"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fissionable materials are a superset of fissile materials. Fissionable materials also include an isotope 238<\/sup>U<\/strong> that can be fissioned only with high energy (>1MeV) neutron. These materials are used to fuel thermal nuclear reactors because they can sustain a nuclear fission chain reaction<\/a>.<\/p>\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 See also: Neutron cross-section<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe distinction between Fissionable, Fissile, and Fertile<\/h2>\n
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Comparison of cross-sections<\/strong><\/h2>\n