A nuclear fission chain reaction is said to be critical when exactly one neutron from each fission event goes on to cause one further fission. What happens ...
Question 1 Report
A nuclear fission chain reaction is said to be critical when exactly one neutron from each fission event goes on to cause one further fission. What happens to the rate of energy release in a critical reactor?
Answer Details
In a critical chain reaction, exactly one neutron from each fission event goes on to cause exactly one further fission event, meaning the number of fissions happening per unit time neither increases nor decreases from one generation to the next.
In a critical reactor, the rate of energy release stays constant (steady) over time, since the chain reaction is self-sustaining but not multiplying. If more than one neutron per fission caused further fissions on average, the reaction would be supercritical and the rate would increase rapidly; if fewer than one did, the reaction would be subcritical and the rate would decrease and eventually die out.
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