Smallest amount of fissile material needed to sustain a nuclear reaction
This article is about nuclear fission reactions. For other uses, see Critical mass (disambiguation).
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A re-creation of the 1945 criticality accident using the Demon core: a plutonium pit is surrounded by blocks of neutron-reflective tungsten carbide. The original experiment was designed to measure the radiation produced when an extra block was added. The mass went supercritical when the block was placed improperly by being dropped.
In nuclear engineering, a critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties (specifically, its nuclear fission cross-section), density, shape, enrichment, purity, temperature, and surroundings. The concept is important in nuclear weapon design.
engineering, a criticalmass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The criticalmass of a fissionable...
There have been many conflicts during CriticalMass events since the founding of the worldwide bicycling advocacy event in 1992. The conflicts have resulted...
Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric and a perfect fluid with a given mass density ρ and pressure p. The equations for negative spatial curvature were...
chain reaction, or simply critical. Any such event involves the unintended accumulation or arrangement of a criticalmass of fissile material, for example...
CriticalMass Melbourne is an informal grass roots collection of people who gather to take part in the month's CriticalMass event, which is a cycling...
explosively force a hollow sub-criticalmass of enriched uranium and a solid target cylinder together into a super-criticalmass, initiating a nuclear chain...
containing less than one uncompressed criticalmass each. A thin hollow shell can have more than the bare-sphere criticalmass, as can a cylinder, which can be...
the making of fast neutron calculations—the key to calculations of criticalmass and weapon detonation—to Gregory Breit, who was given the title of "Co-ordinator...
Bike Ride (Portland, OR) Directed by Ian McCluskey Reclaim the Streets CriticalMass World Carfree Network Public nudity List of clothing-free events Clothing-optional...
to close completely could result in the instantaneous formation of a criticalmass and a lethal power excursion. By Slotin's own unapproved protocol, the...
which approach criticalmass, particularly because plutonium's criticalmass is only a third of that of uranium-235. A criticalmass of plutonium emits...
continuous phase transition that takes place at absolute zero Criticalmass, referring to criticality in nuclear physics, when a nuclear reactor's fissionable...
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