A nuclear reactor is essentially just a metal barrel with a bunch of neutrons whizzing about and causing some metal to fission and release even more neutrons, right? So how does the addition of a non-metal such as boron or a metal like cadmium into steel prevent the atoms within the control rods from destabilized as well? Is it something to do with the molecular structures of the resulting alloys?
In: Physics
It doesn’t really have much to do with Boron or cadmium being non-metal, they work to slow the reaction because they are good neutron absorbers. They happen to be isotopes that will readily grab a free neutron into their nucleus without much complaint. The amount of neutrons you have flying around is directly related to the reaction rate, so absorbing more of them is a good way to slow things down.
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