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
The reactive materials are in thin rods, so a lot of the neutrons leave one rod and enter the next one.
The control rods sit in between them.
So control rods can’t do anything about the neutrons inside the solid rods of fuel, but they’re kept below critical mass on purpose. (Smaller than critical).
So the rods control how much reactivity you allow to travel in between the solid rods.
The maths and the how is a bit complex, but the mechanism is simple in theory.
Simple answer really, the maths is hard but the
Latest Answers