Word: fissioned
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...sent an assistant on a rush trip to the Virgin Islands; soon the aide was back with jugs of sludge precipitated chemically from 2,500 gal. of six-month-old rain water. The stuff was faintly hot, containing the radioactive cerium and yttrium that are typical products of nuclear fission. As of then, King knew he had a quick and easy way to detect nuclear explosions...
...efficiency of the device the French set off in the Sahara is shrouded in secrecy, but some top atomic experts estimate that it was roughly as efficient as the early U.S. bombs, i.e., it achieved fission of 2% of the plutonium it contained. (Current rate of fission in the U.S. bombs is estimated at 10%.) Says one Western European nuclear physicist well acquainted with the French atomic program: "They are ten years behind the Americans, seven years behind the British...
...Homogeneous Reactor Experiment No. 2) is an attempt to avoid some of the worst disadvantages of solid-fuel reactors. Since solid uranium is quickly corroded at high temperature, it must be enclosed in a more resistant metal such as zirconium or stainless steel. As the uranium fissions, it generates gases that tend to burst the container. Other fission products absorb neutrons, and when too much of this "poison" has accumulated, it makes the nuclear reaction slow down or stop. At intervals, the fuel elements must be removed and their unburned uranium re-purified by a difficult and expensive chemical process...