Neutron Reactions

Abstract

The term nuclear reaction is used very broadly to describe any of a wide array of interactions involving nuclei. Innumerable types of nuclear reactions can occur in the laboratory or in stars, but in considering energy from nuclear fission interest is limited almost entirely to reactions initiated by neutrons. Here, the important reactions are those that occur at relatively low energies, several million electron volts (MeV) or less, characteristic of neutrons produced in nuclear fission.¹ These reactions are elastic scattering, inelastic scattering, neutron capture, and fission.²

See Section A.2.4 of Appendix A for the definition of the electron volt (eV) and the related terms keV (equal to 10³ eV) and MeV (equal to 10⁶ eV).

This is not a fully exhaustive list. Other reactions are sometimes possible (e.g., those in which an alpha particle is produced), but the exceptions are only rarely of interest in nuclear reactors.