Deuterium bombarded with Neutrons from tritium?

[BrianConlee]

If we bombard a gas or plasma of Deuterium with Neutrons will they "stick" and from Tritium?

 

[mathman]

Not too likely. Heavy water reactors use the fact that the probability of this reaction is 0.

 

[RocketSci5KN]

Some will, but you need lots of neutrons (thermalized)... The vast majority will be lost by other paths, which is why the CANDU reactors use D2O as a moderator.

Deuterium's absorption cross section for thermal neutrons is .52 millibarns

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_water

 

[Bob S]

Here is a plot of the high energy deuterium (neutron,gamma) tritium cross section from the "Barn Book" series data sets at

http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/atlas/.

Looks like about 10 to 20 microbarns high energy neutron capture cross section at 14.1 MeV neutron energy from D-T reaction.

Bob S

 

[BrianConlee]

I see.

It appears our target it just to small, making the probability infinitesimal.

I understand why the tritium breeding methods using lithium 6 and 7 is preferred now.

Let's add another factor into the mix. This may not be researched, but it may require you to "best guess" or hypothesize as we say.

What if we increased the density of our Deuterium target from standard atmosphere 10 fold. Now there's less space between the nuclei of the different atoms.

Does that increase the chances somewhat?

Take it another order of magnitude even. If we could somehow increase density 100 fold, that would surely give more of a target for the neutrons to hit... less empty space. At least somewhat.

Thoughts?

 

[Bob S]

What if we increased the density of our Deuterium target from standard atmosphere 10 fold. Now there's less space between the nuclei of the different atoms.

Does that increase the chances somewhat?

Take it another order of magnitude even. If we could somehow increase density 100 fold, that would surely give more of a target for the neutrons to hit... less empty space. At least somewhat.

If you substitute liquid deuterium (density 162 mg/cm³) for gasseus deuterium at 1 atm (0.168 mg/cm³), you can increase the concentration of deuterium by a factor of about 960:1. However, the boiling point of liquid deuterium is about 23 kelvin.

Bob S

 

[BrianConlee]

so with that higher density, does it increase the chances the neutron would hit and stick to a nucleus?

 

[Bob S]

so with that higher density, does it increase the chances the neutron would hit and stick to a nucleus?

Yes.

Bob S