Is Beryllium a Viable Nuclear Fuel Option?

AI Thread Summary
The reaction 4Be8 + 0n1 → 3Li7 + 2 0n1 raises questions about its feasibility for neutron production and sustainable chain reactions using beryllium as fuel. Beryllium-8 has a very short half-life of 7 x 10^-17 seconds, making it unlikely for neutrons to interact with it before decay. Additionally, the scarcity of beryllium-8 poses challenges for practical applications. The discussion highlights the impracticality of using this reaction for sustained energy production. Overall, the limitations of beryllium-8 significantly hinder its potential as a viable fuel source.
HaiderAbbas
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
4Be8 + 0n1 → 3Li7 +2 0n1

Can we use above reaction for the production of neutrons? Is it possible to obtain a sustainable chain reaction when using Be as fuel?
 
Engineering news on Phys.org
Where does the 8Be come from? It is way too short-living to be the fuel of any reaction.
 
mfb is right. With a half life of 7*10^-17 s, a neutron would have a hard time finding a Be-8 nucleus before it spontaneously decayed. There also won't be an massive quantities of this material lying around either.
 
  • Like
Likes 1 person

Thread 'MCNP6 BURN Card Issue: Zero Burnup for Material in Fuel Assembly'

Hello everyone, I am currently working on a burnup calculation for a fuel assembly with repeated geometric structures using MCNP6. I have defined two materials (Material 1 and Material 2) which are actually the same material but located in different positions. However, after running the calculation with the BURN card, I am encountering an issue where all burnup information（power fraction(Initial input is 1,but output file is 0), burnup, mass, etc.） for Material 2 is zero, while Material 1...
View full post »

Thread 'Beginner Seeking Help: MCNP6 Burnup Example (OECD-NEA Benchmark)'

Hi everyone, I'm a complete beginner with MCNP and trying to learn how to perform burnup calculations. Right now, I'm feeling a bit lost and not sure where to start. I found the OECD-NEA Burnup Credit Calculational Criticality Benchmark (Phase I-B) and was wondering if anyone has worked through this specific benchmark using MCNP6? If so, would you be willing to share your MCNP input file for it? Seeing an actual working example would be incredibly helpful for my learning. I'd be really...
View full post »

Similar threads

Why Might Beryllium Be Considered for Use in Nuclear Reactor Fuel?
Replies
3
Views
2K
How does D-T fusion reaction utilize its waste to create more fuel?
Replies
3
Views
2K
Searching for a single and complete resource about nuclear fuels
Replies
8
Views
2K
Computation for nuclear reactor systems
Replies
1
Views
3K
Size Limitation of fuel Bundle in a nuclear reactor
Replies
7
Views
2K
Can Spent Nuclear Fuel Be Used as an Alternate Heat Source?
Replies
10
Views
3K
Radioistope Power Systems (RPS) and Pu-238
Replies
0
Views
2K
Safe zero base reactivity level nuclear fission reactor?
Replies
2
Views
2K
Coolant Mass Flow Rate Through Subchannel in Nuclear Fuel Assembly
Replies
1
Views
2K
What actually happens to the U-238 part of fuel in a nuclear reactor?
Replies
7
Views
3K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top