A Can Liquid Oxygen Be Used for Proton Breeding in Space via Neutron Activation?

[Sebastiaan]

Question, let's say I'm in space and I have acces to fast nuclear reactor and a lot of Liquid Oxygen, could I convert a decent portion of the neutron into Protons using Oxygen 16 Neutron activation? How effective would it be?

I found the following document on Oxygen neutron activation:

http://www.irpa.net/irpa1/cdrom/VOL.2/R2_7.PDF

Edit2: Alternatively, what If the LqdOxygen was used as a shield agains D-T fusion fast neutron

 

[mfb]

See Figure 9: If you have very high-energetic neutrons, you can get some 16O + n -> 16N + p reactions, but most of the time the neutrons will lose their energy before they do that. The protons will also have a lower energy, and you need the neutrons for tritium breeding in D-T-fusion.

Edit2: Alternatively, what If the LqdOxygen was used as a shield agains D-T fusion fast neutron

I would expect hydrogen to be a better shield, but everything that can scatter, slow or absorb neutrons acts as shielding.

 

[Sebastiaan]

Ok, I 'm trying to understand, but could you make me understand the Graphs and Tables better

At figure 9, in the left sifr of th graph we can see the letters "mb", does this stand for Cross section in micro barn ?

At figure 10 at column E_n = 14 MVe , what do the sub columns E_max and R_max stand for?

 

[mfb]

At figure 9, in the left sifr of th graph we can see the letters "mb", does this stand for Cross section in micro barn ?

m=milli
µ=micro
Doesn't matter much as only relative values matter.

At figure 10 at column E_n = 14 MVe , what do the sub columns E_max and R_max stand for?

The maximal energies and ranges of the emitted particles in living tissue, see the description below the table.