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How Neutrons Changed Everything

submitted by b4rringt0n

6 years 7 months 3 weeks ago

Without neutrons, harnessing nuclear energy would be impossible.

Try Audible free for 30 days: http://audible.com/veritasium I have a new documentary coming out in a few months - sign up here to be notified and see a sneak preview: http://vitamaniathemovie.com

Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Tony Fadell, Donal Botkin, Michael Krugman, Jeff Straathof, Zach Mueller, Ron Neal, Nathan Hansen, Yildiz Kabaran, Terrance Snow

A few years ago I made a documentary about uranium, radioactivity and radiation. I always thought of the characters in our story as the scientists and maybe the uranium nucleus itself. It was only through making the documentary that I realized the real hero of the story is the neutron. Without a neutral nuclear particle, it would be virtually impossible to release the energy from the nucleus. But with it, and the idea of a chain reaction, nuclear energy went from science fiction to reality. That is something I had not grasped as clearly before and it motivated me to make this video.

Filmed by Raquel Nuno.

Source: Veritasium

6 Comments

Moving this video to b4rringt0n's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

PlayhousePals

Love Veritasium! *promote more than 6 sift views for *quality content

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued - promote requested by PlayhousePals.

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by PlayhousePals.

Spacedog79 says...

Good video but a bit confused about how nuclear power works, extra neutrons are not absorbed they are slowed down through moderation so they can more easily interact with other nuclei. The core mass and configuration are what stops it becoming a a bomb and this is not a knife edge thing, it is a long way off.

So does inserting a control rod actually speed up the reaction?

Spacedog79said:

Good video but a bit confused about how nuclear power works, extra neutrons are not absorbed they are slowed down through moderation so they can more easily interact with other nuclei. The core mass and configuration are what stops it becoming a a bomb and this is not a knife edge thing, it is a long way off.

Spacedog79 says...

Fair point. I barely consider reactors that need control rods as a legitimate design, there are much better ways to build a reactor that doesn't need to depend on such things for safety. Basic design using a molten salt core should be more than enough, and in any case none of them are anywhere near the chain reaction that would be in a nuclear bomb.

So does inserting a control rod actually speed up the reaction?

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