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End element?
Use what is abundant and build to last
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Plus a few more Neutrons.
Use what is abundant and build to last
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Basically, this idea is to use common U-238 as a reactor. I don't think it will start fission by itself, but a neutron source could start it. What do you think?
You need fast neutrons to fission U-238. Fission neutrons will not do. One idea that I saw reviewed a few years ago, was a hybrid Fission/Fusion reactor. A deuterium/tritium reaction could provide the fast neutrons needed to fission a U-238 blanket (80% of the energy from this reaction is carried away by the neutron). The fission reaction would improve the energy balance of the reactor over that of a pure fusion system. But the benefits are marginal. Adding fission material to a fusion system introduces a severe radiological hazard and the improvement to the energy balance is fairly marginal. The idea also proved unpopular in the fusion community, who did not want to see any psychological links between dirty fission technology and clean fusion technology.
Far better to breed the U-238 into Pu-239, which is fissionable.
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Uranium-238, which makes up 99.3% of natural uranium, is not fissionable by slow neutrons. U-238 has a small probability for spontaneous fission and also a small probability of fission when bombarded with fast neutrons, but it is not useful as a nuclear fuel source
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Basically, this idea is to use common U-238 as a reactor. I don't think it will start fission by itself, but a neutron source could start it. What do you think?
Almost by definition this couldn't be a source of energy - you'd need a real nuclear reactor to power the neutron source.
But as Antius mentioned, breeder-type fuel cycles are very interesting. In fact, they are essential unless you want to be hearing about "peak Uranium" in 50 years time. Make sure you check out the Thorium breeder fuel cycle. Probably the future of fission.
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