Prompt criticality, the Glossary

Table of Contents

1. 56 relations: Aberdeen Proving Ground, BORAX experiments, Boron, Cecil Kelley criticality accident, Chernobyl disaster, Containment building, Control rod, Control system, CRAC-II, Critical mass, Criticality accident, Defense in depth (nuclear engineering), Delayed neutron, Electromechanics, Exponential growth, Fizzle (nuclear explosion), Godiva device, Hafnium, Half-life, Idaho National Laboratory, Kurchatov Institute, Manhattan Project, Mayak, Nanosecond, Neutron, Neutron capture, Neutron temperature, Nuclear chain reaction, Nuclear engineering, Nuclear fission, Nuclear fission product, Nuclear reaction, Nuclear reactor, Nuclear reactor physics, Nuclear weapon, Nuclear weapon design, Prompt neutron, Radioactive decay, Radionuclide, Richard C. Tolman, Robert Serber, Scram, Shake (unit), SL-1, Snezhinsk, Soviet submarine K-431, Special Power Excursion Reactor Test Program, Steam explosion, Subcritical reactor, Tokaimura nuclear accidents, ... Expand index (6 more) »

2. Nuclear weapon design

Aberdeen Proving Ground

Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) is a U.S. Army facility located adjacent to Aberdeen, Harford County, Maryland, United States.

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BORAX experiments

The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s at the National Reactor Testing Station in eastern Idaho.

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Boron

Boron is a chemical element; it has symbol B and atomic number 5.

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Cecil Kelley criticality accident

A criticality accident occurred on December 30, 1958, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in the United States.

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Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster began on 26 April 1986 with the explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR, close to the border with the Byelorussian SSR, in the Soviet Union.

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Containment building

A containment building is a reinforced steel, concrete or lead structure enclosing a nuclear reactor.

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Control rod

Control rods are used in nuclear reactors to control the rate of fission of the nuclear fuel – uranium or plutonium.

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Control system

A control system manages, commands, directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops.

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CRAC-II

CRAC-II is both a computer code (titled Calculation of Reactor Accident Consequences) and the 1982 report of the simulation results performed by Sandia National Laboratories for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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Critical mass

In nuclear engineering, a critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Prompt criticality and critical mass are nuclear technology and nuclear weapon design.

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Criticality accident

A criticality accident is an accidental uncontrolled nuclear fission chain reaction.

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Defense in depth (nuclear engineering)

U.S. non-military nuclear material is regulated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which uses the concept of defense in depth when protecting the health and safety of the public from the hazards associated with nuclear materials.

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Delayed neutron

In nuclear engineering, a delayed neutron is a neutron emitted after a nuclear fission event, by one of the fission products (or actually, a fission product daughter after beta decay), any time from a few milliseconds to a few minutes after the fission event. Prompt criticality and delayed neutron are nuclear technology.

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Electromechanics

In engineering, electromechanics combines processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering.

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Exponential growth

Exponential growth is a process that increases quantity over time at an ever-increasing rate.

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Fizzle (nuclear explosion)

A fizzle occurs when the detonation of a device for creating a nuclear explosion (such as a nuclear weapon) grossly fails to meet its expected yield.

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Godiva device

The Lady Godiva device was an unshielded, pulsed nuclear reactor originally situated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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Hafnium

Hafnium is a chemical element; it has symbol Hf and atomic number 72.

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Half-life

Half-life (symbol) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value.

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Idaho National Laboratory

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is one of the national laboratories of the United States Department of Energy and is managed by the Battelle Energy Alliance.

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Kurchatov Institute

The Kurchatov Institute (Национальный исследовательский центр «Курчатовский Институт», National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute") is Russia's leading research and development institution in the field of nuclear energy.

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Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons.

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Mayak

The Mayak Production Association (Производственное объединение «Маяк», Proizvodstvennoye ob′yedineniye "Mayak", from Маяк 'lighthouse') is one of the largest nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation, housing a reprocessing plant.

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Nanosecond

A nanosecond (ns) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one billionth of a second, that is, of a second, or 10 seconds.

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Neutron

| magnetic_moment.

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Neutron capture

Neutron capture is a nuclear reaction in which an atomic nucleus and one or more neutrons collide and merge to form a heavier nucleus. Prompt criticality and neutron capture are nuclear physics.

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Neutron temperature

The neutron detection temperature, also called the neutron energy, indicates a free neutron's kinetic energy, usually given in electron volts.

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Nuclear chain reaction

In nuclear physics, a nuclear chain reaction occurs when one single nuclear reaction causes an average of one or more subsequent nuclear reactions, thus leading to the possibility of a self-propagating series or "positive feedback loop" of these reactions. Prompt criticality and nuclear chain reaction are nuclear physics.

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Nuclear engineering

Nuclear engineering is the engineering discipline concerned with designing and applying systems that utilize the energy released by nuclear processes. Prompt criticality and nuclear engineering are nuclear technology.

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Nuclear fission

Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. Prompt criticality and Nuclear fission are nuclear physics.

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Nuclear fission product

Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Prompt criticality and nuclear fission product are nuclear physics and nuclear technology.

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Nuclear reaction

In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, a nuclear reaction is a process in which two nuclei, or a nucleus and an external subatomic particle, collide to produce one or more new nuclides. Prompt criticality and nuclear reaction are nuclear physics.

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Nuclear reactor

A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Prompt criticality and nuclear reactor are nuclear technology.

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Nuclear reactor physics

Nuclear reactor physics is the field of physics that studies and deals with the applied study and engineering applications of chain reaction to induce a controlled rate of fission in a nuclear reactor for the production of energy. Prompt criticality and nuclear reactor physics are nuclear physics and nuclear technology.

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Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion.

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Nuclear weapon design

Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate.

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Prompt neutron

In nuclear engineering, a prompt neutron is a neutron immediately emitted (neutron emission) by a nuclear fission event, as opposed to a delayed neutron decay which can occur within the same context, emitted after beta decay of one of the fission products anytime from a few milliseconds to a few minutes later. Prompt criticality and prompt neutron are nuclear technology.

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Radioactive decay

Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation.

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Radionuclide

A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, giving it excess nuclear energy, and making it unstable. Prompt criticality and radionuclide are nuclear physics.

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Richard C. Tolman

Richard Chace Tolman (March 4, 1881 – September 5, 1948) was an American mathematical physicist and physical chemist who made many contributions to statistical mechanics.

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Robert Serber

Robert Serber (March 14, 1909 – June 1, 1997) was an American physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project.

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Scram

A scram or SCRAM is an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor effected by immediately terminating the fission reaction.

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Shake (unit)

A shake is an informal metric unit of time equal to 10 nanoseconds, or 10−8 seconds.

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SL-1

Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, also known as SL-1, initially the Argonne Low Power Reactor (ALPR), was a United States Army experimental nuclear reactor in the western United States at the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS) in Idaho about west of Idaho Falls, now the Idaho National Laboratory.

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Snezhinsk

Snezhinsk (p) is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia.

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Soviet submarine K-431

K-431 (originally the K-31) was a Soviet nuclear-powered submarine that had a reactor accident on 10 August 1985.

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Special Power Excursion Reactor Test Program

The Special Power Excursion Reactor Test Program (SPERT) was a series of tests focusing on the safety of nuclear reactors.

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Steam explosion

A steam explosion is an explosion caused by violent boiling or flashing of water or ice into steam, occurring when water or ice is either superheated, rapidly heated by fine hot debris produced within it, or heated by the interaction of molten metals (as in a fuel–coolant interaction, or FCI, of molten nuclear-reactor fuel rods with water in a nuclear reactor core following a core-meltdown).

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Subcritical reactor

A subcritical reactor is a nuclear fission reactor concept that produces fission without achieving criticality.

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Tokaimura nuclear accidents

The Tokaimura nuclear accidents refer to two nuclear related incidents near the village of Tōkai, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.

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United States Department of Energy

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy-related research, and energy conservation.

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University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California.

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Uranium

Uranium is a chemical element; it has symbol U and atomic number 92.

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Void coefficient

In nuclear engineering, the void coefficient (more properly called void coefficient of reactivity) is a number that can be used to estimate how much the reactivity of a nuclear reactor changes as voids (typically steam bubbles) form in the reactor moderator or coolant.

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White Sands Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico.

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Y-12 National Security Complex

The Y-12 National Security Complex is a United States Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration facility located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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See also

Nuclear weapon design

• Boosted fission weapon
• British hydrogen bomb programme
• Casaba-Howitzer
• Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information
• Critical mass
• Enriched uranium
• Exploding wire method
• Exploding-bridgewire detonator
• Explosive lens
• Fissile material
• Fogbank
• Gun-type fission weapon
• History of the Teller–Ulam design
• Modulated neutron initiator
• Neutron reflector
• Nuclear bunker buster
• Nuclear explosion
• Nuclear weapon design
• Nuclear weapon yield
• Nuclear weapons delivery
• Pit (nuclear weapon)
• Prompt criticality
• Pure fusion weapon
• Tamper (nuclear weapon)
• Thermonuclear weapon
• United States v. Progressive, Inc.

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prompt_criticality

Also known as Prompt critical, Prompt-critical.

, United States Department of Energy, University of California, Berkeley, Uranium, Void coefficient, White Sands Missile Range, Y-12 National Security Complex.