How much energy must neutrons lose so they can be absorbed to give a chain reaction?
In a nuclear reactor neutrons are slowed down by colliding with carbon - 12 nuclei. A neutron with initial speed of 9.8 x 106 ms-1 collides head on with a stationary carbon nucleus. After the collision the carbon nucleus has a speed of 1.5 x 106 ms-1.
Calculate the fractional reduction in energy per collision and use this to calculate the number of collisions to reduce the energy by a factor 106 .
