Abstract
It has been announced that a “fast fission pile” is in operation at the Los Alamos Laboratory of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Instead of using natural uranium, in which a chain reaction can be maintained only with the aid of a ‘moderator’ that brings the energies of most of the neutrons into the thermal region, this pile employs plutonium and has no moderator, the reaction being maintained (as in the atomic bomb) by fast neutrons. It may be explained that the possibility of controlling such a pile arises from a time lag between the fission process and the emission of the small but appreciable proportion of the neutrons that come from the radioactive products of fission. The pile will be a valuable source of fast neutrons for experimental purposes.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Controlled Fast Neutron Chain Reaction. Nature 160, 426 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160426b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160426b0