--%>

Why is heavy water employed as a moderator

Describe why is heavy water employed as a moderator? Illustrate.

E

Expert

Verified

Heavy water is highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium. We can evaluate the neutron interactions with billiard ball collision, where the neutron collides with nucleus of other atoms and lose energy. When the colliding nucleus size is small such as hydrogen nucleus it will lose the maximum energy. When nucleus is heavy, then the neutron hits the nucleus just alters its direction however not that much change in the energy of neutron. Therefore we use heavy water as moderator to slow down the neutrons.

   Related Questions in Physics

  • Q : Define Le Chateliers principle Le

    Le Chatelier's principle (H. Le Chatelier; 1888): When a system is in equilibrium, then any modification imposed on the system tends to shift the equilibrium state to decrease the consequence of that applied change.

  • Q : What is Magnetic monopole Magnetic

    Magnetic monopole: The hypothetical particle that comprises sources and sinks of the magnetic field. The magnetic monopoles have never been found, however would only cause pretty minor modifications to the Maxwell's equations. They also appear to be p

  • Q : Heating a bucket of water than the cup

    Briefly describe the reason why it takes longer to heat a bucket of water than the cup of water?

  • Q : What are Woodward-Hoffmann rules

    Woodward-Hoffmann rules: The rules leading the formation of products throughout certain kinds of organic reactions.

  • Q : Explain Coulombs law Coulomb's law (C.

    Coulomb's law (C. de Coulomb): The basic law for electrostatics, equivalent to Newton's law of universal gravitation. It defines that the force between two point charges is proportional to the arithmetical product of their respective

  • Q : Motion balance principle Explain in

    Explain in detail the motion balance principle

  • Q : Define Luxon Luxon : The particle that

    Luxon: The particle that travels solely at c (that is the speed of light in vacuum). All luxons have a rest mass of exactly zero. Though they are mass less, luxons do take momentum. The photons are the prime illustration of luxons (that is the name it

  • Q : Define Ehrenfest paradox Ehrenfest

    Ehrenfest paradox (Ehernfest, 1909): The special relativistic "paradox" including a fast rotating disc. As any radial segment of the disc is perpendicular to the direction of motion, there must be no length contraction of the radius;

  • Q : Explain Millikan oil drop experiment

    Millikan oil drop experiment (R.A. Millikan): A famed experiment designed to compute the electronic charge. The drops of oil were carried past a consistent electric field among charged plates. Subsequent to charging the drop with x-ra

  • Q : What do you mean by the term cardiac

    What do you mean by the term cardiac output? Briefly explain it.