RADIOACTIVITY.EU.COM

icon THE PHENOMENON

THE PHENOMENON

icon IN DAILY LIFE

IN DAILY LIFE

icon QUESTION OF DOSES

QUESTION OF DOSES

icon AT THE DOCTOR’S

AT THE DOCTOR’S

icon At the laboratory

At the laboratory

icon At the museum

At the museum

icon NUCLEAR ENERGY

NUCLEAR ENERGY

icon RADIOACTIVE WASTE

RADIOACTIVE WASTE

A general public knowledge base dedicated to radioactivity created and maintained by the french physics community

Neutrons are captured by the nuclei they encounter in the reactors. The probability of the capture varies greatly with the energy of neutrons. The most common and simplest type of capture is the radiative capture, where the capture cause only excitation in the nucleus, which gets rid of its excitation by emitting a gamma ray. The nucleus with a extra neutron can be radioactive : neutrons are able to activate matter. For a handful of very heavy nuclei (uranium, plutonium), the capture leads to fragmentation of the nucleus. That is fission.

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