Large Devices
Modern neutron research facilities operate either fission reactor or a spallation source.
- Nuclear fission reactors
- Nuclear fission which takes place within a nuclear reactor produces very large quantities of neutrons. In nuclear power reactors, the neutrons are no more than an unavoidable byproduct. In contrast, research reactors are primarily operated to produce neutron beams. The Institut Laue-Langevin source in Grenoble in France is the major fission source in Europe, the High Flux Isotope Reactor at ORNL is the equivalent in the US. Reactor neutron sources tend to require highly-enriched uranium fuel, making their construction somewhat controversial.
- Spallation at particle accelerators
- A spallation source is a high-flux source in which protons that have been accelerated to high energies hit a target material, prompting the emission of neutrons. Examples are the Swiss neutron source SINQ, the British ISIS neutron source, and the U.S. Spallation Neutron Source; the China spallation neutron source is under construction in Dongguan
- Nuclear fusion systems
- Nuclear fusion, the combining of the heavy isotopes of hydrogen, also has the potential to produce large quantities of neutrons. Small scale fusion systems exist for research purposes at many universities and laboratories around the world. A small number of large scale nuclear fusion systems also exist including the National Ignition Facility in the USA, JET in the UK, and soon the recently started ITER experiment in France.
Read more about this topic: Neutron Source
Famous quotes containing the words large and/or devices:
“Whenever you pray, make sure you do it at school assemblies and football games, like the demonstrative creatures who pray before large television audiences. That is the real goal of the thing. But do not, I urge you, pray all alone in your home where no one can see. That does not get you ratings.”
—Garry Wills (b. 1934)
“Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.... Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation.”
—Jean Arp (1887–1948)