Neutron reflector

A neutron reflector is any material that reflects neutrons. This refers to elastic scattering rather than to a specular reflection. The material may be graphite, beryllium, steel, and tungsten carbide, or other materials. A neutron reflector can make an otherwise subcritical mass of fissile material critical, or increase the amount of nuclear fission that a critical or supercritical mass will undergo. An example of this is the Demon Core, a subcritical plutonium pit that went critical in two separate fatal incidents when the pit's surface was momentarily surrounded by too much neutron reflective material.

Nuclear reactors

In a uranium graphite chain reacting pile, the critical size may be considerably reduced by surrounding the pile with a layer of graphite, since such an envelope reflects many neutrons back into the pile.

To obtain a 30 year life span, the SSTAR nuclear reactor design calls for a moveable neutron reflector to be placed over the column of fuel. The reflector's slow downward travel over the column would cause the fuel to be burned from the top of the column to the bottom.

A reflector made of a light material like graphite or beryllium will also serve as a neutron moderator reducing neutron kinetic energy, while a heavy material like lead or lead-bismuth eutectic will have less effect on neutron velocity.

Nuclear weapons

A similar envelope can be used to reduce the critical size of a nuclear weapon, but here the envelope has an additional role: its very inertia delays the expansion of the reacting material. For this reason such an envelope is often called a tamper. The weapon tends to fly to bits as the reaction proceeds and this tends to stop the reaction, so the use of a tamper makes for a longer lasting, more energetic, and more efficient explosion. The most effective tamper is the one having the highest density; high tensile strength is unimportant because no material remains intact under the extreme pressures of a nuclear weapon. Coincidentally, high density materials are excellent neutron reflectors. This makes them doubly suitable for nuclear weapons. The first nuclear weapons used heavy uranium or tungsten carbide tamper-reflectors.

On the other hand, a heavy tamper necessitates a larger high explosive implosion system. The primary stage of a modern thermonuclear weapon may use a lightweight beryllium reflector, which is also transparent to X-rays when ionized, allowing the primary's energy output to escape quickly to be used in compressing the secondary stage.

While the effect of a tamper is to increase efficiency, both by reflecting neutrons and by delaying the expansion of the bomb, the effect on the critical mass is not as great. The reason for this is that the process of reflection is time consuming.

See also

• Nuclear weapon design

References