Chapter 6 – Fission

This chapter details the nuclear fission process. Fission, either neutron induced or via spontaneous decay, yields radioactive fission fragments, neutrons, gamma rays, and beta particles. The emitted neutrons serve to continue a chain reaction. The kinetic energies of these products lead to heat deposition of nearly 200 MeV/fission in a nuclear reactor. The reproduction factor η is a metric for comparing the efficacy of nuclear fuels, which are transuranic nuclides such as uranium and plutonium. At the macroscopic level, the fuel burned and consumed per megawatt-day of heat production are computed.