CONTROLROD

Control rod

A control rod is a rod used in nuclear reactors to control the rate of fission of uranium and plutonium. They are made of chemical elements capable of absorbing many neutrons without fissioning themselves, such as boron, silver, indium and cadmium. Because these elements have different capture cross sections for neutrons of varying energies, the compositions of the control rods must be designed for the neutron spectrum of the reactor it is supposed to control. Light water reactors and heavy water reactors operate with "thermal" neutrons, whereas breeder reactors operate with "fast" neutrons.

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control rod

Noun

  1. Any of a number of steel tubes, containing boron or other neutron absorber, that is inserted into the core of a nuclear reactor in order to control its rate of reaction


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: control rod
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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