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60 Years of U: Perspectives on resources, demand, and the evolving role of nuclear energy
Recent years have seen growing global interest in nuclear energy and rising confidence in the sector. For the first time since the early 2000s, there is renewed optimism about the industry’s future. This change is driven by several major factors: geopolitical developments that highlight the need for secure energy supplies, a stronger focus on resilient energy systems, national commitments to decarbonization, and rising demand for clean and reliable electricity.
K. D. Lathrop
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 119 | Number 1 | January 1995 | Pages 80-86
Technical Notes | doi.org/10.13182/NSE95-A24071
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The cosine of the laboratory scattering angle is derived for a neutron elastically scattering from a nucleus moving with a specified velocity. Scattering is assumed to be isotropic in the center-of-mass system, and the mean cosine of the laboratory scattering angle is calculated and shown to agree with the first Legendre moment of a scattering probability function derived by Blackshaw and Murray. Isotropic neutron-nucleus encounters are further assumed, and a second average is taken to calculate a mean cosine as a function of the neutron-nuclear speed ratio. This mean cosine approaches 2/(3m), where m is the nucleus mass relative to the neutron mass, as the neutron speed becomes large compared with the speed of the nucleus, but for m > 1, the scattering becomes more anisotropic as this speed ratio decreases before approaching isotropy at small neutron-nucleus speed ratios. This single nuclear speed mean cosine is compared with its average over a Maxwellian distribution of nuclear speeds. The two are qualitatively very similar. Taking the single nuclear speed to be the average speed of the Maxwellian distribution gives better quantitative agreement, in a least-squares sense, between the single-speed mean cosine and the Maxwellian average mean cosine than does using the most probable speed of the Maxwellian distribution.