Talk:Neutron radiation

message: "Fast neutrons on the other hand more often cause fission and so are useful in nuclear reactors and bombs"
I was under the impression that U-235 split more easily when under 'attack' by slow moving neutrons.
I'm not so sure about Plutonium, though.
:Both are oversimplified. Ah me, where to start...! Andrewa 01:44, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: Neutron radiation is ionizing! It makes ions via every slowing or capture mechanism. The only exception is when they are thermal (or even intermediate) and they are just acting as a gas until captured. Anyway, a recoiling nucleus is ionized (it looses all it's electrons! the most ionized it can be) it just wasn't ionized by having the electrons removed, it was ionized by being moved while it's electrons stayed put... I mean if you want to follow this line gammas are not ionizing b/c they just deposit their energy in an electron and an atom...--Pdbailey 05:30, 27 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  ionizing 

message: If you insert capsules of OE3Li7 inside a closed container and into a thermal neutron test source and provide a container vent tube connection to the outside can you get a measureable amount of helium output?WFPM (talk) 20:32, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: With 3Li7

message: "Neutron radiation is a kind of ionizing radiation which consists of free neutrons. A result of nuclear fission or nuclear fusion, it consists of the release of free neutrons from both stable molecules and isotopes, and these free neutrons react with nuclei of other stable molecules to form new isotopes of previously non-isotopic molecules, which in turn produce radiation. This will result in a chain reaction of nuclear radiation, which makes radiation dangerous and harmful over great areas of space."
Neutron radiation is indeed a type of ionising radiation consisting of free neutrons, but that is where the truth and the lead for this article depart company.  It cannot be released by stable anything; it is a product of instability, as is all ionising radiation.  "Molecules" are not involved in nuclear reactions, and something being called a "molecule" does not indicate that it is stable or unstable.  In this article and in this context, "molecule" is without meaning; it is a chemistry term.
"Isotopes" are simply different forms of the same element; if something is an "isotope" it does not mean that it is radioactive.  Almost all elements have more than one isotope and most elements have some radioactive isotopes.  As I said, calling something an "isotope" does not mean that it is radioactive, and there is no such thing as "non-isotopic" in that sense; "stable" or "non-radioactive" would be the words you are looking for.
Neutron radiation can make other things that were not radioactive into radioactive things, and no other type of radiation can do that, but this can not spread in "a chain reaction of nuclear radiation".  Only neutron radiation can make other things radioactive, but the radiation that it makes those things produce cannot then cause other things to become radioactive, repeating in an never ending chain.  So even if a neutron bomb causes an area to become radioactive, the radiation that this area produces is not neutron radiation, and cannot make anything else radioactive.  One neutron bomb cannot cause the entire Earth to become radioactive.  The only time that type of chain reaction can occur is inside a nuclear weapon, and a neutron bomb is simply a normal nuclear weapon but instead of designing the weapon to keep as many neutrons as possible to keep the reaction going to make a bigger explosion and knock more buildings down, the designers let them escape.  The explosion won't be as powerful, but there will be a larger dose of neutrons to kill people and leave buildings less damaged.
Cheers, Mike.124.168.216.14 (talk) 18:47, 29 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lead problems 

message: I noticed that Neutron spectrum redirects to this article. However, there is no mention about neutron spectrum in the article. Either a short explanation about neutron spectrum or a separate article would be appropriate. Otherwise the redirect does not make much sense. ––Nikolas Ojala (talk) 08:21, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Neutron spectrum