Abstract
EXPERIMENTS on the processes arising in thorium under neutron bombardment have shown that nuclear fission is induced only by fast neutrons of energies of about 2 Mev. or more. There exists also a radiative capture process producing an isotope of thorium (Th 233) of 26 min. half-life; this process has a resonance character with a large contribution from thermal neutrons1. So far, the capture cross-section of thermal neutrons in thorium has not been measured. The following experiments were carried out in order to determine this cross-section.
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References
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MEITNER, L. Capture Cross-Sections for Thermal Neutrons in Thorium, Lead and Uranium 238. Nature 145, 422–423 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145422a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145422a0
