SpaceSimCentral

hi friends.

I am hoping to find help learning what sort of formula I could use to estimate the rate of fission with variables for the size of neutron source, the density of fissile dust, the flow rate of the dust, and probably these rates for a few different materials, although u235 is probably fine to just worry about at the moment.

it's for a scifi concept, just entertainment, although i desire to harden the scifi up.

here's a picture for the problem. the dust will blow past the neutron source at extreme velocity. what are the odds of fissioning this dust? i feel like it would be something like, source rate of emission by density of dust over duration of exposure or something like that. idk. can't imagine honestly. I would be hoping to figure out also how much energy is released at various fission rates. maybe in joules idk.

SO it's not looking good on the likely rates of fission.

but now what if it was a lithium chemical rocket that used a neutron source to fission the lithium in the chamber producing fusionable elements that were able to result in fusion in the process in the nozzle.


so does anyone know loads about lithium fission?