Supercomputer simulates details of final stage of nuclear fission

Physicists used the Summit supercomputer for microscopic quantum multi-particle simulations of the “neck break” nucleus during its division. The press service of the Okrug National Laboratory reports on the research.

American physicists obtained a detailed picture of the final stage of nuclear fission using one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. The simulation revealed surprising details of the process that underpins the operation of nuclear power plants and nuclear medicine.

Researchers from the University of Washington and Los Alamos National Laboratory conducted a fully microscopic quantum simulation of the moment when an atomic nucleus splits in two. For this, they used the Summit supercomputer.

The system took about 15 hours of continuous work to calculate each division option. Scientists modeled scenarios for three different cores – uranium-238, plutonium-240 and California-252 – with different initial conditions. In total, almost a million nodo-hours of computing power were spent on the experiment.

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earlier. The point where the nucleus will eventually break is determined long before fission itself – as if a “weak spot” appears in the material in advance. In addition, physicists have discovered that before fission, protons leave the fission zone before neutrons, and the moment of fission is the fastest stage of the entire fission process.

“This is probably the most accurate and thorough theoretical description of nuclear fission, without of any assumptions and simplifications”, – said the leader of the study, professor of physics at the University of Washington, Aurel Bulgak. The results of the research will help to understand the processes taking place in nuclear reactors and may lead to the improvement of nuclear medicine methods.

Physicists plan to conduct laboratory experiments to confirm the theoretical conclusions.