inhour

inhour
(ih or inhr)
   a unit used in nuclear engineering to describe the "reactivity" of a nuclear reactor. In a reactor, fast-moving neutrons break apart atoms of uranium or plutonium; the fission of these atoms releases additional neutrons which keep the reaction going. The ratio R between the number of neutrons created and the number consumed in each cycle of fission must be very close to 1 in order for the reaction to be controlled. The reactivity is the difference k = R - 1 between this ratio and 1. One inhour is the reactivity which will cause the number of neutrons to increase by a factor of e = 2.71828 in one hour; a reactivity of t inhours will cause the number of neutrons to increase by a factor of e in 1/t hours. The exact size of the unit varies according to the design of the reactor. Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), the Italian-American physicist who built the first nuclear reactor, introduced this unit in 1947; its name is an acronym for "inverse hours." Other reactivity measures include the dollar and the milli-k.

Dictionary of units of measurement. 2015.

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  • InHour — is a unit of activity of a nuclear reactor. It stands for the inverse of an hour. It is equal to the inverse of the period in hours. One InHour is the amount of reactivity needed to increase the reaction by a factor of e in one hour. [cite book… …   Wikipedia

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  • ih —    see inhour …   Dictionary of units of measurement

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