Recoil Tritium Reactions in Methane—Hydrogen Mixtures: CH4—D2

Abstract

The reactions of recoil tritium atoms have been studied over the full range of mole fractions for mixtures of CH4 with D2 and show total hot yields varying from 53% and 93% as the mole fraction of D2 increased. The specific activity ratio (CH3T)/(CH4):(DT)/(D2) is approximately constant over the entire range, indicating that these reactions occur at similar average energies. All of the data can be quantitatively explained through the use of the kinetic theory of hot reactions. The moderating ability of CH4 is more than twice that of D2 and confirms the inadequacy of an elastic, hard-sphere model for nonreactive collisions at high energies.