Neutron cross section according to its neutron cross section and how it reacts to an incident neutron. Nuclides that tend to absorb a neutron and either decay or keep the neutron in its nucleus are neutron absorbers and will have a "capture cross section" for that reaction. Isotopes that fission, are fissionable fuels and have a corresponding "fission cross section". The remaining isotopes will simply scatter the neutron, and have a "scatter cross section". Some isotopes, like uranium-238, have nonzero cross sections of all three. Isotopes which have a large scatter cross section and a low mass are good neutron moderators (see chart
Nuclear cross section inelastic scattering; of the latter, amongst neutron cross sections the absorption cross sections are of particular interest. In nuclear physics it is conventional to consider the impinging particles as point particles having negligible diameter. Cross sections can be computed for any sort of process, such as capture scattering, production of neutrons, etc. In many cases, the number of particles emitted or scattered in nuclear processes is not measured directly; one merely measures the attenuation produced in a parallel beam of incident particles by the interposition of a known thickness of a particular material. The cross section obtained in this way