The Neutron Prospects After the Golden Anniversary of Its Discovery

About 25 years ago, halfway along the recorded history of the neutron as a separate entity, Korea entered the nuclear age and initiated its own neutron research and development programs. Since that time Korean scientists have taken all possible advantages of the special opportunities offered by the neutron. Scientists the world over, in the Far East, hear East, and the West, have adapted these opportunities to their special needs. These needs are manifested in all phases of modern life, including power generation by nuclear means, food preservation, production of new types of food-bearing plants, commercial uses of activation analysis, irradiations, and isotope production, nuclear medicine, industrial quality control through nuclear measurements, and direct use of neutrons in research in many areas including solid state physics, chemistry, physics, biology, and medicine. Research with neutrons has been successfully conducted using nuclear research reactors of all sizes ranging from the very small (∼10 kilowatts) to the very large(50-100 Megawatts). This speaker has teen associated with nuclear research since 1945 and directly with neutron research since 1957. From this continuous research and development activity, he will report on some of the prospects in the second 50 years of the neutron.