Question

why mainly cadmium rods are used in a nuclear reactor other than boron , silver or indium rods?

Answer 1

Cadmium rods are used in nuclear reactors because they control the fission rate of fuels like uranium and plutonium.Cadmium has high neutron capture cross section to absorbs neutron without fissioning themselves.B iron comes under 2nd level candidate with less resistance to neutron swelling capacity. Cadmium is less rare material than silver so they prefer using cadmium rods.