Nuclear energy atom bomb

This reaction is an example of a nuclear chain reaction, in which the products of the reaction cause more of the same reaction to proceed. The three neutrons can, if they do not escape from the sample first, cause three more such reactions. The nine neutrons produced from these reactions can cause nine more such reactions, and so forth. Soon, a huge number of nuclei are converted, and simultaneously a small amount of matter is converted to a great deal of energy. Atomic bombs and nuclear energy plants both run on this principle. 

The process of nuclear fission was discovered more than half a century ago in 1938 by Lise Meitner (1878-1968) and Otto Hahn (1879-1968) in Germany. With the outbreak of World War II a year later, interest focused on the enormous amount of energy released in the process. At Los Alamos, in the mountains of New Mexico, a group of scientists led by J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) worked feverishly to produce the fission, or atomic, bomb. Many of the members of this group were exiles from Nazi Germany. They were spurred on by the fear that Hitler would obtain the bomb first Their work led to the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert at 5 30 a.m. on July 16,1945. Less than a month later (August 6,1945), the world learned of this new weapon when another bomb was exploded... 

A nuclear fission explosion. Such a dramatic and destructive release of energy had never been seen before the development of the "atomic bomb" during World War II. 

Understanding fusion invites another question If fusing nuclei releases energy, how did the early atomic bombs work In those bombs, nuclei were not fused, they were broken apart by nuclear fission. So, where does the energy of atomic bombs come from An important piece of the answer came from a brilliant Jewish scientist who fled Nazi Germany shortly before World War II. 

A heavy nucleus can split into lighter nuclei by undergoing nuclear fission. Nuclear power plants use controlled nuclear fission to provide energy. Uncontrolled nuclear fission is responsible for the massive destructiveness of an atomic bomb. 

Because the isotope uranium-235 is fissionable, meaning that it produces free neutrons that cause other atoms to split, it generates enough free neutrons to make it unstable. When the unstable U-235 reaches a critical mass of a few pounds, it produces a self-sustaining fission chain reaction that results in a rapid explosion with tremendous energy and becomes a nuclear (atomic) bomb. The first nuclear bombs were made of uranium and plutonium. Today, both of these fuels are used in reactors to produce electrical power. Moderators (control rods) in nuclear power reactors absorb some of the neutrons, which prevents the mass... 

Modern nuclear power is based on harnessing the energy released in a fission reaction. The development of atomic energy started in the 1930s with the discovery that atoms could be split with neutrons. This discovery laid the foundation for building the first atomic bombs during World War 11. A basic reaction representing the fission of uranium can be represented as ... 

Nuclear flssion Nuclear fission, the splitting of an atomic nucleus, doesn t occur in nature. Humans first harnessed the tremendous power of fission during the Manhattan Project, an intense, hush-hush effort by the United States that led to the development of the first atomic bomb in 1945. Fission has since been used for more-benign purposes in nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants use a highly regulated process of fission to produce energy much more efficiently than is done in traditional, fossil fuel-burning power plants. 

Fission weapons or bombs They derive their power from nuclear fission when heavy nuclei such as uranium (U) or plutonium (Pu) are bombarded by neutrons and split into lighter elements, more neutrons and energy. The newly generated neutrons then bombard other nuclei which then split and bombard other nuclei and so on. This process continues and leads to a nuclear chain reaction which releases large amount of energy. These are also historically called atomic bombs or atom bombs or A-bombs. 

Atomic (or Nuclear) Bomb. A weapon invented during WWII and developed in the United States as a joint effort with the British and Canadian governments. It utilizes for its destructive effect the energy of an Atomic or Nuclear Explosion (qv). Since atomic explosions are of two types, fission and fusion, atomic bombs are of. corresponding types. However, it has been necessary to first initiate an atomic explosion with a nuclear fission reaction in order to bring about the conditions under which a nuclear fusion(thermonuclear) reaction can occur. 

Nuclear Bomb. See Atomic Bomb A499-L Nuclear Energy. See Atomic Energy A500-L Nuclear Explosions. See Atomic Explosions A501-R... 

It can be seen that the mass numbers on either side of the equation add up to the same number, 238, and that 92 protons are accounted for in the equation s product and reactant sides. This is a balanced nuclear equation. Actually, some mass is converted into energy, but the amount of mass is very small. From Albert Einstein s equation, E = me2, very little mass, m, is needed to produce a tremendous amount of energy, E, because c is the speed of light, 3 x 108 m/sec. This energy was evidenced when an atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II. The fuel for that bomb was uranium-235. 

In addition to the huge amount of energy released by nuclear fission reactions, another important result of such reactions is that more neutrons are produced than the number of neutrons used to bombard. The produced neutrons may also strike other 235(J isotopes and causes new fissions. The new nuclear fission reactions also produce neutrons with huge amounts of energy, and so on. This continuous process is said to be the atomic bomb, and is the basic principle of nuclear reactors. 

The combination of two or more lighter nuclei to form a heavier nucleus is called nuclear fusion. The amount of energy released in fusion reactions is greater than the amount of energy released in fission reactions. However, a huge amount of activation energy (such as an atomic bomb explosion) is needed to initiate nuclear fusion reactions. 

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