Sarah Lund Nuclear Reactions Nuclear Reactions is a process altering the energy, structure, or composition of atomic nuclei. In a reaction two nuclei or nuclear particles collide to produce a completely different product than the original nuclear particles. Although this is exceptionally rare occurrence a principal reaction includes 2 particles colliding. In most cases the particles will just collide and separate, this process is known as elastic collision, which is not a nuclear reaction. Confused with and similar to the Nuclear Reaction, a Chemical reaction only involves the atoms electrons. In an actual Nuclear Reaction only the atoms nucleus is involved. Nuclear Fission may be an unknown term to many, but it is right in front of us on the daily, powering our everyday life. This is a reaction which a large nuclei breaks into two similar but smaller nuclei. The Fission reaction releases a mass quantity of energy. The nuclei can naturally start itself into a Fission reaction on its own, but only certain elements can sustain a Fission Reaction Chain ei. (Uranium- 235 & Plutoni...
The development of atomic bomb boosted the level of understanding in terms of physics and chemistry of that particular time period. Physicists started to realize that stable nuclei can be converted to unstable nuclei. Through such process, they discovered that heavy nuclei can undergo nuclear fission. While testing, they added a neutron to an isotope of Uranium 235. This resulted Uranium 235 to become unstable and break down into Barium and Krypton, releasing two to three more neutrons. The breakdown of Uranium 235 is called “fission”. When the released neutrons attach to other isotopes of Uranium 235, this can result in a chain reaction of fission. For every generation of fission, the amount of fission is doubled, and this resulted in an extreme outburst of energy. The amount of energy released by this process is related to Einstein’s famous equation “E=mc^2” (Wolf).
All these effects were the cause of the discovery of nuclear fission and its properties. Nuclear Fusion Nuclear fusion is the process used by the sun and the stars in our solar system to produce their energy. Fusion involves smashing hydrogen atoms together at high velocities to form helium, and the matter is made into energy.
Nuclear energy must be a consideration for the future with the rapidly depleting supply of fossil fuels. This type of energy can be created through nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. Nuclear fission is the splitting of a heavy atom into two or more parts, releasing huge amounts of energy. The release of energy can be controlled and captured for generating electricity. Nuclear fusion involves bombarding hydrogen atoms together to form helium. In the long run, nuclear fusion has greater potential than fission.
When the atoms are arranged in a reactor, the splitting of an atom will cause nearby atoms to split, forming a chain reaction. As the energy is released, it is sent through coolant tanks full of water, which is then heated into steam. The steam is channeled and used to spin a turbine, which in turn powers a generator, producing electricity (whatisnuclear.com, Nuclear Reactors). Despite this, many still fear events such as this.
According to Merriam-Webster, nuclear fission is defined as “the splitting of an atomic nucleus resulting in the release of large amounts of energy” (Nuclear Fission). In the book Remembering the Manhattan Project: Perspectives on the Making of the Atomic Bomb and Its Legacy, Richard Rhodes, an American journalist and historian, states that fission was essentially discovered by accident. On December 21, 1938, German physicists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, were performing an experiment in which they bombarded uranium atoms with neutrons (Rhodes 17). They saw that this procedure created mutated atoms that had strange characteristics. Hahn and Strassman found that the neutrons split the nuclei of the uranium in half producing radioactive barium and krypton (Rhodes 18). Rhodes explains that the physicists observed that the reaction was extremely exothermic, producing about ten times the energy needed for the fission to occur. After publishing their findings, physicists all over the world recreated the experiment. After conducting his own fission experiment, Enrico Fermi, an Italian physicist at Colombia University, said, “A little bomb like that and it would all disappear” (qtd. Rhodes 19). Many of the world’s physicists came to the same conclusion; this reaction could be used to develop an atomic weapon. According to Rhodes, this discovery made the development of atomic weaponry seem essential to many countries because the only way to defend themselves against atomic weapons was to have similar weapons of their own.
Nuclear energy is produced during the process named nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. The development of nuclear energy started in the 20th century and there is now worldwide recognition for using nuclear energy. Popular countries that operates nuclear power are United States, France, Japan, and Russia, the nuclear energy generates up to 6% of the world’s electricity supplies. Even though the energy is mostly used by many countries, but it may causes side effect to the living things in the environment. (WNA, 2012)
Unstable atomic nuclei will suddening begin to decompose to form a nuclei with a higher stability. This decomposition process is called radioactivity. The energy and particles which are released durig the decomposition process are called radiation. When an unstable nuclei decomposes in nature, the process is referred to as natural radioactivity. When an unstable nuclei is prepared in the laboratory the decomposition is called induced radioactivity.
Reactions occur when the particles of reactants collide together continuously. If they collide with sufficient energy, then they will react. The minimum amount of kinetic energy required for particles at the time of collision is called the activation energy and this theory is known as the ?collision theory?.
Cells are able to grow and reproduce. Cells reproduce by splitting and passing on their genes (hereditary information) to Daughter cells. The nucleus always divides before the rest of the cell divides. Therefore each daughter cell contains their own nucleus. The nucleus controls the cells activities through the genetic material DNA. The cells in a body are all the same except the gametes they were all made from one cell, the Zygote. This is the cell that was formed when two gametes from your parents fused.
Throughout half the century of the 19’s hundreds a period of new advancements in the creations of a bomb had arisen. On August 8th, 1939 President Roosevelt received a letter from Albert Einstein which ended up being the fundamental support in the creation of the Atomic Bomb. There are two types of atomic bombs fusion and fission, the first atomic bomb was created in 1939 by the Manhattan Project, three weeks later after its first test, it was used in an actual war. It’s capable of wiping out a whole entire city and killing instantly anyone in its way. Now we have better more precise bomb know as hydrogen bombs, these bomb use the energy released when the nuclei of a hydrogen come together or fuse, unlike a fission bomb which gets its energy from when the nuclei of a heavy element such as plutonium or uranium splitting apart creating a chain reaction leading to a large explosion.
“The half-life of a radioisotope is the time required for half the atoms in a given sample to undergo radioactive decay; for any particular radioisotope, the half-life is independent of the initial amount of...
energy out of a nuclear reaction than we put in. First, the energy per fission
If a nuclear fallout were to occur, the earth would turn into a radiated wasteland. The earth would be essentially non-liveable, but it could be possible to survive. People, with the help of fallout shelters and bunkers, would be able to survive the initial attack and quite possibly live in the shelters until the radiation has dropped to a level in which they can survive.
Nuclear fusion occurs when two atomic nuclei collide with enough energy to bind together to form one nucleus. Nuclear fusion occurs in the core of our sun, and is the source of its tremendous heat. In the sun hydrogen nuclei, single protons, fuse together and form a new nucleus. In the conversion, a small amount of mass is converted into energy. It is this energy that heats the sun.
Nuclear energy is generated by a process called fission. Fission occurs within the reactor of a nuclear power plant when a neutron is fired at an atom of uranium causing it to split and release subsequent neutrons.1 These are able to crash into other uranium atoms causing a chain reaction and releasing a great deal of heat energy.