Nuclear Fission Vs Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear Fission/Fusion

There is a lot of information to gather and learn while talking about/discussing nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. Nuclear fission can be defined as a nuclear reaction in which a heavy nucleus splits spontaneously or on impact with another particle, with the release of energy. Nuclear fusion can be defined as a nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei of low atomic number fuse to form a heavier nucleus with the release of energy.

Nuclear fission takes place when a large, somewhat unstable isotope is bombarded by high-speed particles, usually neutrons. These neutrons are then sped up or accelerated and then slammed into the unstable isotope, causing it to fission, or break into smaller particles. An example of nuclear fission is when nuclear fission produces electricity inside nuclear reactors and is used to heat up the water to power the reactor. A pioneer in researching and discovering fission is Otto Hahn

and his assistant Fritz Strassmann on December 17, 1938. Nuclear fission was later theoretically explained in January of 1939 by Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch. An everyday application that involves nuclear fission is the making of atomic bombs. Elements that are used in nuclear fission are the isotope of uranium (235U) and the isotope of plutonium (239Pu).
Fusion is the process by which the sun and other stars generate light and heat.

It is a nuclear process, where energy is produced by smashing together light atoms. It is the opposite reaction to fission, where heavy isotopes are split apart. How fusion works is deuterium and tritium, both of the heavy isotopes of hydrogen, fuse together, their component parts are recombined into a helium atom and a fast neutron. As the two heavy isotopes are reassembled into a helium atom, you have ‘extra’ mass leftover which is converted into the kinetic energy of the neutron, according to Einstein’s formula: E=mc2. A pioneer who discovered nuclear fusion is a scientist by the name of Hans Bethe, discovering it in the 1930’s. Beginning in the 1940’s researchers began to seek out or find new ways to initiate and control fusion reactions to produce useful energy on Earth. Researchers later began work on a device called the tokamak. The tokamak is defined as a toroidal (resembling a torus) apparatus for producing controlled fusion reactions in hot

plasma.
During the process of building the tokamak the U.S. spent an upward of several billion dollars to make and study this machine. On another note, a daily application or activity where nuclear fusion can be seen being used and or distributed is simply the sun. We know the sun for giving us warmth and providing us with light and life. The sun is pretty much a huge nuclear fusion reaction itself. Fusion reactions are the primary source of the sun and are the reason why the sun gives off the amount of heat it does. The sun is powered by nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. This releases tremendous amounts of energy in the form of heat, light and other radiation.
The element(s) used in nuclear fusion are hydrogen. But it isn't just hydrogen being used, it’s also the two isotopes that are found inside hydrogen. These two isotopes are deuterium and tritium. Deuterium is often referred to as “Heavy Water” and has an extra neutron in its nucleus. Tritium has two extra neutrons thus making it three times as heavy as hydrogen. In a fusion cycle, tritium and deuterium are combined and result in the formation of helium, the next heaviest element in the Periodic Table, and the release of a free neutron.