What is Nuclear Fusion and Nuclear Fission?
Fusion and fission are two reactions that happen at an atomic level. Fission is splitting atoms, fusion is when atoms fuse together. In fission, the atoms of uranium (or plutonium) split into two lighter atoms. An atom of uranium breaks into two atoms of lead. All the particles are still there in the new atoms, but they weigh a tiny bit less than the uranium atom did. The missing weight is converted into energy, and it’s a LOT of energy. In a slow, controlled reaction, you get heat to make electricity. In a faster, uncontrolled reaction, you have a nuclear weapon. The uranium used in these bombs is unstable, and the atoms break down by themselves at a predictable rate. Each atom breaking into two sends off a stray neutron (or maybe two, I forget), and if this neutron hits the nucleus of another atom, it splits too. If you have enough of this material concentrated close together, this becomes a runaway ‘chain reaction’. This amount is called a ‘critical mass’. The bomb is triggered by u
