Fission and Fusion

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5 Terms

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What is nuclear fission?

A type of nuclear reaction that is used to release energy from large and unstable atoms by splitting them into smaller atoms.

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The process of Nuclear fission

  1. Spontaneous fission rarely happens. usually the nucleus has to absorb a neutron before it will split.

  2. When the atom splits it forms two new lighter elements that are roughly the same size (and that have some kinetic energy stores).

  3. Two or three neutrons are also released when an atoms splits. if any of there neutrons are moving slow enough to be abdorbed by another nucleus, they can cause more fission to occur. This is a chain reaction.

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The process of Nuclear Fission 2

  1. The energy not transferred to the kinetic stores are carried away by Gamma rays

  2. This energy can be used to heat water, making steam to turn turbines and generators.

  3. The amount of energy produced by fission in a nuclear reactor is controlled by changing how quickly the chain reaction can occur.

  4. Uncontrolled chain reactions quickly leads to lots of energy being released as an explosion - This is how nuclear weapons work.

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What is nuclear fusion?

The process of two light nuclei collide at high speed and join to create a larger. heavier nucleus.

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Nuclear Fusion

  • The heavier nucleus doesn’t have as much mass as the two lighter nuclei because some of it is converted into energy and released.

  • Fusion releases a lot of energy (more than fission for a given mass of fuel)