Fission and Fusion
Nuclear Fission -
1. A large nuclei captures a slow moving neutron.
2. Resulting neutrons can then be used to split other nuclei – Chain Reaction
From: www.atomicarchive.com
Equation: 10n + → 14056Ba + 9336Kr + 3 10n
The total nuclear mass of the products is less than the total nuclear mass of the reactants! How can that be?
Some of the mass is converted into ______.
We can calculate the amount of energy using Albert Einstein’s famous equation:
E =
m =
c =
A tiny bit of mass is converted into a lot of energy. One gram of uranium releases as much energy as ______of coal!
Controlled fission – Fission can be controlled by absorbing neutrons released from the reaction.
· Where can controlled fission reactions used? ______
From: www.atomicarchive.com
Uncontrolled fission – Fission continues until all nuclei are split.
· Where can uncontrolled fission reactions be used? ______
From: library.thinkquest.org
Nuclear Fusion -
Equation: 21H + 31H → + 10n + energy
From: www.mofo.go.jp
A fusion reaction with 1g of the fuel composed of deuterium and tritium will produce the energy equivalent of burning ______of petroleum.
Where are fusion reactions found? ______and ______
Which would we prefer (if we could) to have in nuclear power plants – fission or fusion?
Why is it not yet available to use for energy production on Earth?
The Manhattan Project
• ______
– Albert Einstein writes to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, alerting the President to the importance of research on chain reactions and the possibility that research might lead to developing powerful bombs.
• ______
– Roosevelt informs Einstein that he has set up a committee to study uranium.
• ______
– The Manhattan Engineer District is established in New York City.
• ______
– Researchers begin working at a bomb laboratory Los Alamos, NM (codenamed Project Y).
Other project sites are located in ______,
______, and ______.
• ______
– Los Alamos scientists successfully test a plutonium implosion bomb in the Trinity shot at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
• ______
– An American B-29 bomber named ______left the island of Tinian for Hiroshima, Japan and dropped a gun-type bomb named ______.
– ______days after Hiroshima an implosion-type bomb named ______was dropped on the Japanese city of ______.