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Nuclear Fission and Fusion |
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Atoms, the building blocks of everything we see around us, are capable of becoming one of the most horrendous, destructive forces known to man: nuclear fission (the splitting of uranium or plutonium atom to release energy). The hydrogen atom is the smallest of all atoms, having a single electron and proton, yet fusing hydrogen atoms together has made the most destructive weapon that has been created. In 1943, the atom was harnessed for the first time and from harnessing the atom the scientists of the time created the first atom (or fission) bomb. The original bomb had a destructive power equivalent to 10 kilotons or 10,000 tons of TNT, however even this pales when one observes that the smallest nuclear bomb, in the U.S. arsenal, is a 1 megaton bomb (1,000,000 tons of TNT). The U.S. has more destructive power in one bomb, than all of the conventional munitions that were used in WWII combined! While fission and fusion are sources of the most deadly force known to man, also they are the new and glorious source of power. A single nuclear fission power plant can operate for 5 years on a single rail car of uranium. |
While conventional coal or other fossil fuel plants use thousands of rail cars of fuel every year to operate. Let’s imagine for a minute that each rail car holds 60 tons of coal or oil, and let’s say that for a 25 megawatt power plant to operate it requires 5000 rail cars of oil each year. That is about 300,000 tons of fuel. Now imagine, just for a minute that with just 25 grams of tritium (an isotope of hydrogen), the average person in our industrialized society could be sustained with electricity for his entire lifetime. In this report I will give some of the history of fission and fusion, as well as explain what fission actually is. I will describe the fusion process, and explain the effects of a nuclear bomb. In addition to this, I will describe a thermonuclear bomb and will explain some of the more peaceful, uses of fission and fusion, such as commercial nuclear power generators and nuclear reactors (used in naval vessels). | |||