Understanding Fission 

Nuclear fission is the process of splitting an atom into two parts which through this process creating energy.

 On December 17, 1938, Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann probed the innermost part of an atom by shooting a neutron at the nucleus.  What they observed was something that had never been done before the nucleus had split in half.  This discovery laid the groundwork for further nuclear research and showed the easiest way to test if an element could easily undergo fission.
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An atom that is split creates energy, this can be explained by something called the nuclear mass defect. The nuclear mass defect states that all particles within the nucleus such as protons and neutrons if weighed individually,  weighs more than the addition of them inside the nucleus. This is because of something called the nuclear strong force. This strong force is, not surprisingly by its name strongest force in nature. The nuclear strong force is needed to hold the nucleus of an atom together due to only positive charges being inside at the nucleus.  If the nuclear strong force did not exist the nucleus of an atom would fly apart. The larger the nucleus of the atom the larger the strong force must be to hold it together. This force is generated by eating some of the mass of the particles when inside the nucleus. So when breaking the atom in half there is a release of energy due to the strong force no longer needing to be as strong as it once was. So when an atom is split it releases an enormous amount of energy but the struggle with this reaction is to make it self sustaining. ​