Download Fission and Fusion

Fission and Fusion
Energy of today and tommorrow
What is nuclear force?
• The strong nuclear force is the force is the
attractive force that binds protons and neutrons
together in the nucleus of an atom
• This force exists over VERY short distances
• When the strong nuclear force struggles to
overcome the electric forces, the atom
becomes unstable and therefore radioactive
• All elements with 83 or more protons are
radioactive
Fission
• Fission is the splitting of a nucleus into smaller parts
• Fission was 1st explained by Meitner in 1939, but
was 1st demonstrated by Hahn and Strassman in
1938 accidentally
• In fission tremendous energy can be produced from
very small amounts of mass
• When fission occurs small amounts of mass are lost
and energy is produced
• This was explained by E=mc2
• Uncontrolled nuclear fission is how atomic weapons
are made.
Nuclear Power
• In a nuclear power plant uranium-235 undergoes
fission in a reactor
• Nuclear power plants do not give off greenhouse
gases
• Radioactive waste is by-product that must be dealt
with as it remains harmful to humans for 100s of
thousands of years
• The largest nuclear accident occurred in Chernobyl
in the Ukraine, where radioactive waste was
released into the atmosphere after a nuclear core
meltdown
Fusion
• Fusion is the process where two nuclei come
together to form a single nuclei creating one
large nucleus and releasing large amounts of
energy
• The sun in powered by fusion
• At the sun’s temperature matter exists as
plasma, a state at which atoms can be stripped
of their electrons
• This one day may provide clean cheap energy,
but that day is still a long way off