Nuclear Fission

Nuclear Fission is the splitting of a heavy nuclei to release its energy, and this is the way nuclear reactors produce energy. The production of fission requires a bombarding particle, such as a neutron, and a target material, such as Uranium-235. Fission occurs when the bombarding particle splits the target material into two similar parts, called fission fragments. Each fragment's nucleus contains about half of the original nucleus' protons and neutrons. Only a part of the nucleus' energy is released during the fission reaction, most of the released enegry takes on the form of heat. The rest of the released energy takes the form of radiation.

Nuclear energy is measured in units called Electron Volts. The burning of one Carbon molecule in coal or oil produces about 3 electron volts of energy, while the fissioning of a single uranium nucleus produces about 200 million electron volts of energy.

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FUSION