Tag: physics

A hydrogen bomb (thermonuclear weapon) relies on uncontrolled nuclear fusion, usually triggered by an initial fission reaction.

Nuclear fusion produces far less radioactive waste compared to nuclear fission, making it a cleaner energy source in terms of pollution.

Nuclear fusion requires overcoming the electrostatic repulsion between positively charged nuclei, which necessitates extremely high temperatures and pressures.

U-235 is fissile, meaning it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction, which is a property often associated with its instability in the context of nuclear reactors compared to the more abundant U-238.

Atom bombs (fission bombs) operate by splitting heavy nuclei like Uranium-235 or Plutonium-239, releasing a massive amount of energy in a very short time.

Enrichment is the process of increasing the concentration of the isotope U-235 relative to U-238, as U-235 is required for nuclear fission in reactors.

The energy released due to a loss in mass during the process of nuclear fission and fusion is called nuclear energy. In both these processes, the loss in mass gets converted into energy in accordance with Einstein's mass-energy relation $E=mc^2$.

Uranium $238$ is used in nuclear reactor for fission reaction.

Nuclear fission carried out in a nuclear power plant is a controlled chain reaction which can be controlled to stop if required.

The yield of nuclear energy is enormous and hence it has extraordinary potential as an energy source.