Can An Atom Be Split

Nuclear energy: Splitting the atom

Hundreds of reactors effectually the world are splitting heavy atoms in the process called fission – providing about 13.5 per cent of the world's electrical free energy

Technology 29 May 2013

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Read more: "Instant Practiced 32: Nuclear free energy"

The protons and neutrons in an atom's nucleus are bound together past the strong nuclear strength. By fusing together the nuclei of two light atoms, or by splitting a heavy atom in a process called fission, we can release some of this binding energy. After more than half a century of research, fusion remains technologically elusive. Hither we focus on fission, exploited in hundreds of reactors effectually the world; in 2011, information technology provided virtually thirteen.v per cent of the world's electric energy

A brief history of fission

In December 1942 Enrico Fermi achieved the kickoff self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, harnessing the procedure that would be used to lay waste to the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945. In the backwash of this devastation, proponents of nuclear power made the case that splitting the atom could besides be used for benevolent ends, supplying clean energy for all. When that aforementioned nuclear chain reaction is channelled into electricity generation, a unmarried gram of uranium can provide 1 kilowatt of power for a year. To put this into context, that is roughly the rate at which the average United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland resident used electricity in 2011. Enthusiasts proclaimed that electricity from a nuclear establish would be "too cheap to meter".

In the 1950s, nuclear power began to exist used for commercial electricity generation besides as to drive submarines, navy ships and icebreakers, and people spoke glowingly of future nuclear-powered trains and shipping. By the 1960s, nuclear power was seen as the …