

The purpose of this classroom video is to listen to students' ideas about nuclear energy. Watch this video of 4th and 5th grade students in San Diego, California-a coastal community. Nuclear fission can occur spontaneously in some cases or can be induced by the bombardment on the nucleus with a variety. During this process, the unstable radioactive nucleus is split into two smaller nuclei.
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When a free neutron hits the nucleus of a fissile atom like uranium-(235U) or plutonium (Pu), the uranium or plutonium splits into lighter atoms which results in a sudden powerful release of energy. Nuclear fission is the process of splitting a heavy nucleus, such as uranium or plutonium, in two smaller nuclei of nearly the same mass. Very large pure fission bombs can achieve efficiencies approaching 50 but have been supplanted by thermonuclear weapon technology.

Little Boy had an efficiency of only 1.4. Discussing how nuclear energy is produced is essential for students to develop a more accurate and complete understanding of this energy resource. Atomic bombs are made up of a fissile element like uranium is enriched in the isotope that can sustain a fission nuclear chain reaction. The Fat Man implosion bomb was 17 efficient (counting only the energy produced by the fissile core, the natural uranium tamper contributed another 4 through fast fission). These associations can leave students believing that nuclear energy is a negative energy solution. Nuclear energy may also be associated with the atomic bomb, nuclear wastes, and incidents such as the Chernobyl accident. The first type of nuclear bomb is the fission bomb or atomic bomb and was the only type ever to be used in war, according to PBS.Fission bombs, as the name suggests, are powered by nuclear fission, or the splitting of an atom, according to Britannica. The idea that microscopic atoms are either combined (fusion) or split (fission) to make energy sounds almost like science fiction. The explosives compress nuclear material, causing fission the fission releases massive amounts of energy in the form of X-rays, which create the high temperature and pressure needed to. Modern nuclear weapons work by combining chemical explosives, nuclear fission, and nuclear fusion.

Fission - A nuclear reaction in which a heavy nucleus splits into two or more smaller fragments, releasing large amounts of energy.Critical mass - The smallest mass of a fissionable material that will sustain a nuclear chain reaction at a constant level.
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Chain reaction - A multi-stage nuclear reaction that sustains itself in a series of fissions, in which the release of neutrons from the splitting of one atom leads to the splitting of others.Nuclear radiation also has many medical uses. News of Hahn and Strassmann’s discovery spread rapidly. Artificial transmutation of elements can be accomplished by bombarding the nuclei of some elements with alpha or subatomic particles. Both reports'Disintegration of uranium by neutrons: a new type of nuclear reaction' and 'Physical evidence for the division of heavy nuclei under neutron bombardment'used the term 'fission' for the first time to describe the reaction. Naturally radioactive elements exist in the earth and are either alpha or beta emitters. \)-235 disintegration, the fission will be self-sustaining.
