There are elements like uranium that are naturally radioactive. Some nuclei decay and give off particles and energy. Turns out that the stuff ejected by one nucleus can be taken up by another nucleus and this makes it particularly unstable, and more likely to break up, giving off more energy which can then make another nucleus decay. If you get a lot of nuclei together, and they start doing this, it can lead to an uncontrolled chain reaction – a nuclear explosion.
This is a fission bomb, or the first kind of atomic bomb. You need uranium (or something like it), and you need a high concentration of the right kinds of uranium (the right “isotope”) and then you have to get enough of it in one place.
The bomb works by having two or more bits of uranium that are too small to go critical. When the bomb explodes, you force the uranium bits close to each other by using a regular explosive. When they meet, they start the chain reaction and there’s a big explosion.
You can go one step further. You can use the power of the fission explosion (using uranium) to force nuclei together. Turns out you can get hydrogen nuclei (again – you need the right “isotope” called deuterium or tritium) and push them so hard together that they are forced to join and become a new element. It’s SUPER hard to do this, but the energy in an atomic bomb is enough. When the nuclei start fusing, they release a much larger amount of energy than the fission process, and this will make more nuclei fuse. That’s what the sun does to generate power – it sustains itself.
That’s a fusion bomb, or Hydrogen Bomb.
The amounts of energy we’re talking about are truly staggering. We normally don’t see nuclear events on the earth – everything is governed by chemistry. Events like these are essential for life since this is where the sun gets its energy. Unfortunately we found we could use these things to make bombs. We can control fission to make nuclear power, but there are some risks associated with that. People are working really hard to make fusion something we can control, but it’s hard. It’s like trying to make a little sun, and containing it. That’s not just hard it’s HARD. Fingers crossed though. If we could control fusion we’d never have any more energy shortages, and the pollution of the process would be basically zero.
There are elements like uranium that are naturally radioactive. Some nuclei decay and give off particles and energy. Turns out that the stuff ejected by one nucleus can be taken up by another nucleus and this makes it particularly unstable, and more likely to break up, giving off more energy which can then make another nucleus decay. If you get a lot of nuclei together, and they start doing this, it can lead to an uncontrolled chain reaction – a nuclear explosion.
This is a fission bomb, or the first kind of atomic bomb. You need uranium (or something like it), and you need a high concentration of the right kinds of uranium (the right “isotope”) and then you have to get enough of it in one place.
The bomb works by having two or more bits of uranium that are too small to go critical. When the bomb explodes, you force the uranium bits close to each other by using a regular explosive. When they meet, they start the chain reaction and there’s a big explosion.
You can go one step further. You can use the power of the fission explosion (using uranium) to force nuclei together. Turns out you can get hydrogen nuclei (again – you need the right “isotope” called deuterium or tritium) and push them so hard together that they are forced to join and become a new element. It’s SUPER hard to do this, but the energy in an atomic bomb is enough. When the nuclei start fusing, they release a much larger amount of energy than the fission process, and this will make more nuclei fuse. That’s what the sun does to generate power – it sustains itself.
That’s a fusion bomb, or Hydrogen Bomb.
The amounts of energy we’re talking about are truly staggering. We normally don’t see nuclear events on the earth – everything is governed by chemistry. Events like these are essential for life since this is where the sun gets its energy. Unfortunately we found we could use these things to make bombs. We can control fission to make nuclear power, but there are some risks associated with that. People are working really hard to make fusion something we can control, but it’s hard. It’s like trying to make a little sun, and containing it. That’s not just hard it’s HARD. Fingers crossed though. If we could control fusion we’d never have any more energy shortages, and the pollution of the process would be basically zero.
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