Explain nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.
Answers
Fusion is what powers the sun. ... Both fission and fusion are nuclear reactions that produce energy, but the applications are not the same. Fission is the splitting of a heavy, unstable nucleus into two lighter nuclei, and fusion is the process where two light nuclei combine together releasing vast amounts of energy
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Answer:
Fission
Fission occurs when a neutron slams into a larger atom, forcing it to excite and spilt into two smaller atoms—also known as fission products. Additional neutrons are also released that can initiate a chain reaction.
When each atom splits, a tremendous amount of energy is released.
Uranium and plutonium are most commonly used for fission reactions in nuclear power reactors because they are easy to initiate and control.
The energy released by fission in these reactors heats water into steam. The steam is used to spin a turbine to produce carbon-free electricity.
Fusion
Fusion occurs when two atoms slam together to form a heavier atom, like when two hydrogen atoms fuse to form one helium atom.
This is the same process that powers the sun and creates huge amounts of energy—several times greater than fission. It also doesn’t produce highly radioactive fission products.
Fusion reactions are being studied by scientists, but are difficult to sustain for long periods of time because of the tremendous amount of pressure and temperature needed to join the nuclei together.