Nuclear Fission

Nuclear fission is defined as the splitting of a large atomic nucleus into a smaller nuclei.
High mass nuclei such as Uranium can undergo fission and release energy

Fission must first be induced by firing neutrons at a nucleus, when the nucleus is struck by a
neutron, it is absorbed and then it splits into two, or more, daughter nuclei.
During fission, neutrons are ejected from the nucleus, which in turn, can collide with other
nuclei which trigger a cascade effect.
This leads to a chain reaction, this last until all of the material has undergone fission, or the
reaction is stopped by a moderator.

Calculating Energy Released in Nuclear Reactions.

E = (Δm)c2

E= binding energy released in jules.

Δm = mass defect

C = speed of light

Where does the energy come from

The enormous energy that is released from the splitting comes from how hard the protons
are repelling each other with the coulomb force, barely held together by the strong force,
each proton is pushing every other proton with about 20N of force, this force is incredibly
large for such a small particle. This force over a small distance leads to a fair amount of
energy being releases which leads to measurable reduction in mass, This means that’s the
total mass of each fission fragment is less than the starting nucleus. This missing mass is
called the mass defect.