The nuclear fusion reaction is the power source for stars including the Sun. The hydrogen bomb is an example of a fusion reaction and it creates a very high temperature. Deuterium and tritium atoms undergo fusion reactions to produce the same helium atom but with the mass number 4. The below reaction shows the formation of helium from the material deuterium fusion. Let us take some of the nuclear fusion reactions where two deuterium atoms combine to form helium with mass number 3 it is also called deuterium-deuterium fusion. Fusion reactions are highly exothermic in nature for a lighter nucleus. When two nuclei that are participating in a reaction have enough kinetic energy to overcome their electrostatic repulsion they will fuse together and a nuclear fusion reaction will occur. This type of reaction is just the opposite of the nuclear fission reaction. The reaction where two nuclei are combined to form a heavier one is called a nuclear fusion and a stable nucleus is formed. The enormous amount of energy released during the nuclear chain reaction has much application in the industrial field. A particular mass is required for performing this reaction which means that the mass of neutrons is low it will be escaped and cannot be captured for inducing efficient reaction and the minimum mass required for a sustainable fission reaction is called the critical mass. This means that the fission of Uranium-235 releases three neutrons per fission so this neutron can also be absorbed by other uranium-235 nucleus and the rate of fission will increase rapidly. These neutrons are produced as a byproduct can also induce another fission reaction there by a nuclear chain reaction is formed. And by observing the reaction more than one neutron is produced as a byproduct. And the product obtained varies with very reaction conditions. The following image shows the formation of barium from the uranium 235 binary fission process.īy observing the resulting product we got that nucleus divided asymmetrically. By bombarding uranium with neutrons a new element that is a lighter element such as barium was formed after the reaction. Nuclear fission was discovered by the German scientist Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and Fritz Strassmann in 1938.
The splitting up of a heavier nucleus into lighter nuclei is called nuclear fission. Before going to discuss this topic in detail we need to discuss the nucleus. So we can conclude that fission and fusion are two chemical processes where a tremendous amount of energy is released. This means lighter elements like helium, and hydrogen are more suitable for a fusion reaction while that heavier elements like uranium, thorium, and plutonium are more suitable for a fissionable reaction. While when the fusion of heavier nuclei is taking place energy is accepted so the resulting reaction can be called endothermic. Upon the fusion of lighter nuclei, they release energy therefore it is an exothermic reaction. Nuclear fusion produces nuclei heavier than the parent nuclei and releases energy upon their formation. And by the fission process, a very large amount of energy and photons are released. Type of reaction where two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a different atomic is called nuclear fusion while Nuclear fission is the process where heavier items get split into smaller nuclei.
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