![]() ![]() A few years later, Enrico Fermi discovered the fact that various elements might become radioactive by hitting them with neutrons. All this started with the discovery of neutron by James Chadwick in 1932. The discovery of nuclear fission was a pure casual process. How the Discovery of Nuclear Fission did Occur? Other natural elements that may experience nuclear fission include Plutonium-239 (Pt-239), Uranium-233 (U-233) and Thorium-232 (Th-232). The daughter nuclei obtained through nuclear fission have a high kinetic energy but since they are electrically (positively) charged, lose this kinetic energy in the form of heat by interacting with matter through ionization. The most typical nuclear reaction of fission is when a Uranium-235 nucleus splits into two daughter nuclei (Barium-141 and Krypton-92) after catching a slow (thermal) neutron - a process in which three new neutrons are released according the following scheme:ġ 0n + 92 235U → 141 56Ba + 92 36Kr + 3 ∙ 1 0nĪ large amount of energy is released in such reactions as there is a large difference between binding energy of parent nucleus (U-235) and the sum of binding energies of daughter nuclei (Ba-141 and Kr-92). ![]() The figure below shows schematically how a nuclear fission process takes place. This is where nuclear fission differs from radioactive decay (two original particles here produce two new particles, unlike nuclear decay, in which one original particle produces two new particles). Look at here the necessity of presence of a neutron from outside the parent nucleus, without which it would be impossible to obtain a fission. Nuclear fission represents a process in which a parent nucleus splits in two daughter nuclei when it "catches" a neutron. Welcome to our Physics lesson on Nuclear Fission, this is the second lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of Nuclear Reactions, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
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