Nuclear energy is gained by two different types of nuclear reactions that produce energy. One of these reactions is fission, the splitting of one nuclei, the other is fusion, the fusion of two nuclei. It is more difficult to gain nuclear energy through a fusion, because it is elaborate and costly to produce and therefore doesn’t pay out. Fission on the other hand is easy to produce, but the negative side of it is that nuclear waste’s a byproduct of that reaction. The Fission reaction is more specifically produced when a large nucleus gest bombarded with neutrons. This results the splitting of the neutron into two smaller atoms of new elements, which are unstable (radioactive). The other products of a fission reaction are energy and two or three new neutrons (Nuclear Energy. (2012).). If one neutron is needed to …show more content…
The Fuel rods are surrounded by a moderator, which is a substance with a low atomic weight that slows down the neutrons. Additionally control rods are used to slow down the reaction. They are metal cylinders that absorb neutrons. Without slowing down the reaction through moderators and control rods the reaction would be so fast that it would be likely to have an explosion. The energy released in a fission reaction is in form of heat, so turbines in nuclear reactors are needed to convert the heat into a mechanical movement. Uranium-235 is the most commonly used isotope in a fission reaction since it occurs naturally, but there are two other isotopes that are known to be fissionable: Uranium-233 and Plutonium-239, both of which need to be produced synthetically. The first fission reaction produced in 1938 in Germany by the scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann who bombarded uranium with neutrons. But the reaction wasn’t actually put into use until 1942 as the building of the first atomic bomb in the USA started. Now fission is used in more peaceful ways to produce cheap energy