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Nuclear energy
 
 
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Nuclear energy is released by the splitting (fission) or merging together (fusion) of the nuclei
Atomic nucleus

The nucleus of an atom is the very dense region, consisting of nucleons , at the center of an atom. Although the size of the nucleus varies considerably according to the mass of the atom, the size of the entire atom is comparatively constant....
 of atom
Atom

|-! bgcolor=gray | Properties|-||}The atom is a basic unit of matter consisting of a dense, central atomic nucleus surrounded by a electron cloud of electric charge electrons....
(s). The conversion of nuclear mass
Mass

In physical science, mass refers to the degree of acceleration a body acquires when subject to a force: bodies with greater mass are accelerated less by the same force....
 to energy is consistent with the mass-energy equivalence
Mass-energy equivalence

In physics, mass?energy equivalence is the concept that any mass has an associated energy, and that any energy has an associated type of mass. In special relativity this relationship is expressed using the mass?energy equivalence formula...
 formula ?E = ?m.c², in which ?E = energy release, ?m = mass defect, and c = the speed of light
Speed of light

The speed of light in an free space is an important physical constant usually written as c, with a value of 299,792,458 metres per second....
 in a vacuum
Vacuum

A vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty," but in reality, no volume of space can ever be perfectly empty....
 (a physical constant
Physical constant

A physical constant is a physical quantity that is generally believed to be both universal in nature and constant in time. It can be contrasted with a mathematical constant, which is a fixed numerical value but does not directly involve any physical measurement....
). Nuclear energy was first discovered by French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 physicist Henri Becquerel
Henri Becquerel

Antoine Henri Becquerel was a France physicist, Nobel laureate, and one of the discoverers of radioactivity. He won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering radioactivity....
 in 1896, when he found that photographic plates stored in the dark near uranium
Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-gray metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the chemical symbol U and atomic number 92....
 were blackened like X-ray
X-ray

X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 10 to 0.01 nanometers, corresponding to frequency in the range 30 Hertz to 30 Hertz and energies in the range 120 Electron volt to 120 keV....
 plates, which had been just recently discovered at the time 1895.

Nuclear chemistry
Nuclear chemistry

Nuclear chemistry is a subfield of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes and nuclear properties.* It is the chemistry of radioactive elements such as the actinides, radium and radon together with the chemistry associated with equipment which are designed to perform nuclear processes....
 can be used as a form of alchemy
Alchemy

Alchemy , a part of the Occult Tradition, is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties....
 to turn lead
Lead

Lead is a main-group Chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metal ....
 into gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
 or change any atom to any other atom (albeit through many steps).






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Nuclear energy is released by the splitting (fission) or merging together (fusion) of the nuclei
Atomic nucleus

The nucleus of an atom is the very dense region, consisting of nucleons , at the center of an atom. Although the size of the nucleus varies considerably according to the mass of the atom, the size of the entire atom is comparatively constant....
 of atom
Atom

|-! bgcolor=gray | Properties|-||}The atom is a basic unit of matter consisting of a dense, central atomic nucleus surrounded by a electron cloud of electric charge electrons....
(s). The conversion of nuclear mass
Mass

In physical science, mass refers to the degree of acceleration a body acquires when subject to a force: bodies with greater mass are accelerated less by the same force....
 to energy is consistent with the mass-energy equivalence
Mass-energy equivalence

In physics, mass?energy equivalence is the concept that any mass has an associated energy, and that any energy has an associated type of mass. In special relativity this relationship is expressed using the mass?energy equivalence formula...
 formula ?E = ?m.c², in which ?E = energy release, ?m = mass defect, and c = the speed of light
Speed of light

The speed of light in an free space is an important physical constant usually written as c, with a value of 299,792,458 metres per second....
 in a vacuum
Vacuum

A vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty," but in reality, no volume of space can ever be perfectly empty....
 (a physical constant
Physical constant

A physical constant is a physical quantity that is generally believed to be both universal in nature and constant in time. It can be contrasted with a mathematical constant, which is a fixed numerical value but does not directly involve any physical measurement....
). Nuclear energy was first discovered by French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 physicist Henri Becquerel
Henri Becquerel

Antoine Henri Becquerel was a France physicist, Nobel laureate, and one of the discoverers of radioactivity. He won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering radioactivity....
 in 1896, when he found that photographic plates stored in the dark near uranium
Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-gray metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the chemical symbol U and atomic number 92....
 were blackened like X-ray
X-ray

X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 10 to 0.01 nanometers, corresponding to frequency in the range 30 Hertz to 30 Hertz and energies in the range 120 Electron volt to 120 keV....
 plates, which had been just recently discovered at the time 1895.

Nuclear chemistry
Nuclear chemistry

Nuclear chemistry is a subfield of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes and nuclear properties.* It is the chemistry of radioactive elements such as the actinides, radium and radon together with the chemistry associated with equipment which are designed to perform nuclear processes....
 can be used as a form of alchemy
Alchemy

Alchemy , a part of the Occult Tradition, is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties....
 to turn lead
Lead

Lead is a main-group Chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metal ....
 into gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
 or change any atom to any other atom (albeit through many steps). Radionuclide
Radionuclide

A radionuclide is an atom with an unstable Atomic nucleus, which is a nucleus characterized by excess energy which is available to be imparted either to a newly-created radiation particle within the nucleus, or else to an atomic electron ....
 (radioisotope) production often involves irradiation of another isotope
Isotope

Isotopes are any of the different types of atoms of the same chemical element, each having a different atomic mass . Isotopes of an element have atomic nucleus with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutron....
 (or more precisely a nuclide
Nuclide

A nuclide is a species of atom characterized by the constitution of its Atomic nucleus and hence by the number of protons, the number of neutrons, and the energy content of the nucleus....
), with alpha particle
Alpha particle

Alpha particles consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium atomic nucleus; hence, it can be written as He2+ or 42He2+....
s, beta particle
Beta particle

Beta particles are high-energy, high-speed electrons or positrons emitted by certain types of radioactive Atomic nucleus such as potassium-40. The beta particles emitted are a form of ionizing radiation also known as beta rays....
s, or gamma ray
Gamma ray

Gamma rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation produced by atom particle interactions, such as electron-positron annihilation or radioactive decay....
s. Iron
Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
 has the highest binding energy per nucleon
Nucleon

In physics, a nucleon is a collective name for two baryons: the neutron and the proton. They are constituents of the atomic nucleus and until the 1960s were thought to be elementary particles....
 of any atom. If an atom of lower average binding energy is changed into an atom of higher average binding energy, energy is given off. The chart shows that fusion of hydrogen
Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the chemical symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly combustion and explosive Diatomic molecule gas with the molecular formula H2....
, the combination to form heavier atoms, releases energy, as does fission of uranium, the breaking up of a larger nucleus into smaller parts. Stability varies between isotopes: the isotope U-235
Uranium-235

Uranium-235 is an Isotopes of uranium that differs from the element's other common isotope, uranium-238, by its ability to cause a rapidly expanding nuclear fission chain reaction, i.e., it is fissile....
 is much less stable than the more common U-238
Uranium-238

Uranium-238 , is the most common Isotopes of uranium of uranium found in nature. When hit by a neutron, it becomes uranium-239 , an unstable isotope which radioactive decay into neptunium-239 , which then itself decays, with a half-life of 2.355 days, into plutonium-239 ....
.

Nuclear energy is released by three exoenergetic (or exothermic
Exothermic

File:Explosion1.JPG In thermodynamics, the term exothermic describes a process or reaction that releases energy usually in the form of heat, but also in form of light , electricity , or sound....
) processes:
  • Radioactive decay
    Radioactive decay

    Radioactive decay is the process in which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by emitting ionizing particles and radiation. This decay, or loss of energy, results in an atom of one type, called the parent nuclide transforming to an atom of a different type, called the daughter nuclide....
    , where a neutron or proton in the radioactive nucleus decays spontaneously by emitting either particles, electromagnetic radiation
    Electromagnetic radiation

    Electromagnetic radiation takes the form of wave propagation waves in a vacuum or in matter. EM radiation has an electric field and magnetic field component which oscillate in phase perpendicular to each other and to the direction of energy Wave propagation....
     (gamma rays), neutrinos (or all of them)
  • Fusion
    Nuclear fusion

    In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple like-charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus....
    , two atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus
  • Fission
    Nuclear fission

    In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the atomic nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts, often producing free neutrons and lighter atomic nucleus, which may eventually produce photons ....
    , the breaking of a heavy nucleus into two (or more rarely three) lighter nuclei

See also

  • List of states with nuclear weapons
  • Nuclear power
    Nuclear power

    Nuclear power is any nuclear technology designed to extract usable energy from atomic nucleus via controlled nuclear reactions. The only method in use today is through nuclear fission, though other methods might one day include nuclear fusion and radioactive decay ....
  • Nuclear power by country
    Nuclear power by country

    Nuclear power is a method for Electricity generation by harnessing the Radioactive decay of atoms. Nuclear fission occurs when any fissile material, such as uranium-235, an isotope of uranium, is concentrated....
  • Nuclear fission
    Nuclear fission

    In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the atomic nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts, often producing free neutrons and lighter atomic nucleus, which may eventually produce photons ....
  • Nuclear fusion
    Nuclear fusion

    In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple like-charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus....


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