Nuclear fission
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Nuclear fission is the process used in current nuclear power plants and was historically utilized in nuclear weapons. It involves the splitting of heavy, unstable elements like uranium (specifically uranium-235), into lighter elements. This process is triggered by neutrons, which induce instability in the uranium atoms, causing them to split and release a significant amount of energy. This energy release is due to the rearrangement of the strong nuclear force and the fact that the rest mass of the resulting fragments is less than the original mass of the uranium atom. Dennis Whyte discussed this extensively on the , explaining that this process peaks in energy release at iron, which is positioned in the middle of the periodic table 1.
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