Eli5: What exactly are the conditions that have to be met for a nuclear reaction to occur? Why does it have to involve Uranium 235 and similar isotopes? The world is made out of atoms. If we were to split the nuclei of the atoms of like a T shirt would it cause a nuclear reaction?
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You can cause a nuclear reaction in any element. The carbon in your T shirt can be split apart and fused together just like any other atoms.
However, for generating power, the vast majority of these reactions are not useful. What you want is something called a nuclear *chain* reaction, where causing one nuclear reaction will cause another one, and so on, so it can sustain itself, and you can get out more energy than you put in.
Uranium 235 is one of the few isotopes that has this capability. If you fire a neutron at it, it will split apart and release an average of about 2.5 neutrons. If you have enough U-235 in one place, those neutrons can split more U-235 atoms. By varying the setup, you can control the reaction – if 1 neutron out of that 2.5 on average splits a U-235, you have a stable nuclear reactor, and the rest of the energy goes into boiling water to generate power. If 2.2 out of 2.5 go on to split another atom, you have a bomb.
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