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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A nuclear reaction happens in uranium 235 because when a neutron hits it, it splits into 2 and releases an average of 2.38 neutrons. Other molecules simply do not release neutrons when split. These neutrons hit more uranium molecules, which release more neutrons, which hit even more uranium, and so on. There is a condition which needs to be met, which is a large enough mass of uranium, known as a critical mass, or otherwise the neutrons would just fly out of the uranium before hitting other uranium molecules. You can decrease this critical mass by putting pressure on the uranium, which is usually done by putting explosives in a perfect sphere around a uranium ball and detonating them all at once. You can also decrease the critical mass by putting materials that reflect neutrons around the uranium. One more condition is that there needs to be an original source of electrons.
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