And if splitting atom releases energy, why haven’t these energy break from their atom themselves? Isn’t that means the force that bind the atoms are bigger than the energy released?
In: 508
There’s a difference between radioactive decay and fission.
Uranium is radioactive – it spontaneously releases an alpha particle ( a helium atom) from itself to reach a more stable configuration. This process is happening all the time. In fact, it’s theorized that heat from radioactive decay is what has kept the core of the earth hot and molten for the past few billion years.
What is highly unnatural is fission. Fission involves actively throwing a neutron at high* speed toward a uranium atom. Since decay of uranium does not produce a neutron, it cannot self-start a fission event.
note: the term ‘high speed’ here is relative to human experience, is somewhere between 2km/s and 14,000km/s
Latest Answers