How does fission create energy?

Answer 1

Mostly by the emission of energetic particles such as gamma rays, or of individual neutrons. A neutron can be slowed in its passage with a moderator such as water or graphite. A free neutron has a half life of about 10 min or so, before it in turn fissions with the release of binding energy.

Answer 2

Nuclear fission is nuclear reaction in which nucleus of an atom , usually a heavy element, splits into smaller parts i.e. lighter nuclei . Free neutrons and photons are produced along with release of large amount of energy.

Answer 3

Every time a nucleus of U235 or Pu239 fissions it releases energy. Initially this is recoil energy of the fission fragments, plus gamma ray energy, but when the fission fragments are stopped in the fuel heat is produced, and then this is transferred to the reactor coolant.

Answer 4

Nuclear fissions produces power through smashing the particles of nuclear material apart with neutrons. This releases more neutrons which will hit more nuclear material, thus releasing energy. Energy=Heat. The nuclear rods control the rate of this interaction. The heat is then cooled by cold water, producing steam. The steam is then used to run a turbine, generating electricity.

Answer 5

Atoms have an amount of energy needed to keep them together. Some atoms can be split into parts so that the total energy required to form all of the parts (smaller atoms) together is less than that of the original atom. The loss of this amount of energy is the energy produced by nuclear fission.

Answer 6

Nuclear fission is the process of an element splitting itself to create two elements. In this process, part of the total mass is (for a lack of a better word) destroyed and in its place, energy is released.

Thus the equation relating to how much energy would be released in this process would be: Energy released = change in mass x c2 (speed of light).

Answer 7

When a neutron is captured by a nucleus that can fission, the nucleus becomes unstable and almost instantly separates into two smaller nuclei very close together. These nuclei are both positively charged and strongly repel each other. This repulsion gives them a large amount of kinetic energy, which ultimately manifests at the bulk level as thermal energy.

To conserve energy, the two smaller nuclei as they rapidly accelerate away from each other, their internal structure of protons and neutrons relaxes into a form having less nuclear binding energy than the original nucleus had before it fissioned.

As the energy gained by the two smaller nuclei from electrostatic repulsion is exactly equal to the energy lost in the nuclear binding energy, no energy is actually produced at all. It is just transformed from one form to another, with the new form being usable energy that can do work for us.

Answer 8

A controlled nuclear chain reaction produces heat, driving steam turbines to produce energy.