Why is a nuclear fusion a nuclear reaction?

Answer 1

Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction in which when a atom collides with another, and, instead of splitting each other apart like nuclear fission, if enough pressure and heat is available, they would merge into an compound or an heavier element.

Fusion currently is not very easy to use, as it requires extreme pressure and heat in order to work, but if that energy is able to be used, it is very powerful. You might have heard of hydrogen bombs, which use nuclear fusion. The heat is generated by x-rays and the pressure fuses hydrogen together to make a big kaboom.

Our sun uses fusion to create light. In the core of the sun, the intense gravity creates heat and pressure, which is the perfect condition for nuclear fusion. The gravity pull collides hydrogen atoms together, which form helium, at that point creating a blast of energy, which is the light you see during the day.

Answer 2

Nuclear transmutation happens when the nucleus of an atom is changed, so all nuclear transmutations are nuclear changes. There are a number of different ways this can happen, however, and while some are chemical changes, others are not. Transformations may result from nuclear decay of radioactive isotopes, or they can result from neutron capture. Neither necessarily involves a change in the element of the atom.

A neutron capture can leave the atomic number the same, but always increases the number of nucleons. This changes the isotope number, as when 232Th captures a neutron to become 233Th. But the change is not chemical, since the atom is still what it had been. (That 233Th atom will probably only last a few minutes, however.)

Sometimes, however, the nucleus is so excited in a neutron capture that it cannot hold together. So, while 13N can capture a neutron, becoming 14N, which is not radioactive, in practice, the capture often, or usually, results in the production of an atom of 14C and a hydrogen atom, which is a chemical change.

An atom might undergo a transmutation by decay, producing a different element in the process, as 232Th decays to become 228Ra through alpha emission. And this is a chemical change, of course.

Decay does not always change the element of the atom. Sometimes an isotope has two or more isomers and the change does not even alter the number of nucleons. For example there are two isomers of cobalt with 60 nucleons. One of these, designated 60mCo, decays into the other, 60Co, which, though radioactive, is more stable. This decay produces a gamma ray, and decreases the energy of the nucleus, but it is not a chemical change.

Answer 3

Transmutation occurs when atoms of one element are changed into atoms of another element. This involves a change in the composition of the atomic nucleus in which the number of protons changes. Click on the related link below to see the Wikipedia article on nuclear transmutation.

Answer 4

There is a change in the make up of the atomic nucleus - protons increase.