Fission or Fusion
I think that right now, fission is the only way that we can get more
energy out of a nuclear reaction than we put in. First, the energy per fission
is very large. In practical units, the fission of 1 kg (2.2 lb) of uranium-235
releases 18.7 million kilowatt-hours as heat. Second, the fission process
initiated by the absorption of one neutron in uranium-235 releases about 2.5
neutrons, on the average, from the split nuclei. The neutrons released in this
manner quickly cause the fission of two more atoms, thereby releasing four or
more additional neutrons and initiating a self-sustaining series of nuclear
fissions, or a chain reaction, which results in continuous release of nuclear
energy. Naturally occurring uranium contains only 0.71 percent uranium-235; the
remainder is the non-fissile isotope uranium-238. A mass of natural uranium by
itself, no matter how large, cannot sustain a chain reaction because only the
uranium-235 is easily fissionable. The probability......
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