Science : Fusion VS Fission || Which is deadlier?

     The foundation of nuclear energy is harnessing the power of atoms. Both fission and fusion are nuclear processes by which atoms are altered to create energy, but what is the difference between the two? And which one is deadlier?

     First is fusion. The word fusion means "a merging of separate elements into a unified whole". Nuclear fusion refers to the "union of atomic nuclei to form heavier nuclei resulting in the release of enormous amounts of energy". What happens in our sun and how the sun generate energy is through fusion. When the atoms combine, it generates a large amount of energy.

     Atoms of Tritium and Deuterium unite under extreme pressure and temperature to produce a neutron and a helium isotope. Along with this, an enormous amount of energy is released, which is several times the amount produced from fission.
     The examples of fusion is the sun and also hydrogen bombs. 

     And then there is fission. What is fission and what is the difference? Fission means "a splitting or breaking up into parts". that means fission happens when an atom split into two lighter ones.
     In  1939, scientist began experiments, and one year later Enrico Fermi built the first nuclear reactor. Nuclear fission takes place when a large, somewhat unstable isotope (atoms with the same number of protons but different number of neutrons) is bombarded with high-speed particles, usually neutrons. These neutrons are accelerated and then slammed into the unstable isotope, causing it to fission, or break into smaller particles.

     During the process, a neutron is accelerated and strikes the target nucleus, which in the majority of nuclear power reactors today is Uranium-235. This splits the target nucleus and breaks it down into two smaller isotopes (the fission products), three high-speed neutrons, and a large amount of energy.
     The bombs dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, is an atom bomb and atom bombs are based on fission

     So, Which one is deadlier? Fusion or fission? Well, Fusion. Fusion is deadlier because the energy it generates is several times the amount of energy fission generates. 

     

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