This self-sustaining reaction is known as "criticality." Fission bombs. ... (4,670 kg) and used plutonium-239 to set off a chain reaction. It was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945.

How did Iran build a bomb, what are enriched uranium and plutonium, what role do centrifuges play, and how would the ...

The "Fat Man" atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, remains one of the most significant and terrifying examples of the destructive power of nuclear weapons. In this video, we ...

Physicists have solved a long-standing puzzle about mercury’s nuclear fission by using a five-dimensional model that ...

A five-dimensional model has successfully predicted the asymmetric fission of mercury isotopes, offering new insights into ...

Then some of the plutonium would fission, yielding energy and creating more atomic fuel. Theoretically, the process might continue until all the 11-238 is consumed.

In a standard light-water reactor (LWR) a few percent of U-235 is used up this way, after which fission products, mostly minor actinides, begin to inhibit the fission process, and fresh fuel is ...

The direct introduction into the lungs of soluble compounds of the carrier-free fission products, and neptunium and plutonium, demonstrated that the radioelements that were not absorbed from the ...