* Several natural nuclear reactors functioned about 2 billion years ago in Africa. The plutonium-239 generated in these could be separated by simple chemical methods, with no need for the complexities of isotope separation. This paved the way for more substantial production reactors at Hanford. It used highly purified graphite to slow the neutrons released in fission to enable further fission. During 1942, under conditions of wartime secrecy, the first human-designed reactor* had been constructed, in a squash court at the University of Chicago. The 21 kiloton explosive charge for the bomb detonated over Nagasaki three days later was provided by about 6.2 kilograms of plutonium-239 (>90% Pu-239), and its preparation depended on the operation of special nuclear reactors built for the purpose. It was released over Hiroshima, Japan's seventh largest city, on 6 August 1945. it was equivalent to 16,000 tonnes of TNT). About 64 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium was used in the bomb which had a 16 kiloton yield ( i.e. As UF 6, there is about a one percent difference in mass between the molecules, and this enables concentration of the less common isotope. This was prepared by diffusion enrichment techniques using the very small differences in mass of the two main isotopes: U-235 (originally 0.7% in the uranium) and U-238, the majority. The Hiroshima bomb was made from highly-enriched uranium-235. Several factors suggest that nuclear power has a much larger role to play in supplying the world's future energy needs, and this is supported by every reputable projection. Today, as the main nuclear arsenals are being dismantled and a comprehensive test ban treaty is in sight, commercial nuclear power provides a significant portion of the world's electricity. Nowhere is the transition from weapons of destruction to power for good better displayed than Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan which have come to depend substantially on electricity from nuclear energy. In the following years several governments joined the arms race, while internationally, efforts were focused on constraining the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation.įrom the 1950s the power of the atom was harnessed increasingly for peaceful uses, notably electricity generation and medicine. The immense and previously unimaginable power of the atom had been demonstrated. These brought the long Second World War to a sudden end. Two atomic bombs made by the allied powers (USA and UK) from uranium-235 and plutonium-239 were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively early in August 1945. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Subsequent Weapons Testing
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