Uranium and Science of Producing Energy using Nuclear Fission
Uranium, a silvery-white metal, was discovered and identified in 1789 by a German chemist, Martin H. Klaproth. This important element is used as fuel in nuclear reactors to generate electricity. It has the atomic number 92, and its atomic symbol is U. Discovery of Nuclear Fission It was in the early 1930s, that scientists discovered that the atom is made up of proton and neutron particles, in addition to electrons. In 1938, two German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman and physicist Lise Meitner of Austria, discovered that they could split the nucleus of a uranium atom by bombarding it with neutrons. This is called fission. As the uranium nucleus split, some of its mass was converted to heat energy. The next step was in 1942, when Enrico Fermi of Italy, noticed that the fission of one uranium atom gave off more neutrons which could in turn split other uranium atoms, starting a chain reaction. This meant that enormous amounts of energy could be produced by this process of nuclear fission. Otto Hahn and Enrico Fermi both won Nobel prizes for their work. Nuclear Chain Reactions Nuclear chain reactions are one of the modern applications of the fission process. The neutrons that are released during fission produce additional fission in at least one other nucleus. This in turn produces more neutrons which again trigger more fission- and thus more neutrons- to set a chain reaction into motion. Read the full article