How a Nuclear Bomb Works

1. By: Justin Farian How a Nuclear Bomb Works

2. How does a bomb Work? Nuclear bombs involve the forces, strong and weak, that hold the nucleus of an atom together, especially atoms with unstable nuclei. There are two basic ways that nuclear energy can be released from an atom, nuclear fission and fusion. Nuclear fission is the split of the nucleus of an atom into two smaller fragments with a neutron. This method usually involves isotopes of uranium. Nuclear fusion is when you can bring two smaller atoms, usually hydrogen or hydrogen isotopes together to form a larger one, usually helium isotopes. The sun produces energy by nuclear fusion.

3. 2 Types of Nuclear Bombs There are a mostly two different kinds of nuclear bombs. There is the atomic bomb which uses nuclear fission, and the hydrogen bomb which is much more powerful and uses nuclear fusion. Both of these bombs though cause tremendous explosions that can demolish a city in no time at all.

4. What triggers an atomic bomb to explode To make an atomic bomb you need uranium-235 and a neutron. The reason for the specific element is it is one of a few materials that can undergo induced fission. If a free neutron runs into a U-235 nucleus, the nucleus will absorb the neutron immediately, become unstable and split immediately. Assoon as the nucleus captures the neutron, it splits into two lighter atoms and throws off two or three new neutrons (the number of ejected neutrons depends on how the U-235 atom happens to split). The two new atoms then emit gamma radiation as they settle into their new states.

5. Wise words from Craig C. Freudenrich, Ph.D. on the explosion of a atomic bomb • The probability of a U-235 atom capturing a neutron as it passes by is fairly high. In a bomb that is working properly, more than one neutron ejected from each fission causes another fission to occur. This condition is known as supercriticality. • The process of capturing the neutron and splitting happens very quickly, on the order of picoseconds (1*10E-12 seconds). • An incredible amount of energy is released, in the form of heat and gamma radiation, when an atom splits. The energy released by a single fission is due to the fact that the fission products and the neutrons, together, weigh less than the original U-235 atom. • The difference in weight is converted to energy at a rate governed by the equation e = m * c^2. A pound of highly enriched uranium as used in a nuclear bomb is equal to something on the order of a million gallons of gasoline. When you consider that a pound of uranium is smaller than a baseball and a million gallons of gasoline would fill a cube that is 50 feet per side (50 feet is as tall as a five-story building), you can get an idea of the amount of energy available in just a little bit of U-235.

6. How a Hydrogen bomb explodes Fusion bombs are far superior to fission bombs because they are able to carry higher kiloton yields and are far more efficient. A fusion bomb uses a small fission reaction on top of a fusion reaction. As the fission reaction explodes, it triggers the fusion reaction to explode, causing a yield of 10,000 kiloton. Although they use a gases which are hard to store and tritium, the isotope of hydrogen has a short half-life, the explosion they make is 700 times greater than a fission explosion.

7. How easy are they to make Making a nuclear bomb is one of the most rigorous things to create. You need the most accurate masses of elements and if you let a certain element mix with another, you could trigger an explosion. Also, there are many parts that need to be placed very cautiously into place and many elements need to be in the perfect state or they will not react correctly.

8. Bibliography • http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-bomb.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/ • http://express.howstuffworks.com/exp-nukes3.htm