A nuclear chain reaction occurs when one nuclear reaction causes an average of one or more nuclear reactions, thus leading to a self-propagating series of these reactions. The specific nuclear reaction may be the fission of heavy isotopes (e.g. 235U) or the fusion of light isotopes (e.g. 2H and 3H). The nuclear chain reaction releases several million times more energy per reaction than any chemical reaction.
Read more about Nuclear Chain Reaction: History, Fission Chain Reaction, Nuclear Weapons Application of Neutron Multiplication, Nuclear Power Plants and Control of Chain Reactions
Famous quotes containing the words nuclear, chain and/or reaction:
“Language is as real, as tangible, in our lives as streets, pipelines, telephone switchboards, microwaves, radioactivity, cloning laboratories, nuclear power stations.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“It is the future that creates his present.
All is an interminable chain of longing.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Sole and self-commanded works,
Fears not undermining days,
Grows by decays,
And, by the famous might that lurks
In reaction and recoil,
Makes flames to freeze, and ice to boil.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)