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:
“American universities are organized on the principle of the nuclear rather than the extended family. Graduate students are grimly trained to be technicians rather than connoisseurs. The old German style of universal scholarship has gone.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
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