Dissipation of Wigner Energy
This build up of energy referred to as Wigner energy can be relieved by heating the material. This process is known as annealing. In graphite this occurs at 250°C.
An accident during this controlled annealing was the cause of the 1957 Windscale fire.
Read more about this topic: Wigner Effect
Famous quotes containing the words dissipation of, dissipation and/or energy:
“The more specific idea of evolution now reached is—a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.”
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)
“But there are other things than dissipation that thicken the features. Tears, for example.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Much of the modern resistance to chastity comes from men’s belief that they “own” their bodies—those vast and perilous estates, pulsating with the energy that made the worlds, in which they find themselves without their consent and from which they are ejected at the pleasure of Another!”
—C.S. (Clive Staples)