History of Chemisty: Nuclear Power Essay

To create a nuclear bomb, nuclear fission must occur. The process of nuclear fission was splitting the nucleus of an atom. Splitting an atom was caused by neutrons firing through one atom and then that atom’s neutrons shoot off into other atoms, starting a chain reaction. In October of 1934, Enrico Fermi, and

The nuclear fission process that Meitner had discovered would end up playing a crucial role in World War II and the world. The atomic bomb, created by Robert Oppenheimer and his team, was based on the basic elements of nuclear fission. Meitner accomplished nuclear fission by bombarding a large isotope with a smaller one, commonly a neutron. The collision caused the larger isotope to break apart into two or more elements, which is called nuclear fission. Reactions of this type also release a lot of energy. The energy comes from the atomic and subatomic particles that change into the form of energy during the explosion. You can prove this by attempting to make an extremely accurate measurement of all the masses of all the atoms and subatomic particles you start with prior to the explosion and all the atoms and subatomic particles are returned, and then calculate the difference in mass in the two sums, you find that the answer is larger than 0 – which proves that mass goes disappears during the transition. This loss of matter is called the mass defect. The missing matter is converted into energy. To calculate the energy released or the mass defect, you can use the equation Einstein is famous for discovering: E=mc2. In the equation, ‘E’ represents the amount of energy produced, m is the so called “missing” mass, more formally known as the mass defect, and c is the speed of light, which is an extremely large number. Therefore, we get the equation that m = E/c*c. The speed of light is squared, making that part of the equation a very large number that, even when multiplied by a small, minute amount of mass, yields a huge amount of energy. If we look at the equation for the fission of U-235, we would notice that one neutron created three. These three neutrons, if they encountered other U-235 atoms, could initiate other fissions, producing even more neutrons, that would in turn, initiate other fissions. It’s the domino effect – except this time, instead of a row of dominos, it is a wide-spread fan of dominos. In terms of nuclear chemistry, fission a continuing cascade of nuclear fissions that can be dubbed a

The first origins of the Manhattan Project began as early as 1930, with physicists such as Albert Einstein, who knew of the power of the single atom. Though it wasn’t until later in the decade that German physicists were able to take those thoughts produce the first artificial nuclear reaction, and even document the theory. Due to the publication of the theory, many people began to realize the immense power that could come from such a tremendous reaction of atoms.

On August 2, 1939, Einstein proposed an interesting to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This idea, called the atomic bomb, would change the lives of everyone. Making it was easier said than done, though. They needed a team of scientists: Robert Oppenheimer, David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Felix Bloch, Otto Prisch, Rudolf Peierls, Niels Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs, and Edward Teller. Then they had to find U-235, which looked exactly like U-238, a useless material. The process was hard, especially since only mechanical methods worked. Finally, after an extraction system, a magnetic separation, and a gas centrifuge, all that was needed to be done was to test the entire concept in the deserts of Jornada del Muerto (about money).

The morning of August 15, 1945, Americans rejoiced as World War II came to an end after Japan had been bombed twice by atomic bombs which completely decimated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most people know this would be the only nuclear attack ever made in history, but what people do not know would be who created these nuclear weapons, and how they created them. The Manhattan Project, created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, included the most brilliant scientists of all time. The President created this project because he obtained information that Germany could possibly create a nuclear weapon. Essentially, this project began working on the idea because the

The first atomic bomb was detonated in Los Alamos, New Mexico, July 16, 1945. The American government poured billions of dollars into the development of the atomic bomb. It had been 3 years since the Manhattan Project began. What fueled such an excited push to create such a weapon? In 1939, Leo Szilard wrote a letter and had Albert Einstein sign the letter, to give the contents accreditation, to send to the President of the United States of America, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The letter explained that Nazi Germany was stockpiling uranium in hopes of being able to create an atomic bomb. This letter would eventually lead to the creation of the Manhattan project in 1942. America developed nuclear weapons and started a nuclear arms race with the

Early in 1939, the scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets to splitting a uranium atom. The fears of Nazi scientists using that energy to produce a bomb soon spread all over the United States. Scientist Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging him to fund research for building the first atomic bomb. Roosevelt saw the project as unnecessary, but agreed to proceed slowly. In late 1941, the American effort to build the atomic bomb received its code name of the Manhattan Project.

For it is his discovery that makes these bombs possible. In the 1930s Fermi discovered a new and intriguing concept about atoms. He found that when a neutron is thrown into an atom, the atom can split into two new atoms. The new atoms were not previously on the periodic table. Soon this practice was being tested on uranium.

The atomic bombs great power is created with a chain reaction of the uranium-235’s atom. This isotope is highly radioactive and gives off much radiation and because it is an isotope, the atom is no longer stable. Inside the atom there are four forces occurring, the electromagnetic, gravitational, strong and weak force. The electromagnetic force forces protons, from the nucleus, and electrons, from the electron cloud, to attract and also keeps the electrons orbiting around the nucleus. The strong force is greater than the electromagnetic force and acts on the quarks and gluons that make up the protons in the nucleus. The strong force prevents protons that get too close to each other in the nucleus from repelling. The gravitational force is what keeps both the protons and neutrons in the nucleus due to their large mass and close distance. The force of the nucleus is the strongest force in the world and the nucleus of uranium is in much strain because of the critical mass and gravitational force. When one more neutron is added to the nucleus, it splits, this process is called fission. When the atom splits it causes a chain reaction, and releases three neutrons which each hit three more uranium-235 atoms and triggers more atoms to be split. This process occurs to all atoms in the bomb in only seconds and until there are no more unstable atoms to be split. The weak force in an atom is what allows them to be unstable. The force acts on the quarks and gluons in protons and changes them into neutrons or an isotope which is unstable and is capable for fission. Albert Einstein contributed to the Manhattan Project and building the atomic bomb with his famous equation E=MC2. This equation shows how to find the amount of energy an atom contains. And during the explosion of the atomic bomb, an immense amount of energy was given off by the split atoms which is found based on the equation. In the final

Before the atomic bomb, science communities became interested in Germany’s discovery in 1939. Germany had figured out how to split uranium atoms. Since then, American scientists had became concerned with the development of nuclear weapons. With Einstein’s help, physicists discovered that the splitting of uranium, or nuclear fission, would release large amounts of energy. This lead to the possibility of an atom bomb.

When the secret to building the ultimate weapon was discovered, the race began to see who could build one first. German physicists unearthed the secret to nuclear fission, splitting a uranium atom, word quickly spread in the science world. A weapon could be created using the newly uncovered truth behind nuclear fission, it could be used to create a very destructive weapon. Eugene Wigner and Leo Szilard, Hungarian physicists, went to Albert Einstein for help to get a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt, explaing the current debacle. They were afraid that if the Germans got their hands on such a powerful weapon, the whole world would be in danger. Alexander Sachs delivered the letter to the president, and he ordered that the bomb be created. The bomb was made using uranium nitrate in lukewarm neutrons, which in turn, transmitted microscopic

It was first developed in the 1940s, and during the Second World War to 1945 research initially focussed on producing bombs which released great energy from the atoms of particular isotopes of either uranium or plutonium.

The world as we know today is dependent on energy. The options we have currently enable us to produce energy economically but at a cost to the environment. As fossil fuel source will be diminishing over time, other alternatives will be needed. An alternative that is presently utilized is nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is currently the most efficacious energy source. Every time the word ‘nuclear’ is mentioned, the first thought that people have is the devastating effects of nuclear energy. Granting it does come with its drawbacks; this form of energy emits far less pollution than conventional power plants. Even though certain disadvantages of nuclear energy are devastating, the advantages contain even greater rewards.

The result of all this talk was that in 1942 Fermi gathered scientists at the University of Chicago to discuss their theories and possibly create a self-sustaining chain reaction. By November of that year they had constructed plans and were prepared to build this new model known as Chicago Pile-1. Nuclear Engineering U.S. Department of Energy describes the model as, ―In addition to uranium and graphite, it contained control rods made of cadmium. Cadmium is a metallic element that absorbs neutrons. When the rods were in the pile, there were fewer neutrons to fission uranium atoms. This slowed the chain reaction. When the rods were pulled out, more neutrons were available to split atoms. The chain reaction sped up‖(par 21). In December of 1942 the scientists were ready to demonstrate their hard work. This was a huge break through in the nuclear world.

Getting energy from nuclear reactions is a well-established science, tracing back to the discovery of radioactive elements, and eventually to harnessing the energy within those reactions for human needs. The basis of nuclear power is the use of nuclear fission to generate heat, which changes water into steam, and powers a turbine. Nuclear fission is related to radioactive decay, which was discovered in the late 1800s by Henri Becquerel and furthered by Marie and Pierre Curie. Nuclear fission itself was the work of Enrico Fermi – a physicist from Italy. Fermi would later help create the first self-sustaining chain reaction on the grounds of the University of Chicago in 1942. The understanding of nuclear fission and the ability to create chain reactions would lead to the Manhattan Project, culminating in the dropping of two nuclear bombs over Japan at the end of World War II. The technology would later be adapted into more peaceful purposes such as generating energy. Nuclear fission works by bombarding the radioactive element – usually uranium, but sometimes plutonium – with neutrons. When the neutron hits the element, it will split into two lighter atoms, releasing more neutrons, and energy. Those