The fuel of Fat Man was plutonium which is even more explosive than uranium. It was dropped on Nagasaki (another city in Japan) on 9 August 1945. It exploded with the force of thirteen thousand tons of TNT. On 6 August 1945, the first-ever atomic bomb, Little Boy was used against Hiroshima (city of Japan) during World War II. These radioactive materials adhere to the dust particles which then spread over a wide range and become a source of radioactive hazards for a long period of time. The temperature inside the bomb can reach about 10 million degrees Celcius which is the temperature of the sun’s core.īesides heat and energy, it also releases gamma rays and radioactive nuclei. This results in achieving a supercritical mass and in this way, an uncontrolled chain reaction occurs that explodes with the release of a huge amount of heat energy. When trinitrotoluene is detonated, it directs one critical mass of uranium into another critical mass. A pocket contains a measured mass of trinitrotoluene (TNT). It is designed in such a way that it has separate packets. This contains two subcritical masses of fissionable samples such as U-235 or Pu-239. There is a specific design of a bomb to control such kind of energy. This is an uncontrol way to produce an enormous amount of energy which then vaporizes everything it gets in touch with. This type of nuclear chain reaction is used in atomic (nuclear) bombs. There are two main types of nuclear chain reactions: However, if the chain reaction is uncontrolled, it is an atomic bomb. For example, In a controlled chain reactor, electricity can be produced. This energy can be useable in controlled ways. This produces a huge amount of energy in the form of heat and radiation. The fission chain reaction of U-235 or Pu-239 occurs immediately. The energy released by fission chain reaction is called nuclear fission energy or nuclear energy. For example, uranium-235 or plutonium-239 produce a vast amount of energy when undergoing a nuclear chain reaction. However, a chain reaction consists of various numbers of fission reactions that produce a very large amount of energy. There is a production of a large amount of energy when a fission reaction takes place. For example, the critical mass value for the uranium-235 fission reaction is about 10 kgs.
The value of critical mass is different for each reaction. The minimum amount of mass of fissionable material required to maintain a chain reaction is called critical mass. This is why a critical mass is set for every material, for a chain reaction to take place. For example, most of the neutrons escape before striking the surface of the sample and break the chain reaction, if this sample is too small. The fissionable material should be enough to capture the neutrons for a chain reaction to continue as well. Some neutrons are also lost to the surroundings, therefore, for maintaining a chain reaction, it is necessary to keep emitted neutrons hitting other unstable nuclei. All the neutrons produced in this reaction are used to speed up (increase) the chain reaction. The nuclear chain reaction continues until all of the nuclear material is fissioned. This process of continuous production of three neutrons and an exponential increase in reactions is called a nuclear chain reaction. These reactions further give rise to more and more nuclear reactions. For example, when a nucleus of uranium-235 is hit by a neutron, it splits into two small nuclei barium (Ba) and krypton (Kr), and produces three neutrons.Įach of the neutrons produced in the above reaction hits another nucleus of U-235, which results in further nine such neutrons, and then it proceeds to twenty-seven reactions.
A nuclear chain reaction is a process in which nuclear reactions repeat in a chain.
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