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Home Q & A Board Science-Related Homework Help Chemistry (Moderator: Laser_3)
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datty117 datty117
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11 years ago
i thought i remembered hearing somewhere that the energy released in nuclear fission bombs isn't the full amount of energy that the uranium or whatever is being used is capable of producing, but since the uranium is destroyed in the explosion, the energy stops. is this true?
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#1
11 years ago
The problem in a basic fission bomb explosion is that the critical mass gets blown apart and the reaction stops with only a few percent of the fuel (Uranium or plutonium) used. The rest of the uranium/plutonium is just spread out as contamination.
There are many ways to use more of the fuel, look on wikipedia for thermonuclear devices and fission/fusion/fission bombs. These use the fission explosion as a trigger for a fusion bomb and repeat the process to set off a more complete explosion.
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