What is the difference between fusion and fission?
548592
Atoms are the building blocks from which matter is formed. Everything around us is made up of atoms. Nuclear energy is contained within the center of the atom in a place known as the nucleus. Particles within the nucleus are held together by a strong force. If a large nucleus is split apart (fission), generous amounts of energy can be liberated. Small nuclei can also be combined (fusion) with an accompanying release of energy. Using this strong force that holds the nucleus together to produce energy is essentially what the field of nuclear power generation is about.\n  In the fission process certain heavy elements, such as some forms of Uranium, are split when a neutron strikes them. When they split, they release energy in the form of kinetic energy (heat) and radiation. The process not only produces energy but also additional neutrons that can be used to fission other Uranium nuclei and start a chain reaction.\n  In fusion, nuclei of light elements are brought together under conditions of high pressure and temperature, causing them to combine and produce new elements and energy.
692026
fission is used in nuclear plants to make power. HOW FISSION WORKS: In a commercial nuclear power plant, a sufficiently large quantity of fuel material (usually enriched uranium) is accumulated in a reactor pile such that a "chain reaction" occurs, in which the neutrons emitted by a single fission reaction are captured by another nucleus to trigger another reaction, and so on. This solcomhouse.com link explains the basics of nuclear fission and has some good schematic illustrations of nuclear power plants.
802343
The process of fusion: 4H  ----->  1He + 2positrons + neutrinoes\nwhich is:                       4p ------>  1AlphaParticle + 2 positrons\n \nie   4 protons fuse together to give an alpha particle.\n\nIt is very unlikely that 4 protons will be in the same vicinity for this reaction to occur.\n\nIn fusion reactors we use deuterium to fuse into helium.\n                  1D  +  1D    -------->   He\nas we only need two particles to collide. (This is much more likely than 4 protons colliding at once. ) \n\nOn the sun we need a way of storing the hydrogen nuclei until we have gathered 4 of them together and they can then split off as the helium nucleus.  The only store you will find on the sun is the collection of slightly heavier atomic nuclei(known by astronomers as metals and meaning any nucleus heavier than helium).\nThere are a number of pathways thought to be available for this process which proceeds through the weak nuclear reaction at a density of 1 or 2 reactions in each cubic metre of the sun. (see stellar physics books for details).  This process is the equivalent to Catalysis in ordinary chemistry.\n\nThis would be hopeless for the generation of energy in a tokamak    so we could not use this process on earth for the generation of electrical power.
64677
Hmm, I don't like that previous answer.  There is a certain amount of energy holding together an atom, say uranium 235.  When bombarded with neutrons, the atom breaks apart into 2 different atoms and releases energy.  No energy is created or destroyed, as it only changes the form.
986236
No new matter is created by nuclear processes.\nIn fact matter is destroyed thus realising energy.\nIn the process of Fission heavy atoms are split into two or more light atoms and energy. In this case also no new matter is formed. The weight of new atoms is always less than the weight of the original heavy atom.\nIn the process of Fusion two light atoms join to form one heavy atom. In this case also energy is produced at the expense of weight of matter.
756196
"Dacay" of uranium and fusion of hydrogen are called "nuclear" reactions. They are different from chemical reactions. In nuclear reactions, the mass of the particles after the reaction is always less than the mass of the particles before. The difference in mass is converted to energy in accordance with E=mc^2.\n\nIn chemical reactions, the mass of the particles is the same before and after the reaction.
1115151
Suppose you are collecting Uranium 238, because you want to build a better bomb.  If you were stupid enough to pile it in one place, eventually you would have enough to start a self-sustaining reaction and it would melt down.\n\nThe amount required to maintain a self-sustaining reaction is called "critical mass".\n\nFission is when you split heavy atoms, uranium or plutonium, to make lighter atoms.\n\nFusion is when you combine very light atoms, deuterium I believe, to make something heaver, like helium.  It takes a lot of evergy to get a fusion reaction going.
911178
fusion \n\nIT CONVERTS HYDROGEN INTO HELIUM
387527
This fission process is popularly known as "splitting the atom". \n\nA process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more nuclei with the release of energy and neutrons. These neutrons can cause fissions in the nuclei of nearby atoms. Materials which undergo this process (such as plutonium) are said to be 'fissionable.' \n\nI would like to discuss marbles. Everyone's played with marbles at one time or another, right? Well, imagine about 200 marbles lying on a flat surface, all jumbled together, and roughly forming a circle. What would happen if someone took another marble and threw it at them? They would fly all around in different directions and groups, right? That is exactly what happens in nuclear fission. The filled circle is like an atom's nucleus. The marble being thrown is like a "neutron bullet". The only differences are that the marbles are protons and neutrons and the protons and neutrons aren't in a filled circle, but in the actual atom are in the shape of a sphere. Of course, an atom is also a bit more complicated than a pack of marbles.
390263
Nuclear fusion power. Look up the Tokamak Reactor.
848370
Basically, nucleus give up energy when they get heavier (by combineing several nucleons) until you get to iron (adding nucleons to iron and heavier nucleus costs you energy).\nThe largest energy output comes from combining hydrogen nucleus and getting helium (fusing helium returns a bit less energy and so on as it gets heavier).\nBut how to you fuse hydrogen nucleus togetenr? First, there is  this electon shell around that prevents nucleaus from getting close enough together to fuse; so the first step is to give enough energy so the atoms are ionized, in the case of hydrogen, that means getting the nucleus naked.  Then you have to get two nucleus together, but both of them contain a proton, and that emans you have to overcome the natural repulsion of like charges, this mens getting them hot enough so that they can slam inot one another, and this also requires having enough pressure so that there will be enough hydrogen nucleus around that there would be a good possibility of two of them hitting ona anotehr and fusing.\n\nAnd that is where it is getting complicated: we are talking about millions of degrees, so evidently nothing material can contain that without melting and evaporating, so one needs either inertial confinement (you heat it up so fast, the hydrogen does not have time to move) or magnetic confinement (since the atoms nucleus have the positive chage of the proton, they will respond to electrical and magnetic fields).\n\nThe sun accomplishes the heat/pressure/confinement trick by using its massive gravity; an advantage we do not have in a potential thermonuclear reactor.  But very smart people are working on it, hopefully they will figure out something that works.
286371
atomic energy refers to the energy which is stored in an atom of any element while nuclear energy refers to the energy stored in the nucleus of an atom of an element. thus we can say tat both these r same since the energy of an atom is ultimately derived from its nucleus.\nthese enrgies r much useful in generating cheaper electricity. also this is the same energy thru which energy is generated in THE SUN whic is the ultimate source of all energies.
411320
simple is when there is a simple fission, multiple is when there are multiple fissions and binary is when there is just one fission heh...
988615
atoms splitting apart by fission and protons clinging to the control rods in the reactor. there is steam produced also. and if you REALLY wanna see physical changes, jump in!
310099
Fission (the term meaning spliting atoms) is only possible with certain elements (elements which are much heavier than iron) like plutonium and uranium.\n\nIn a bomb, they are exploded with very strong explosives.
955928
In a fission bomb, shaped explosives force a weapons-grade plutonium core to undergo fission.\n\nAn a fusion (hydrogen) bomb, the energy comes from the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium, and is much more powerful that fission bombs.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon
960805
Good. Tritium has 2 neutrons and 1 proton where-as deuterium has one proton and one neutron. When they fuse they form Helium-4 which has 2 neutrons and 2 protons. This reaction releases one neutron and heat (as it's an exothermic reaction). Imagine tons of tritium and deuterium fusing, that's a lot of heat isn't it? It's the heat that does the damage. But it's hard to set it off. You'll need a small fission bomb to set off the fusion reaction.