Fission - Will Savage
wavage.substack.com · 656 words · saved by 1 readers
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
The nucleus of Uranium-235 is too heavy. The tenuous grip of the strong force squeezes 92 protons and 143 neutrons into a ball barely 15 femtometers across. It shifts and bubbles, teetering on a knife’s edge of stability. Under the right conditions, a curious thing can happen. A lone neutron, drifting at a gentle 2,200 meters per second, can slip between the cracks of these 92 protons. The nucleus, absorbing it, becomes Uranium-236. But Uranium-236 is too unstable. The nucleus writhes, stretches, pinches at the waist. The strong force, strained beyond its limits, loses its grip. The atom…
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