Splitting the Uranium Atom – Nuclear Fission
Speaker’s Notes for the Nunavut Planning Commission Gordon Edwards Ph.D. Figure 1 Figure 2 A Model of the Uranium Atom A Monument to the Splitting of the Atom Splitting the Uranium Atom – Nuclear Fission Uranium is the heaviest metal that can be mined from the earth. Uranium was discovered about 200 years ago, but it had no practical use until the beginning of World War II. In 1938-39 scientists discovered that an atom of uranium can be broken into two or three pieces when struck by a fast-moving particle called a neutron. The splitting of a uranium atom releases energy. This process is called “nuclear fission”, since the centre of an atom is called its nucleus. When a uranium atom splits it gives off more neutrons, which can then split more atoms, and so the energy level rapidly multiplies. When trillions of atoms are split almost simultaneously, the energy released is the power of the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb was the first practical use of uranium. Figure 1 shows
