Nuclear Energy - An Introduction

It’s really so fascinating to see how such a small nuclei (diameter of the Uranium nucleus is about about 15 fm (femtometre is 10⁻¹⁵ m) is capable of producing such massive amounts of energy. Sometimes I even feel that the word ‘massive’ isn’t quite capable of explaining the gigantic power it holds in such a miniature volume!!

First things first...So, what is nuclear energy?

Nuclear energy is the energy which is the product of a nuclear reaction. So how does this nuclear reaction take place? Actually here two atomic nuclei or a nucleus of an atom and a sub-atomic particle like a neutron, proton, or high energy electron from outside the atom, collide (head-on collision) to produce immense amount s of energy.

The two main types of nuclear reactions are – Nuclear fission and Nuclear fusion.

Nuclear fission releases energy when a single heavy nucleus splits into two smaller ones, while nuclear fusion is a process, in which two single nuclei combine together to form another heavier nucleus and release high amount of energy.

High temperature requirements are very critical for these reactions. To have nuclear reactions, at least one of the nuclei must be "naked", with all its electrons removed. This can be accomplished by bringing matter to very high temperatures (at least 100,000 degrees).

Now, these were just the very basics of nuclear energy and amazingly a lot more needs to be researched, studied and explained in this inspiring field which is surely a very promising and a clean source of energy for all our future needs. It’s great to see how the field has developed over a period of time with highly dedicated amount of work put into it. Though nuclear energy has every ability to quench our power requirements, but the nuclear mishaps we have seen till date challenge us to study and research more into the field so as to avoid any of those in near future and to make nuclear energy extraction a profitable yet  safe process.