Question

Compare the practical uses and limitations of nuclear fission and fusion. Include in your answer a detailed description of the two processes, comparing and contrasting them in terms of the types of atoms involved, the conditions needed to get the reaction started, and the types of products produced.

Answer 1

Nuclear fusion and nuclear fission are two different types of energy-releasing reactions in which energy is released from high-powered atomic bonds between the particles within the nucleus. The main difference between these two processes is that fission is the splitting of an atom into two or more smaller ones while fusion is the fusing of two or more smaller atoms into a larger one Nuclear fusion is the reaction in which two or more nuclei combine together to form a new element with higher atomic number (more protons in the nucleus).

Answer 2

Explanation:

Fission and Fusion are two nuclear processes by which massive amount of energy is released. Both fission process and fusion process are similar in the nature that they produce energy from atoms but differ in a ways that they both are opposing processes. Simply, fusion is the union of two atoms to form a single large atom while fission is the splitting of a single atom into two atoms.

The applications of both the processes are not same. Fission is used to generate energy in nuclear power plants while fusion process is not use since it is not possible to control the reaction in fusion process.

       Nuclear fission reaction takes place when a large and unstable uranium isotope is bombarded with high speed neutrons. This causes the uranium isotopes to into further two smaller isotopes, three more high speed neutrons and generating a large amount of energy.

      While fusion reaction takes place at sun where two isotopes of hydrogen atoms combines to form one helium atom and a neutron with a massive amount of energy is released. This is uncontrolled reaction.