WTF is Up with Nuclear Fission?

At 8:15 AM local time on August 6, 1945, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay of the U.S. Army Air Forces’ 509th Composite Group dropped a single bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Nicknamed Little Boy, the bomb detonated at an altitude of 580 metres or 1,900 feet, unleashing the explosive equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT. The immediate fireball and blast wave obliterated buildings out to a radius of 1.6 kilometres or one mile, while the resulting firestorm destroyed nearly 11 square kilometres or 4.4 square miles of the city. By the end of the year, around 150,000 civilians of all ages had been killed as a result of the blast, while thousands more succumbed to injuries and radiation poisoning over the following years. The atomic bomb had made its terrifying combat debut. But while Little Boy was fuelled by 64 kilograms or 141 pounds of highly-enriched Uranium, astoundingly only 1.5% of this material or 800 grams actually participated in the nuclear reaction, while a scant 0.7 grams was converted to pure energy. That’s right: a piece of Uranium lighter than a paperclip obliterated an entire city. Such is the astounding power of nuclear fission, which is so much more efficient than any chemical reaction that a single kilogram of Uranium burned in a nuclear reactor can produce as much energy as 3,000 tons of coal. But…how? What makes nuclear fission so extraordinarily powerful? How does it all work? Well, let’s dive into the fascinating process and science that allows us to unlock the incredible amount of energy that lies within all matter. Author: Gilles Messier Editor/Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila 0:00 Intro 1:41 What's Really Going on With the Fundamental Building Blocks of All Matter 10:26 Why is There So Much Energy in Matter? 12:02 Artificially Inducing Fission and Why They Choose What They Choose for This 18:08 Building an Atomic Bomb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices