Word: fissionability
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...NUCLEAR FISSION: ERDA'S fiscal '76 request: $700 million, up 2% from fiscal...
Repulsive Charges. To meet that deadline, U.S. scientists, starting with a technique devised in the Soviet Union, will have to develop an almost entirely new technology. Unlike nuclear fission -the splitting of a heavy atom into two lighter ones-fusion occurs when two light atoms collide and merge into a heavier one. The reaction releases considerably more energy than fission. Starting the chain reaction that causes fission (Abomb) explosions and powers today's nuclear reactors is relatively easy; basically, all that is required is the bringing together of enough fissionable uranium or plutonium in the right shape. The neutrons...
...high as 100 million degrees. Under these conditions, the nuclei of light atoms are energized (or speeded up) enough so that they can overcome their mutually repulsive electrical charges, collide and fuse. In the hydrogen bomb, the necessary pressures and temperatures are produced by first setting off a fission explosion. Controlling and containing fusion will be vastly more difficult, but scientists believe that the Russian-invented Tokamak (for "Toroidal Kamera Magnetic") system can be developed into a practical and safe reactor...
Achieves a rediscovery of fission...
While U.S. energy requirements can be met by conventional fossil fuels, research and development of alternative sources-solar and thermal energy and the like-should continue apace. Development of the fusion process should be given top priority as a replacement for the breeder reactor, which employs the riskier nuclear fission process...