Word: fissionability
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Ruggles and Kramish found that as far back as the 1920s, competent Soviet physicists were contributing to the birth of nuclear physics. In 1938, when the critical news came from Germany that neutrons make uranium atoms fission (split in two) to yield enormous energy, Russian scientists reacted as excitedly as their colleagues elsewhere, working with impressive skill to establish the same key facts which would decide whether large amounts of nuclear energy could be got from uranium...
...tower shot" that stirred up millions of tons of quick-settling coral dust. First radioactive material from the May 21 explosion was brought home by the tuna boat Stiruga Maru. Analyzed by Dr. Kenjiro Kimura of Tokyo University, it proved to contain a familiar array of fission products-ruthenium, rhodium, tellurium, iodine, cerium, neodymium, etc.-as well as uranium 237 and neptunium 239. This combination of elements indicated that the explosion was the "fission-fusion-fission" type, which gets much of its energy from the fission of normally inactive uranium...
Slow-Falling Dust. Last week the Shunkotsu Maru reported radioactive dust from a third explosion that apparently took place on June 12 or 13. Analysis showed that it was also of the fission-fusion-fission type, but for some reason, perhaps small size or extremely high altitude, it did not stir up air or water waves strong enough to reach Japan. A small earth wave was detected on June 12, and a slightly stronger one on June...
...Teller believes that the job can be done, given enough time and effort. "I am confident," he said, "that controlled thermonuclear reactors will eventually be constructed. I do not believe that the power derived from such reactors will compete at an early date with conventional energy sources or with fission [uranium] reactors...
When thermonuclear reactors are finally achieved, said Teller, they will have several advantages. Their fuel, deuterium, is inexhaustible and it needs no processing after it has been separated from common hydrogen. They will become highly radioactive because of neutrons released within them, but unlike atomic fission reactors they will not contain large amounts of dangerous radioactive material that might be scattered by an accident. On the other hand, they will probably be harder to operate and maintain...