Word: fissionable
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...physics prize was divided between Britain's Sir John D. Cockcroft and Ulsterman E.T.S. Walton. Working as a team at Cambridge, England, they built a high-voltage machine in 1932, seven years before the discovery of uranium fission, which smashed lithium atoms, turning each into two helium nuclei and a powerful jolt of energy. The Cockcroft-Walton reaction is inefficient, but the energy that it produces is genuinely nuclear, released when mass is turned into energy...
Atomic Energy Commission. Since the publication of the Smyth report in 1945, the world has known that controlled fission reaction is possible in an atomic pile, releasing heat slowly over a long period of time. If a safe and economical way to harness this heat to a steam turbine could be devised, it would be an ideal propulsion unit for a submarine. Rickover persuaded the AEC to begin work on a pilot model...
...sacrificed splits into other elements of lesser atomic weight. Most of these are fiercely radioactive, and they must be disposed of before the plutonium can be used for atomic bombs. The chemical separation process, accomplished by remote control from behind thick shields, results in a crude mixture of fission products and nonradioactive chemicals. Radioactivity of the mixture varies, but may be as high as 1,000 curies* per lb.-about twice as active as radium, the smallest visible speck of which is dangerous. Further refining raises the activity to 5,000 or 10,000 curies per lb. Stanford Institute believes...
What good are these cheap and perilous fission products? The institute gives a long list of promising industrial uses: to sterilize food products and surgical dressings without heat, by passing them through intense radiation; to kill mold on the outside of cheese or fruit; to destroy weevils and other pests in grain elevators. Probably even more important are the chemical uses. Radiation breaks up many chemical molecules, encouraging them to recombine into new compounds. Chemical plants of the future, says the institute, may use fission products to turn out valuable substances that cannot be made in any other practical...
...Atomic Energy Commission, says Stanford Institute, has enormous quantities of fission products in the underground storage at Hanford. Before they are put freely on the market, however, industry must learn gradually how to make use of them. It must also learn how to control its new and dangerous tools...