Nuclear fission really interests me. I read that people only use uranium to do nuclear fission, but why don’t they use everyday material like lead? I know Uranium has 94 electrons and protons, but lead is 82, which doesn’t seem like much of a difference, does it?
Answer
For nuclear fission, not only the chemical classification of the atoms is important, but also the classification of atomic physics. The chemical classification is based on the number of protons in the nucleus, which determines the Coulomb charge and therefore the chemical properties. For the fission properties, both the number of protons and the number of neutrons in the nucleus are important. This physical classification classifies atoms into isotopes. The precise ratio of the number of neutrons and the number of protons determines the stability of the atomic nucleus. Some isotopes are much less stable and can therefore be used for fission. The precise formulas for predicting the stability of an isotope are very complex, but in general the heaviest isotopes start out less stable. That’s why Mendeleev’s table also stops at a little beyond Uranium. The atoms there are so unstable that they can only exist for a fraction of a second.
Lead is already a lot lighter and is very stable. The composition of the core is very close to that of gold, but unsuccessful attempts have been made throughout history to convert that crass lead into something more noble.
Regards,
Ward
Answered by
Dr. Ir. Ward Blondé
Physics Bioinformatics
http://www.ugent.be
.