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To: Techster
The fissionable material has to be forced together in a critical mass quick enough for the fission to be an explosive release of energy.

Oh really, then what is the process which is used to drive nuclear power plants? If materials have to be forced together for fission how do power plants work?

27 posted on 10/27/2004 4:48:35 AM PDT by federal
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To: federal

The first atomic weapon used (Little Boy) was a fission bomb. It worked by creating a driving two pieces of nuclear material together creating a super critical mass and releasing a large amount of energy in a short time span. Nuclear reactors (at least PLWR) are a controlled fission process.


28 posted on 10/27/2004 5:04:32 AM PDT by PogySailor (Proud member of the RAM)
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