![]() So a nuclear reactor can produce radioactive fission fragments continuously over a long period of time while a nuclear weapon produces them in one shot. In a nuclear weapon, all of the energy comes out in an instant. In a nuclear reactor, the energy is generated over a period of time (weeks, months, and years), and fission fragments are building up the entire time a reactor is operating. There's one other piece of information that's necessary to be able to compare nuclear weapons to nuclear reactors: the amount of energy they produce. So we can calculate how much 137Cs (and any other fission product) from pretty much any size of nuclear fission weapon as well as from nuclear reactors (based on their power history). We also know that not every fission produces the exact same fission fragments-about 6% of the time, for example, we'll see something with a mass of 137 protons and neutrons, and about 5% of the time one of the fission fragments will have a mass of around 90 protons and neutrons. We know how much energy is released by a single fission, and we know that each fission produces two fission fragments. This is where the radioactivity comes from in both nuclear reactors and in nuclear weapons. This is where, for example, cesium-137 ( 137Cs) and iodine-131 ( 131I) come from, as well as a host of other fission fragments you might have read about following the Fukushima and Chernobyl accidents. But when we split an atom, it forms two atoms (called fission fragments) that are both radioactive. Nuclear fission involves splitting an atom and releasing energy. So first let me give a little background, and then I'll see if I can explain the different circumstances that make the difference between these two types of events.įirst, some background. nuclear reactors-that make all the difference. And I can see how this might seem a bit odd, but what's happening is that there are different circumstances-nuclear weapons vs.
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