A nuclear bomb is a bomb that makes explosions by changing the nucleus of an atom in a way that releases a lot of energy.
A technician conducting a review at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.
(Damien Jemison/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via AP)
As WallStreetBets traders begin to eye stocks linked to the radioactive metal, there could be a major bubble in the offing.
Fire a set of high-power lasers at a tiny speck of hydrogen isotopes and you can initiate nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun.
National Ignition Facility
Scientists are working on ways to make lots of energy by converting matter into energy. The trick is keeping the process under control. One possibility is nuclear fusion – the Sun’s power source.
Over the last 50 years, a lot has changed in rocketry. The fuel that powers spaceflight might finally be changing too.
CSA-Printstock/DIgital Vision Vectors via Getty Images
An update of 50-year-old regulations has kickstarted research into the next generation of rockets. Powered by nuclear fission, these new systems could be the key to faster, safer exploration of space.
Iran’s nuclear deal is hanging in the balance.
By Stuart Miles/Shutterstock
Iran has announced it will breach the limits on uranium enrichment agreed under the 2015 nuclear deal, after the US turned its back on the agreement. What does that mean for Iran’s nuclear program?
United Nations Security Council members listen to Iranian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Eshagh Al-Habib, left, during a meeting on Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement, Dec. 12, 2018, at UN headquarters.
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
Iran’s leaders are threatening to breach a 2015 agreement that froze their country’s nuclear program. What is uranium enrichment, and what would it mean for Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons?
Lise Meitner was left off the publication that eventually led to a Nobel Prize for her colleague.
Left off publications due to Nazi prejudice, this Jewish woman lost her rightful place in the scientific pantheon as the discoverer of nuclear fission.
California’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station was shut down in 2013.
julius fekete/shutterstock.com
Commercial nuclear reactors provide roughly one-fifth of the electricity produced in the US. But they face grave threats to their continued operation.
The coils winding facility building in France, where a global effort to build the ITER fusion energy reactor is underway.
Rob Crandall/Shutterstock.com
As fusion becomes more technically viable, it’s time to assess whether it’s worth the money because breakthroughs in the lab don’t guarantee success in the marketplace.
Cleanup crew search for radioactive debris.
U.S. Air Force
In what came to be known as the Thule incident, an American bomber crashed in Greenland, spreading radioactive wreckage across 3 square miles of a frozen fjord. Denmark was not happy.
For the first time, human beings harnessed the power of atomic fission.
Keith Ruffles
By figuring out fission, physicists were able to split uranium atoms and release massive amounts of energy. This Manhattan Project work paved the way both for atomic bombs and nuclear power reactors.
Boeing WC-135 Constant Phoenix “sniffer plane” used to monitor radioactive emissions from nuclear bomb tests.
US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Christopher Boitz