By the end of the year the physicist Werner Heisenberg had calculated that nuclear fission chain reactions might be possible. When slowed down and controlled in a "uranium machine" (nuclear ...

This causes the nucleus to break apart and release additional neutrons that can trigger further fission reactions, resulting in a chain reaction. This reaction is the basis for current nuclear ...

Scientists have built the first-ever thorium reactor. Thorium is both more easily accessible and less dangerous than ...

The design of nuclear weapons aims to create a supercritical mass of fissile material in an instant, triggering a devastating chain reaction. Thermonuclear weapons, using both fission and fusion ...

A pair of bills in the state Legislature would require the state to look for potential sites to put next-generation nuclear ...

It’s rarely appreciated just how much more complicated nuclear fusion is than nuclear fission. Whereas the ... challenge is to keep the nuclear chain reaction within safe bounds, nuclear fusion ...

The word “nuclear” conjures two images ... of radioactive waste for us to store for thousands of years. Fission is a chain reaction that can spiral out of control; but fusion reactors don ...

Yet despite improvements in the design of nuclear-fission reactors ... but requires a chain reaction for the reactor to remain self-sustaining. By comparison, a fusion reactor generates an ...

It raises key questions around coolant level measurement technologies, such as noncontacting gravity sensors vs. traditional methods. It helps engineers better understand the economic and logistical ...