1  Fission
New possibilities emerge when we go beyond natural radioactive decays
and study nuclear reactions by bombarding nuclei with other nuclear
particles such as proton, neutron, a-particle, etc A most important neutron-induced nuclear reaction is fission An
example of fission is when a uranium isotope 235
92 U  bombarded with a
neutron breaks into two intermediate mass nuclear fragments
1
235
236
144
89
1
0
92
92
56
36
0
n
U
U
Ba
Kr
3 n
+
→
→
+
+
(13 10)
The same reaction can produce other pairs of intermediate mass
fragments
1
235
236
133
99
1
0
92
92
51
41
0
n
U
U
Sb
Nb
4 n
+
→
→
+
+
(13