AQA GCSE Physics 8463
Atomic Structure
Electricity
Energy
Forces
Magnetism and Electromagnetism
Particle Model of Matter
Space Physics
Waves
Atomic Structure
Nuclear fission and nuclear fusion
- 3 things to know
- Paper 1
Overview
Nuclear fission and the elements commonly used, spontaneous fission and absorbing a neutron to trigger it, the products and energy released and how that energy is used in a power station, chain reactions controlled in a reactor and uncontrolled in a nuclear weapon, nuclear fusion and its mass converted to energy, and how fusion and fission differ.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Name two elements whose nuclei are commonly used to produce fission.
What is produced when a nucleus undergoes fission?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is nuclear fission?
Model answer
It is the splitting of a large and unstable nucleus into smaller nuclei.
- 2
Name two elements whose nuclei are commonly used to produce fission.
Model answer
Uranium and plutonium.
- 3
How common is spontaneous fission?
Model answer
It is rare.
- 4
What must usually happen to an unstable nucleus before it will undergo fission?
Model answer
It must first absorb a neutron.
- 5
What is produced when a nucleus undergoes fission?
Model answer
Two smaller nuclei that are roughly equal in size, two or three neutrons, and gamma rays.
- 6
How many neutrons are typically released by a single fission?
Model answer
Two or three neutrons.
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