ABSTRACT

In 1938, Hahn, Strassman, and Meitner proved that they had fissioned the uranium atom using neutrons from an artificial source (a mixture of radium and beryllium). Scientists throughout the world used the values that were then known for the masses of the fission products vs. that of the starting atom of uranium, and concluded that a tremendous amount of energy is released in the fission process. The fissioning experiment was reproduced in about 100 universities in the United States within the next year. The conversion of the mass lost in the fission process indicated that the fissioning of a uranium atom would release approximately 200 million electron volts (MeV). This is in stark contrast to most chemical processes, such as combustion, which release only about 4-5 electron volts (eV) per combustion of a carbon or hydrogen atom. The ratio on an atom-to-atom basis is the order of 40,000,000 to 1, nuclear vs. chemical energy per atom.