Page 108 - The Miracle in the Atom

THE MIRACLE IN THE ATOM

uranium atom has to hit the uranium immediately and at the desired point.
That is why these experiments are conducted taking every probability into
consideration. The amount of the uranium to be used, the amount of the ne-
utrons used to bombard the uranium, and the duration and speed at which
the neutrons will bombard the uranium should all be very precisely calcula-
ted.
After all these calculations are made and the appropriate setting is pre-
pared, the nucleus is bombarded with neutrons in such a way that they pe-
netrate the nuclei of the atoms in the uranium. It is sufficient that the nucle-

us of at least one of the atoms in this mass is split in two. In this division, an
average of two or three neutrons are sent out from the mass of the nucleus at
great velocity and high energy. Neutrons that are released start a chain reac-
tion by colliding with other uranium nuclei within the mass. Each newly
split nucleus behaves like the initial uranium nucleus. Thus, a chain of nuc-
lear reactions starts. A large number of uranium nuclei are split into frag-
ments as a result of these chain reactions, causing an enormous amount of
energy to be released.
It was these nuclei divisions that have caused the Hiroshima and Naga-
saki disasters, causing the death of tens of thousands of people. At the mo-
ment of the detonation of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the
United States in 1945 during World War II, and in its aftermath, approxima-
tely 100,000 people died. Another atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki by
America three days after the Hiroshima disaster caused the death of another
40,000 people right at the moment of detonation. While the power released
by the nuclei caused the death of many people, it also destroyed a very large
residential area, and gave rise to many irreparable genetic and physiological
disorders in the remaining residents of that area, due to the radiation rele-
ased, which was to affect generations to come.
If our earth, the whole atmosphere, everything animate and inanimate
including us, are composed of atoms, what prevents atoms from being invol-
ved in nuclear reactions like the ones in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that could
occur anytime and anywhere?
The neutrons are created in such a way that, when they are free in natu-

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