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Thoughts on nukes

A new wave of discoveries in 1939 brought a fresh breath to atom. Scientists first suggested that a neutron, captured by the nucleus, would cause severe vibration leading to the nucleus splitting into two not quite equal parts. They calculated the energy release from this fission as about 200 million electron volts. Later they showed that fission not only released a lot of energy but that it also released additional neutrons which could cause fission in other uranium nuclei and possibly a self-sustaining chain reaction leading to an enormous release of energy. An optimist would think ‘What a good result; and this is the time when nuclear power plants were built and nuclear energy used’. No, World War II brought its priorities. Nuclear bomb was invented, and played important role in power balance.