What is fission?

Fission is another word for splitting. The process of splitting a nucleus is called nuclear fission. Uranium or plutonium isotopes are normally used as the fuel in nuclear reactors, because their atoms have relatively large nuclei that are easy to split, especially when hit by neutrons. In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is either a nuclear reaction or a radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts (lighter nuclei). In biology, fission occurs when a cell (or body, population, or species) divides into two or more parts and the regeneration of those parts into separate cells (bodies, populations, or species). Binary fission produces two separate cells, populations, species, etc., whereas multiple fission produces more than two cells, populations, species, etc. read less