The Nuclear Technology Portal
Introduction
- Nuclear technology is technology that involves the nuclear reactions of atomic nuclei. Among the notable nuclear technologies are nuclear reactors, nuclear medicine and nuclear weapons. It is also used, among other things, in smoke detectors and gun sights. (Full article...)
- Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power plants. Nuclear decay processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators in some space probes such as Voyager 2. Generating electricity from fusion power remains the focus of international research. (Full article...)
- A nuclear weapon (also known as an atom bomb, atomic bomb, nuclear bomb or nuclear warhead, and colloquially as an A-bomb or nuke) is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb). Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. (Full article...)
General images -
Selected article -
Selected picture -
Did you know?
- ... that according to his 2020 biography, Atomic Spy, Klaus Fuchs felt that passing secrets from his work on the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union was for "the betterment of mankind"?
- ... that in a 1949 war plan, the United States targeted 70 Soviet cities with 133 nuclear weapons, of which eight would be dropped on Moscow and seven on Leningrad?
- ... that Rod Serling's Forbidden Area, a nuclear-war thriller, launched the four-year run of a series voted in 1970 as "the greatest television series of all time"?
- ... that the upcoming SNLE 3G-class nuclear ballistic-missile submarines could remain in service with the French Navy until 2090?
- ... that the W71 nuclear warhead had a tamper made of gold?
- ... that tea room owner Edith Warner was convinced by Robert Oppenheimer to keep her restaurant open to serve the scientists working on the Manhattan Project, including Niels Bohr and Enrico Fermi?
Related WikiProjects
Things you can do
![]() | Parts of this portal (those related to section) need to be updated. Please help update this portal to reflect recent events or newly available information. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. (September 2021) |
Selected biography -
In 1942, Slotin was invited to participate in the Manhattan Project, and subsequently performed experiments with uranium and plutonium cores to determine their critical mass values. After World War II he continued his research at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. On 21 May 1946, he accidentally began a fission reaction which released a burst of hard radiation. He was rushed to the hospital and died nine days later on 30 May. Slotin had become the victim of the second criticality accident in history following Harry Daghlian, who had been fatally exposed to radiation by the same "demon core" that killed Slotin.
Slotin was hailed as a hero by the United States government for reacting quickly enough to prevent the deaths of his colleagues. However, some physicists argue that Slotin's behavior preceding the accident was reckless and that his death was preventable. The accident and its aftermath have been dramatized in several fictional and non-fiction accounts. (Full article...)
Nuclear technology news
- 25 April 2022 –
- Former Iranian MP Ali Motahari says the Iranian nuclear program initially aimed for a secret nuclear weapon and nuclear deterrence. (Iran International)
Related portals
Related topics
Subcategories
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus