Experts called it the biggest atomic news since the end of World War II. The Atomic Energy Commission revealed last week that it is now considered practical to build a nuclear reactor which will "breed" more atomic fuel than it consumes.
Uranium is a tricky element. As it comes from the mines, it contains only .7% of the active isotope U-235, whose atoms "fission" (split in two) with a big release of energy. Nearly all the rest is 11-238, an idle isotope which will not fission naturally, though its heavy nucleus contains about the same energy as 11-235.
When natural uranium is put...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
