The Everyday Atom [antikvár]

Uranium Ores The Everyday Atom IN A HOSPITAL, a woman on a stretcher is wheeled into place under the mouth of a huge machine. Invisible rays from the machine shoot through her body. They have been aimed straight at diseased cells deep inside her. When the rays reach the diseased area, they destroy the bad cells. In a steel mill, fiery hot metal is being pressed between heavy rollers. As it flows out in a long thin sheet, invisibly tiny particles shoot through it in a steady stream. On the far side, the needle on a dial counts the particles coming through. And the steadiness of the flow of particles is a check on the uniform thickness of the sheet. Out in the open country stands a bulky concrete building with a steel dome beside it. This is an electric power plant. Inside it turbines are driving huge electric generators. But there is no running water near by to turn the turbines. There are no stockpiles of coal or tanks of fuel oil. In this power plant the energy for driving the turbines is furnished by an atomic "furnace," or reactor. The fuel for the reactor is in slim bars encased in steel. It is the metal uranium. The bars of uranium used in the electric power plant are made up of countless atoms of uranium. The energy which the reactor furnishes comes from the splitting of these atoms, or, to be exact, from the splitting of the hearts of the atoms. The treatment of the patient in the hospital and the checking of the thickness of the sheet of steel can be traced back to the splitting of atoms, too. In these and many other ways atomsplitting is becoming very important in our everyday world. The scientists' name for atom-splitting is nuclear fission. To understand it, let us first take a look at atoms themselves. 3