Nuclear Weapons

It is unfortunate that when the topics of radioactivity and nuclear energy come up, most thoughts probably go to weapons of war. The second thought might be about the possibility of nuclear energy contributing to the solution of the energy crisis. Nuclear energy, however, has many applications beyond bombs and the generation of electricity. Radioactivity has huge applications in scientific research, several fields of medicine both in terms of imaging and in terms of treatment, industrial processes, some very useful appliances, and even in agriculture.

Figure 1 : The energy that comes from the sun and other stars is prodced by fusion. (Public Domain; NASA).