How Nuclear Fission Works

In 2026 the United States proposed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, and the debate turned on one process: uranium enrichment. To follow it you need the physics underneath. This film explains what holds a nucleus together, how fission was discovered in 1938, where its energy comes from, how a chain reaction grows or dies, why reactors need slow neutrons and enriched fuel, how control rods keep the chain steady, and how heat becomes electricity. Fire a neutron, tune the chain yourself and move the control rods.

Splitting the atom

The physics under a political debate.

A tug of war

Two forces fight inside every nucleus.

Barium where uranium should be

A chemist’s puzzle, solved by a physicist in the snow.

A little mass, a lot of energy

The pieces weigh less than the whole.

One becomes two, two become four

Fission feeds itself.

Slow down to split

Only one kind of uranium splits easily, and it prefers slow neutrons.

Exactly one

A reactor is a chain held perfectly level.

Under the stands

The first controlled chain reaction.

Fuel, water and a brake

How a core keeps k at one.

A very special kettle

Fission only boils water.

Raising the rare kind

Why enrichment is at the heart of the debate.

From five megawatts

A tenth of the world’s electricity.

Still hot

The fragments keep giving off heat and radiation.

Splitting the atom

A chain held at exactly one.

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