Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction

@article{Meitner1939DisintegrationOU,
  title={Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction},
  author={L. Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch},
  journal={Nature},
  year={1939},
  volume={143},
  pages={239-240}
}
ON bombarding uranium with neutrons, Fermi and collaborators1 found that at least four radioactive substances were produced, to two of which atomic numbers larger than 92 were ascribed. Further investigations2 demonstrated the existence of at least nine radioactive periods, six of which were assigned to elements beyond uranium, and nuclear isomerism had to be assumed in order to account for their chemical behaviour together with their genetic relations. 
View on Nature
470 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
11
Background Citations
76
Methods Citations
8
Results Citations
1

470 Citations

Physical Evidence for the Division of Heavy Nuclei under Neutron Bombardment
FROM chemical evidence, Hahn and Strassmann1 conclude that radioactive barium nuclei (atomic number Z = 56) are produced when uranium (Z = 92) is bombarded by neutrons. It has been pointed out2 that…
Products of the Fission of the Uranium Nucleus
O. Hahn and F. Strassmann1 have discovered a new type of nuclear reaction, the splitting into two smaller nuclei of the nuclei of uranium and thorium under neutron bombardment. Thus they demonstrated…
The discoveries of uranium 237 and symmetric fission — From the archival papers of Nishina and Kimura
  • N. Ikeda
  • Environmental Science
    Proceedings of the Japan Academy. Series B, Physical and biological sciences
  • 2011
TLDR
Shortly before the Second World War time, Nishina reported on a series of prominent nuclear physical and radiochemical studies in collaboration with Kimura that resulted in the discovery of 237U, a new isotope of uranium, by bombarding uranium with fast neutrons, and confirmed that 237U disintegrates into element 93 with a mass number of 237.
First Nuclear Reactions
The discovery by Rutherford in 1919 that \(\alpha \)-particles could induce nuclear reactions and transform isotopes and elements opened up the possibility to produce new isotopes in the laboratory.…
Energy Release in Nuclear Reactions, Neutrons, Fission, and Characteristics of Fission
  • B. Reed
  • Physics
    The Physics of the Manhattan Project
  • 2021
This introductory chapter covers the background nuclear physics necessary for understanding later calculations of critical mass, nuclear weapon efficiency and yield, and how fissile materials are…
Discovery and confirmation of fission
Story of fission
The discovery of nuclear fission is the culmination of sustained efforts involving many scientists led by Hahn and Meitner to understand the production of artificial radioactivity induced by neutrons…
Neutron-Induced Fission
The discovery of fission and the subsequent successful construction of nuclear reactors opened up a whole new area of the nuclear chart. Hundreds of medium-mass neutron-rich isotopes were discovered…
The Search for Transuranium Elements and the Discovery of Nuclear Fission
Abstract. The synthesis of new, artificial elements beyond uranium was at the cutting-edge of physical research in the 1930s, and nearly half a dozen transuranium elements were reported between 1934…
Fission of Heavy Nuclei: a New Type of Nuclear Disintegration
THE first indication that the transmutation of heavy nuclei could be effected in a laboratory experiment was obtained by Fermi in March 1934. Curie and Joliot had just discovered that shortlived…
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-5 OF 5 REFERENCES
Neutron Capture and Nuclear Constitution
AMONG the properties of atomic nuclei disclosed by the fundamental researches of Lord Rutherford and his followers on artificial nuclear transmutations, one of the most striking is the extraordinary…
Artificial Radioactivity Produced by Neutron Bombardment
We describe in this paper some further results on artificial radioactivity induced by neutron bombardment, which have been obtained in the physical Laboratory of the University of Rome, after the…
Resonance Effects in Nuclear Processes
A general formula is developed for the probability of nuclear processes with particular consideration of resonance (\textsection{}2). The dependence of the cross section on the energy of the incident…
Künstliche Umwandlungsprozesse bei Bestrahlung des Thoriums mit Neutronen; Auftreten isomerer Reihen durch Abspaltung von α-Strahlen
ZusammenfassungEs werden die bei der Bestrahlung von Thorium mit langsamen und schnellen Neutronen auftretenden Prozesse untersucht. Es zeigte sich, daß vier Umwandlungsreihen auftreten. Die eine…
Über die Umwandlungsreihen des Urans, die durch Neutronenbestrahlung erzeugt werden
ZusammenfassungIn einer Reihe vorangehender Arbeiten ist gezeigt worden, daß die Bestrahlung von Uran mit Neutronen zu drei neuen Umwandlungsreihen führt, deren einzelne Glieder zum größten Teile…