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this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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Can you cause fission with protons instead of neutrons?
Yes if they have enough energy (see for example https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-74045-5). What you won't get with proton-induced fission is an explosion as the fission doesn't emit protons which can go on to cause further fissions so there's no chain reaction (unless you already have a critical mass for normal neutron-induced fission in which case it's going to explode even without the protons).
Maybe need an accompanying alternative version of the cartoon, "be more neutral".
If you're adding a proton wouldn't it be fusion? Which also releases a bucket load of energy.
The largest amount of energy is released from fusing two hydrogens into helium. The atom in the comic looks much heavier than hydrogen.
Also a chain fusion reaction is required for an explosion. The comic just shows non-explosive ionisation.
It looks like a heavy element so fusion would be net negative energy
Possibly but the common fusions are using isotopes of H, He, Li with some amount of neutrons, not naked protons.
Heavier elements as the big blob is releases a lot less energy, and the really heavy ones are not exothermic.
yeah, i think it's possible to split U-238 with fast protons. but the reproduction factor (how many new particles are emitted for every particle that you used to start the reaction) is smaller than 1, so it can't explode that way.