Nuclear Fission

1938 | Otto Hahn

Energy with side effects

The end product had to be heavier than uranium. That was the result hoped for by chemist Otto Hahn, his assistant Fritz Strassmann, and the physicist Lise Meitner, as they began to bombard the radioactive element uranium with neutrons in 1938. The outcome of the test was a puzzle. Although the trio of researchers was counting on a new element, they now found that the much lighter barium was among the byproducts of the reaction. The scientists came to a spectacular conclusion: they had not created a neighbor of uranium but had split the atom; the bombardment of neutrons had produced barium and krypton.

The energy released was equivalent to 200 mega-electron volts and had released neutrons that triggered a chain reaction. The splitting continued; the energy released was a million times greater than that from anthracite coal.

(Information taken from German Stars – 50 innovations, produced by the Federal Foreign Office, the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, Invest in Germany and the Goethe Institut.)