The Atomic Science of Nuclear Weapons. All matter is composed of atoms, which host different combinations of three particles—protons, electrons, and neutrons. Nuclear weapons work by capitalizing on the interactions of protons and neutrons to create an explosive chain reaction. At the center of every atom is a core called the nucleus, which The Centers for Disease Control defines a nuclear weapon as a "device that uses a nuclear reaction to create an explosion." When exploded it releases four types of energy, "a blast wave, intense Vocabulary Nuclear energy is the energy in the nucleus, or core, of an atom. Atoms are tiny units that make up all matter in the universe, and energy is what holds the nucleus together. There is a huge amount of energy in an atom 's dense nucleus. In fact, the power that holds the nucleus together is officially called the " strong force ." The periodic table is arranged by atomic weight and valence electrons. These variables allowed Mendeleev to place each element in a certain row (called a period) and column (called a group). The Figure 2.2.1 2.2. 1: The Structure of the Atom. Atoms have protons and neutrons in the center, making the nucleus, while the electrons orbit the nucleus. The modern atomic theory states that atoms of one element are the same, while atoms of different elements are different. e. A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion-based weapons have used a fission device to initiate fusion, and a pure Figure 10.57 shows a portion of the energy level diagram for sodium, which consists of a series of discrete lines at wavelengths corresponding to the difference in energy between two atomic orbitals. Figure 10.57 Valence shell energy level diagram for sodium. The wavelengths corresponding to several transitions are shown. In atomic theory and quantum mechanics, an atomic orbital ( / ˈɔːrbɪtəl /) is a function describing the location and wave-like behavior of an electron in an atom. [1] This function can be used to calculate the probability of finding any electron of an atom in any specific region around the atom's nucleus. The modern version of atomic structure begins with Ernest Rutherford ’s recognition that an atom consists of a single, central, massive, positively charged nucleus surrounded by electrons. The number of protons in the nucleus is the atomic number, Z, of the element. (For hydrogen Z = 1, and for carbon Z = 6.) A proton is positively charged Excitation, in physics, the addition of a discrete amount of energy (called excitation energy) to a system—such as an atomic nucleus, an atom, or a molecule—that results in its alteration, ordinarily from the condition of lowest energy (ground state) to one of higher energy (excited state). In. aUnI.