In reply to Edmund Storms's message of Tue, 9 Dec 2008 15:04:33 -0700: Hi, [snip] >Apparently all spontaneous nuclear reactions are exothermic. This is >required because a nuclear process cannot obtain the required large >amount of energy from the local environment fast enough. In contrast, >a chemical reaction is much slower and is satisfied with energy that >can be stolen from a few surrounding atoms. > >Ed This is fine, but not a complete answer. The question that Jed asks is legitimate, and is also an option that I suggested in slightly different words some days back.
Though individual endothermic reactions don't occur, a "compound" reaction might occur. Such a reaction would actually only be a single reaction, but could be thought of (or viewed) as a combination of exothermic and endothermic reactions. The sort of reaction I'm talking about is e.g. where two or more nuclei temporarily fuse, then fission into different fragments than they started out as. Reactions of this sort *could* end up being only very slightly exothermic, and could be classed as almost pure transmutation reactions. In fact conventional fission is an example of this. Two "nuclei" fuse, i.e. a U235 nucleus and a single neutron, which is followed by fission into a variety of fragments. However in this case the energy release is considerable. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
