nuclear fission

Left untouched, nuclear fission erupts into a runaway chain reaction that can heat the core of a nuclear plant to thousands of degrees, liquifying the metal around it into radioactive lava.

Because the process of nuclear fission does not burn or oxidize anything, nearly all the fuel used in producing energy at nuclear plants becomes waste without reducing its mass.

It works by taking pairs of light atoms and forcing them together - the opposite of nuclear fission, where heavy atoms are split apart.

Small modular reactors are nuclear fission reactors that are smaller than conventional ones and thought to be less expensive to build than traditional plants, which the prime minister called the "nuclear technologies of the future".

And then there is Lise Meitner, the co-discoverer, with Otto Hahn, of nuclear fission.