Nuclear means

The rules for adding compound terms to the dictionary are pretty clear for dictionary editors. If a compound term has an obvious meaning that derives from the conventional definition of each term—if it is self-explanatory—then it is not added to the dictionary. For example, there is no entry for cattle ranch, but there is an entry for dude ranch. It wasn't until the early 21st century that 'nuclear option' began to describe a procedure by which the voting requirements are changed to require only a simple majority, thus ending the minority party's ability to prevent a vote. The term nuclear option was initially used with a literal meaning “the option to use nuclear weapons” in the early 1960s, just after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Interestingly, the term non-nuclear option was also used at this time, referring to “the option to use conventional weapons.” There were nuances to this literal use of nuclear option. It could mean “a choice as to the manner of using nuclear weapons”: [Stewart] Alsop interviews McNamara and details the bold steps the Defense Secretary has taken to avoid such spasm strategy and to follow instead a series of nuclear “options” in which nuclear capability is realistically employed. — Arizona Republic, 25 April 1962 It could also refer to the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons: Nuclear option for Swiss The Swiss electorate this weekend rejected by an overwhelming majority a Socialist proposal requiring...

Show Less nuclear fission, subdivision of a heavy atomic nucleus, such as that of In nuclear fission the nucleus of an The discovery of nuclear fission has opened a new era—the “ History of fission research and technology The term fission was first used by the German physicists The story of the discovery of nuclear fission actually began with the discovery of the That lighter elements could be formed by bombarding heavy nuclei with neutrons had been suggested earlier (notably by the German chemist

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What to Know Nuclear family refers to the core members of a family, usually parents and children. Nuclear had a long history of figurative use before its main association with "nuclear energy," as nucleus has senses meaning "kernel" or more simply "something essential." Grandparents are grand; great-aunts are great; and nuclear families are … nuclear? Well, yes. Nuclear families— nuclear. It has nothing to do with melting down. Origin of 'Nuclear Family' Nuclear family dates to the 1920s, when the academic fields of At the time nuclear family was coined, the word nuclear inhabited contexts other than those most familiar to us now. Its use was broad and tied, as it still is, closely to uses of its parent word, nucleus, which had been a member of the language for 250 years. Many Uses of 'Nucleus' and 'Nuclear' Tracing the development of the word nucleus in the Oxford English Dictionary, we see that it was first applied in English in the mid-late 17th century to the brightest mass of matter in the head of a comet. Its origin is nucleus, meaning "kernel." Other astronomy meanings followed, with the word referring to other bright and dazzling celestial sights, such as the relatively small, brighter, and denser portion of a galaxy, or the hot faint central star of a planetary nebula. By the early 18th century, nucleus described other more earthly kernels in the fields of botany and pathology too, with a wide range of scientific applications active by the mid-19th century, includ...

An International Atomic Energy Agency team arrived in Tokyo on Monday for a final review before Japan begins releasing massive amounts of treated radioactive water into the sea from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, a plan that has been strongly opposed by local fishing communities and neighboring countries Nuclear reactors operate on the principle of nuclear fission, the process in which a heavy atomic nucleus splits into two smaller fragments. The nuclear fragments are in very excited states and emit In an Most of the energy of fission—approximately 85 percent of it—is released within a very short time after the process has occurred. The remainder of the energy produced as a result of a fission event comes from the The course of a chain reaction is determined by the probability that a neutron released in fission will cause a subsequent fission. If the neutron population in a reactor decreases over a given period of time, the rate of fission will decrease and ultimately drop to zero. In this case the reactor will be in what is known as a subcritical state. If over the course of time the neutron population is sustained at a constant rate, the fission rate will remain steady, and the reactor will be in what is called a Before a reactor is started up, the neutron population is near zero. During reactor start-up, operators remove control rods from the core in order to promote fissioning in the reactor core, effectively putting the reactor temporarily into a supercritical s...

Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations ending in \-kyə-lər\ have been found in widespread use among educated speakers including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, U.S. cabinet members, and at least two U.S. presidents and one vice president. While most common in the U.S., these pronunciations have also been heard from British and Canadian speakers. Recent Examples on the Web Any agreement to restore the 2015 nuclear deal could lead to the removal of U.S. sanctions which have curtailed exports of Iranian oil into the global market, ANZ adds. — WSJ, 9 June 2023 Finland is nearing completion of its Onkalo spent nuclear fuel disposal facility that will permanently hold 6,500 metric tons of waste produced during the lifetimes of the country’s five nuclear reactors. — Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 June 2023 Only the United States had so far used nuclear weapons in anger — in the 1945 attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. — Reuters, NBC News, 9 June 2023 The Pentagon faces a delay of at least a year in its timetable to deploy the new $96 billion intercontinental ballistic missile that’s central to modernizing the US nuclear arsenal, according to the Government Accountability Office. — Anthony Capaccio, Bloomberg.com, 8 June 2023 By some recent estimates, giant orbiting generators will soon be competitive with earthbound nuclear plants, if launch costs continue to decrease. — Byscience News Staff, science.org, 8 June 2023 And the ...