The control rod in a nuclear reactor is made of

Nuclear fission is best explained by
[$AIPMT$ $2000$]

Assertion: Energy is released when heavy nuclei undergo fission or light nuclei undergo fusion.
Reason: For heavy nuclei,binding energy per nucleon increases with increasing $Z$,while for light nuclei,it decreases with increasing $Z$.

The $Q$ value of a nuclear reaction $A+b \rightarrow C+d$ is defined by $Q=\left[m_{A}+m_{b}-m_{C}-m_{d}\right] c^{2}$ where the masses refer to the respective nuclei. Determine from the given data the $Q$ value of the following reactions and state whether the reactions are exothermic or endothermic.
$(i) \;_{1}^{1} H+_{1}^{3} H \rightarrow_{1}^{2} H+_{1}^{2} H$
$(ii)\;_{6}^{12} C+_{6}^{12} C \rightarrow_{10}^{20} N e+_{2}^{4} H e$
Atomic masses are given to be:
$m(_{1}^{1}H) = 1.007825 \; u$
$m(_{1}^{2}H) = 2.014102 \; u$
$m(_{1}^{3}H) = 3.016049 \; u$
$m(_{6}^{12}C) = 12.000000 \; u$
$m(_{10}^{20}Ne) = 19.992439 \; u$
$m(_{2}^{4}He) = 4.002603 \; u$

Nuclear fission experiments show that neutrons split uranium nuclei into two fragments of about the same size. This process is accompanied by the emission of several:

When a $_4Be^9$ atom is bombarded with $\alpha$-particles,one of the products of nuclear transmutation is $_6C^{12}$. The other product is: