Nuclear energy is energy released from the atomic nucleus. It follows the conversion of its mass to energy consistent with Albert Einstein's formula E=mc² in which E = Energy, m = Mass and c = the Constant Speed of Light. However, the mass-energy equivalence does not explain how the reaction occurs, but rather nuclear forces do.

Nuclear energy is released by one of three nuclear reactions:

• Fusion, the fusing together of atomic particles.
• Fission, the breaking of the binding forces of an atom's nucleus.
  • Decay, is a term used for the slower natural fission process of a nucleus breaking down into a more stable form.

Nuclear energy was first discovered accidentally by French physicist Henri Becquerel in 1896 when he found photographic plates stored near uranium compounds behaved as though they had been exposed to light in a manner similar to X-Rays, which had then recently been discovered .

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