The potential energy required to bind the nucleons together in the uranium nucleus is rather greater than the binding energy of the two resulting intermediate-mass nuclei; the difference is of order 2...The potential energy required to bind the nucleons together in the uranium nucleus is rather greater than the binding energy of the two resulting intermediate-mass nuclei; the difference is of order 200 MeV, and that potential energy is converted into kinetic energy of the two resulting nuclei and, to a lesser extent, the two or three neutrons released.
