Each element has its own particular binding energy, specific to that element. This concept has lead to many advances in Nuclear Physics. With this, he showed how energy and mass were actually different aspects of the same thing. This is the energy that is harnessed to generate electricity. Various experimenters also determined that radiation consisted of alpha particles, or helium nuclei, beta particles, or electrons, and gamma rays, or hard X rays.
Nuclear reactions can be both natural and man-made.
Some nuclear energy is produced in a natural sense, such as from the Sun and stars that make heat and light, whereas some is man-made, such as in nuclear reactors and power plants, as well as in atomic and hydrogen bombs. One of the two main means of extracting energy from an atom is, as mentioned before, Fission. This is the process in which a large, heavy nucleus is split by being bombarded with neutrons. The main fuel of fission is Uranium, or an isotope of it known as Uranium-238. The other main process is Fusion, which is the combination of two smaller nuclei to release energy.