Questions about the energy released by nuclear fission

[brent1369]

as far as i understand nuclear fission is the splitting of a heavy nucleus cause of a added neutron
the energy you get is cause of the lost mass from binding energy.
but i also read that the nuclear fission products undergo beta decay which emits beta particles gamma rays and antineutrinos

so how much of the heat is from the kinetic energy from fission and from the beta decay from the fission product?

also what is the "kinetic energy" that gets released from fission, do the neutrons "take" that kinetic energy or do the 2 split nuclei,
and is that kinetic energy just the speed they move away or momentum or ... ?

 

[hutchphd]

Everybody in the pool gets some of the energy. In fact one of the design problems to make the Hydrogen bomb was to get that energy into the fusion process for bigger and better bombs...the details are both fascinating and simply depressing.

 

[brent1369]

ah ok, but does the fission create most energy or beta decay

 

[mathman]

Fission energy is prompt. Beta decay takes a while. For bombs beta decay is irrelevant.

 

[mfb]

Most of the energy comes from fission directly, and most of that energy goes to the kinetic energy of the fission nuclei. Something like 200 MeV is released from the fission event, and maybe ~10-20 MeV from beta decays.