Question

Statement I: Nuclear fission is not a spontaneous process as the energy is required to be supplied to it to reach the intermediate state before breaking up into two fragments.
Statement II: The energy of the intermediate state is higher than the initial energy of the parent nucleus.

• A. Both the statements are correct and statement II infers to statement I
• B. Both the statements are correct but statement II doesn’t infer to statement I
• C. Statement I is correct but statement II is incorrect
• D. Statement II is correct but statement I is incorrect

Answer 1

The correct option is D Statement II is correct but statement I is incorrect

The liquid drop model explanation of nuclear fission reaction points that the energy of the intermediate state is higher than the initial energy of parent nucleus.
The reason is explained by the famously weird Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
$\Delta E\times \Delta t=\frac{h}{4\pi }$
It says that in a small amount of time ((smaller than your wildest imaginations) huge amount of energy may be created out of nowhere. A violation of Energy Conservation Principle." yes!!
Now don't think too much about it. You got that the process is spontaneous because we don’t supply any external energy for it to happen and the energy of the intermediate state is higher due to Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. So, statement I is false while the II is true.