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Understanding Nuclear Energy By Professor John Preston Structure of the Atom — The atom consists of a nucleus surrounded by negative electrons. The interaction of the electrons with other atoms is the basis for the chemical behavior of the atom. The nucleus contains positive protons and neutral neutrons. The positive protons tend to attract an equal number of electrons. The number of protons determines the type of atom. Isotopes — The number of neutrons in an atom can vary. If two atoms have the same number of protons, they will still have the same chemical behavior even though the number of neutrons may differ. They are the same type of atom. We call them isotopes, meaning “same type.” The usual way of showing the difference between isotopes is to show the chemical symbol with the number of protons below and the total number of protons and neutrons written above. The number of neutrons could be determined by subtracting the number of protons from the total. Radiation — In some atoms, the balance of neutrons and protons is not stable and the nucleus contains excess energy. The nucleus can release some of this energy by emitting either a bundle of 2 protons and 2 neutrons called an alpha particle, an e