Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear Fusion is the energy-producing process which takes place continuously in
the sun and stars. In the core of the sun at temperatures of 10-15 million
degrees Celsius, Hydrogen is converted to Helium providing enough energy for us
to sustain life on earth. For energy production on earth, different fusion
reactions are involved. The most suitable reaction occurs between the nuclei of
the two light forms (isotopes) of Hydrogen - Deuterium and Tritium; eventually
reactions involving just Deuterium or Deuterium and Helium may be used. A brief
breakdown of the fuels used are as follows, Deuterium is a very abundant isotope
of hydrogen and can be extracted from all forms of water, Tritium is not as
abundant and is not a natural isotope, instead a machine is needed to extract it
from lithium. Lithium, which is the lightest of all metals is plentiful on the
earths crust, there is so much on the crust that right now they say there is
enough to provide the planet with over a thousand years of electricity. Fusion
power offers the potential of an almost limitless source of energy for future
generations but it also presents some formidable scientific and engineering
challenges. It is called 'fusion' because it is based on fusing light nuclei
such as hydrogen isotopes to release energy. Effective energy-producing fusions
require that gas from a combination of isotopes of hydrogen - deuterium and
tritium - is heated to very high temperatures (100 million degrees centig...

Nuclear Fusion

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