Table of Contents
What materials are needed for nuclear fusion?
The main fuels used in nuclear fusion are deuterium and tritium, both heavy isotopes of hydrogen. Deuterium constitutes a tiny fraction of natural hydrogen, only 0,0153\%, and can be extracted inexpensively from seawater. Tritium can be made from lithium, which is also abundant in nature.
What are the challenges for fusion reactors?
But fusion reactors have other serious problems that also afflict today’s fission reactors, including neutron radiation damage and radioactive waste, potential tritium release, the burden on coolant resources, outsize operating costs, and increased risks of nuclear weapons proliferation.
What are the 3 products of nuclear fusion?
Depiction of the deuterium (D) and tritium (T) fusion reaction, which produces a helium nucleus (or alpha particle) and a high energy neutron. Nuclear Fusion reactions power the Sun and other stars.
What is a fusion reactor made of?
Overall, a D-T fusion reactor uses deuterium and lithium as fuel and generates helium as a reaction by-product. Deuterium can be readily obtained from seawater—about one in every 3,000 water molecules contains a deuterium atom. Lithium is also abundant and inexpensive.
Where does fusion occur in the sun?
core
Inside the Sun, this process begins with protons (which is simply a lone hydrogen nucleus) and through a series of steps, these protons fuse together and are turned into helium. This fusion process occurs inside the core of the Sun, and the transformation results in a release of energy that keeps the sun hot.
Why is nuclear fusion needed?
Fusion has the potential to provide the kind of baseload energy needed to provide electricity to our cities and our industries. Sustainability: Fusion fuels are widely available and nearly inexhaustible. No long-lived radioactive waste: Nuclear fusion reactors produce no high activity, long-lived nuclear waste.
How is fusion made?
Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars. To make fusion happen, the atoms of hydrogen must be heated to very high temperatures (100 million degrees) so they are ionized (forming a plasma) and have sufficient energy to fuse, and then be held together i.e. confined, long enough for fusion to occur.
What is fission fusion?
Both fission and fusion are nuclear reactions that produce energy, but the processes are very different. Fission is the splitting of a heavy, unstable nucleus into two lighter nuclei, and fusion is the process where two light nuclei combine together releasing vast amounts of energy.