Fusion Definition and 834 Threads

A team of scientists from China's Institute of Plasma Physics announced this week that plasma in its Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) would be ready to begin attempting to generate more energy than it uses, in a world first. I am dubious about more news that comes out of...

Is there alternative ways for producing Tritium for fusion power plants other than using lithium?. In the wiki article about fusion power I read that Deuterium-Deuterium fusion produce Tritium so I wonder if this can be used as a way to produce tritium for Deuterium-Tritium fusion power plants...

I found this interesting engine design on the internet. It is one of the most powerful and largest machines human have ever designed. It is a fusion powered propulsion device, it uses “heavy fusion technology” which can use any elements lighter than Fe-56 as power source. Is this design feasible?

we know nuclear fusion is a powerful,reliable and long lasting energy source,the power of future. 1 kilogram of fuel used in D-T fusion can generate as much as 3.401×10^14 joules of power, enough to power my home for a century. So how feasible is it to construct a small tokamak in my house with...

What are are your thought on the future of energy on Earth? Personally, in the long term I believe that Dyson spheres would be more useful and allow us to terraform other planets and became a multiplanetary species much quicker and efficiently, but what are your thoughts?

A fusion reactors releases a lots of energy. Most of this energy will end up as thermal energy after it has been used by the consumers. Wouldn't this heat up the earth? People use the energy to run cookers, drive cars, light up houses, etc. This energy (99%?) will end up as thermal energy where...

I am quite new to this site. I have been following this technology (fusion) for many years now. It never seems to be any closer to actual deployment. Do you think we are getting closer? What do you think are the major stumbling blocks? The article below I read today. My understanding is that...

https://phys.org/news/2019-01-scientists-stabilizes-fusion-plasmas.html By applying more RF power to the unstable 'bubbles' that form in the plasmas.

There have been several recent threads on the feasibility of fusion power. There is reason to be hopeful. This study from MIT claims, due to the breakthroughs in high-temperature superconductors, that an economically feasible Tokamak can be built in the foreseeable future. For the purpose...

Hi, Does a T-D or a D-D fusion release more energy? Even if D-D needs higher temperatures, would it produce more energy in a fusion reactor?

I know it's a common question but I've found no answers online so far. My professor has made a point out of saying that fusion reactions after iron and nickel do release energy but just not enough to keep the star from imploding. This didn't make sense to me. How would fission release energy if...

When I was an undergrad doing research in a university lab, the director of the lab also consulted at a Nuclear Fusion company. I remember like it was yesterday him making a statement that commercial Nuclear Fusion was going to be a reality within 10 years. That was 1977. What happened? Lack...

In modern stars, the more massive a star is, the more likely that it is powered by the CNO fusion cycle, where Carbon, Nitrogen, an Oxygen act as catalysts for creating helium from hydrogen. In stars over 1.3 solar masses, this is the primary fusion process. Below that that level it's a mix of...

Homework Statement What factors affect enthalpy of fusion? Also, does structure affect enthalpy of fusion?

Hello, I am a BSME senior with NE minor graduating in August 2019 from UTA. I am very interested in fusion power, space travel, and electrical engineering (lol). I almost wish I had picked EE instead of ME. It's more interesting to me. I just joined an EE student and together we are building a...

Can anyone help with this please... Would the following work? Magnetic inertial Confinement Hybrid Fusion Reactor. Peeta Watt lasers are focused on the plasma in the equatorial plane of the multi mega amp plasma pulse within its’ torous geometry between the center post and the merging...

I just read a book by nuclear physicist Carlo Rovelli on the subject of "Time" and he says that 'entropy' is the only non-reversible process in the basic equations of physics, and he believes time and entropy are related (if I understand him correctly). So this started me thinking on entropy...

The released products of a transmutation reaction (I say transmutation when 2 particles reacts to generate more than one) follows the conservation of kinetic energy law. Also particles moving in opposite direction can have equal speed one with respect the other than rather if one of them is...

Hi guys, I posted about a closely related subject earlier, but with more and more research, all I have found regarding fusion energy is pure pessimism, and that it will always be a theoretical hope that just won’t happen. For example, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists basically says that...

Hello, I need the stopping power for a proton ion gun through Boron-11 sheet 1mm thick. I have the following table obtained from here: https://www-nds.iaea.org/stopping/stopping_hydr.html Where the unit is in 1-15*eV*cm2/atom: Then I calculated for 600keV protons at table 5.1eV*cm2/atom. I...

A star dies when fusion in its core stops. Presumably this means that there is no longer any fusionable material in the core. Does this mean that there is no longer any fusionable material in the entire star or just that the stuff in the center is used up? For instance, suppose the star stats...

Hi, I recently came across Positron Dynamics, a company working on a fusion propulsion system. You can watch this presentation given at Breakthrough Discuss 2018. They also got a grant from NIAC. Rather than trying to create and store positrons, they use Na-22 as a source. They also patented...

The CNO cycle (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNO_cycle) is a catalytic fusion reaction that produces energy in stars larger than the sun. It converts four protons into a helium-4 nucleus using a cycle of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotopes as catalysts and releases 26.7 MeV of energy mostly...

I am not talking about the reactions of simple atoms in chemistry, I am speaking, for example deuterium, heavy water, isotopes of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, etc.I would like to know how to calculate when two atoms merge, to know mathematically what atom will form, example deuterium + deuterium =...

Hi. I have a growing interest in fusion energy. For a couple of very important reasons, it seems to me that fusion energy is a major scientific priority, if not the most important technology to try to develop right now. I have a BSc and an MSc in math and I've always had an interest in...

Hello. Currently, I am a high school junior that has completed AP Physics C: Mechanics with a 4 on the exam, and I am in Calc 2 at the Univ of Oklahoma. I have, over the last two years, developed a great interest in physics, and for a long time have had interest in combatting climate...

When neutron stars collide, heavy elements, such as gold, are created. Are these elements ejected from the system to be found, say, here on earth? Or do they fall back into the newly created black hole?

When a high mass star starts to fuse heavier elements, the core heats up the outer layers enough to for them to begin fusion of their own. My question is: because the star hasn't gained any mass, but it has increased in temperature a lot, why doesn't the star expand and cool like a red giant...

High power laser Peta Watt are available, will it enable to produce helium 3 from deuterium-proton fusion? FYI, there many experiments show 10^9 reaction rate in p-b11 reaction. But we can get better rate? What is the maximum theoretical reaction rate for this easier p-d reaction? Ref. 10-15...

Hello, can you please confirm this statement "Nuclear fusion does not require a minimum mass to occur (critical mass), which is instead a characteristic limit of fission. So you can make small fusion bombs as much as you want."? Thanks!

https://lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/compact-fusion.html HOW COMPACT FUSION WORKS Nuclear fusion is the process by which the sun works. Our concept will mimic that process within a compact magnetic container and release energy in a controlled fashion to produce power we can use. A reactor...

With any realistic fusion reactor designs, can you imagine a Chernobyl like situation, where they can't stop a critical reaction? Or no, since no unstable isotopes, reaction can be stopped anytime, the worst thing can happen is no power?

Just a simple and bald question. Is it possible to fuse heavy elements like uranium?. I mean, massive stars core fusion process stops at iron. Please don’t blame me for my lack of scientific rigurosity. Thank you in advance. AGZ

Homework Statement In the following fusion reaction, a deuterium nucleus (D) combines with a tritium nucleus (T) to form a helium nucleus (He-4). If the following masses of deuterium and tritium are used to produce energy, calculate the total amount of energy produced. Homework Equations E =...

I read an article: https://mashable.com/2017/12/19/nuclear-fusion-company-plans-to-make-carbon-free-energy/ about a company named General Fusion who aim to use plasma balls and pressurized steam pistons to create a 150 million degrees celsius environment for fusion to occur. I also found a...

Hi, I was wondering if there is a mechanism to explain how the strong force leads to an energy release when two light nuclei such as hydrogen fuse together. I get that the products of fusion have less mass than the reactants and that this "missing" mass is converted into energy in accordance...

I've seen many recent stories about this type of fusion reactor. Looks like it might have some serious advantages. I've wondered since about the details of such a system and since it uses only protons to initiate the reaction could such a device be built from an accelerator or device similar to...

Hello. My name is Dom Napolitano and I would like to create a thread on Nuclear Power Technology.

Hi guys, I have been reading about nuclear fusion and I have some doubts that I did not find the answer. I understand that the reactants are in a more energetic state than the products when the energy release occurs, however: *What triggers the release of energy? *Where does the released energy...

I'm interested in comments on the attached paper. The authors are advocating laser drive proton-boron fusion as an attractive option, given the lack of neutron output. They describe a laser driven method for achieving ignition in a solid target. Any thoughts? Is this even remotely feasible?

Lets say you have your basic fusion reaction D + H → He3 + γ + 5.49 MeV Now exactly how much of the energy is carried away by the gamma ray and how much by the Alfa particle ?

Is fusion power still considered to be the most powerful energy source possibly achievable of technology by mankind, or there is any other type of fuel that has passed it? I'm not looking for anything outrageous like a hurricane engine or a black hole engine, but some kind of reaction scientists...

I would like to know if there is any formula for calculating the necessary conditions for certain elements to undergo nuclear fusion. I know that before the quantum tunnel effect was proposed, theoretically nuclear fusion reactions shouldn't occur in the Sun; with the increasing energy (affected...

Hello, I am posting to get some career advice about pursuing a career in fusion physics/engineering. With the construction of ITER in France and all the worldwide research into fusion as an energy source, I am extremely interested in the field and I want to help develop fusion technology. I am...

In fact I am not sure if this is the right place to ask such a question but I'm going to ask anyways, just tell me if I am in the wrong place. So I doing a little experiment with the Schröndinger's equation, but the problem is I can't find a certain function. You all know the Schrödingers...

Homework Statement How much total energy, kinetic energy and momentum is needed for Deuterium-Tritium fusion to happen when deuterium is accelerated and tritium is the target(v=0)? Which exothermic reactions are caused by the fusion?Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution I've calculated...

When two atoms undergo nuclear fusion, some of the mass is converted into energy, but where is this lost mass from? Atoms are composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons, but all three have all have set values for mass. What is the origin of this mass that is converted to energy?

The Threshold to Fusion Energy I'd like to start some conversation on Hohlraum design, particularly on the opportunity to construct a fullerene capsule as the ignition chamber for indirect-drive fusion. Given more than two decades of evolution in hohlraum configuration* there are many...

I read an article today stating that the possible explanation for the near total absence of heavier elements such as gold and uranium in many galaxies may be due to those galaxies not forming around a central black hole that has in absorbing one or more neutron stars causing fusion of neutrons...

I understand that the vast majority of our atomic warheads are fusion devices. I realize that fusion yields are potentially much larger than fission yields, but our most modern fusion warhead, the W88, has a maximum yield of "only" 475 kilotons, while the maximum theoretical yield of a fission...