How many reactions per second are needed to produce a power output of 15 MW?

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Homework Statement

Basically, I pretty much solved the problem I am working on. The fusion reaction I am working with is 2_1_H + 3_1_H --> 4_1_He + 1_0_n, and I determined the energy the reaction releases to be 17.5708 MeV. What I need to figure out now is how many of these reactions must occur per second to produce a power output of 15 MW.

Homework Equations

I was looking through the chapter and could not figure out which equations I can put together to solve this. But I did use E = deltam x c^2 to get my answer of 17.5708 MeV.

The Attempt at a Solution

I could not determine how to set up my work for this problem after going through the chapter. I was thinking of using the conversion factor for Curies, but I did not think it was relevant to my problem I am solving.

 

[chroot]

MeV is a unit of energy, which can be readily converted into joules.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=17.5708+MeV+in+joules&btnG=Google+Search

Next, since you need 15 MW of power, you need 15 million joules per second.

15 million joules per second, divided by the energy released by each reaction in joules, will give you reactions per second.

- Warren

 

[FlipStyle1308]

MeV is a unit of energy, which can be readily converted into joules.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=17.5708+MeV+in+joules&btnG=Google+Search

Next, since you need 15 MW of power, you need 15 million joules per second.

15 million joules per second, divided by the energy released by each reaction in joules, will give you reactions per second.

- Warren

This gave me an answer of 5.3356 x 10^18 reactions/s. Got it right. Thanks!