RADboy said:
fission typically uses U-235 and fusion titrium- deuterium for their reactions. which is more easily obtained and more plentiful? also I've heard of a new fission fuel called thorium which has a radioactive half-life under a 10 years and is plentiful so, any info on this stuff will be appreciated.
regarding fusion... i know fission reactions release more energy per reaction because they're "stacked" with U-235 fuel. why isn't it possible to "stack" tritium-deuterium to achieve more output energy for a fusion reaction?
I'm not sure what one means by 'stacked'. Nuclear fission, which typically occurs in certain heavy nuclei, e.g., U
234* (= U
233+n), U
236*(= U
235+n), or Pu
240* (= Pu
239 + n), releases about 200 MeV of energy in the form of kinetic energy of two lighter nuclei, the fission products, gamma-rays, and subsequent decays of the fission products, which includes beta and gamma emission.
d+t => He
4 + n + 17.6 MeV.
One cannot change d or t, otherwise they'd be different elements/isotopes.
d = deuteron, or nucleus of a deuterium atom, and t = triton or nucleus of tritium atoms, both isotopes of hydrogen. Deuterum occurs in small quantities naturally, and tritum less so. Otherwise, deuterium and tritium are produced by artifical (manmade) nuclear reactions.
Thorium and uranium are naturally found and relatively abundant, but they are not infinite.
Thorium 232 has a half-live in the billions of years, but to useful as a fuel source, it is generally necessary to convert it to U-233, the fissile U-isotope. This is done in a thermal or epithermal breeder reactor, as opposed to a fast reactor, which is used to convert U-238 to Pu-239/240/241.
Look here for some basic notes on fission and fusion.
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/nucene/nucbin.html#c5