oktovan
- 2
- 0
Is there any other elements that can be used for fusion?
Drakkith said:The easiest material to get to fusion is tritium and deuterium. Lithium is used because during the multi-stage process of detonation, it is turned into tritium.
mesa said:So the Li6 gets hit by a neutron and breaks into a tritium and two deuterium isotpoes or some other arrangement of the nuetrons and protons?
oktovan said:Is there any other elements that can be used for fusion?
Drakkith said:The easiest material to get to fusion is tritium and deuterium. Lithium is used because during the multi-stage process of detonation, it is turned into tritium.
mfb said:Drakkith's statement is true, as D+T (one proton each) is easier than any reaction with helium (2 protons) or even heavier nuclei. The advantage of helium-3 is the possibility to have a fusion reaction without (free) neutrons.
tasp77 said:You also have less energy released per pair of nuclei fused as you go from hydrogen to iron. Even if it turned out to be 'relatively' easy to fuse neon into calcium (to cite a fanciful example), the expected energy pay off for the reaction would be low.