define nuclear fission and nuclear fusion

Define nuclear fission and nuclear fusion how to#

At its core, the Sun fuses 620 million metric tons of hydrogen each second.

Source: Fusion powers the Sun The Sun generates its energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium. But nowadays also this way contains several insurmountable engineering challenges. For human potential nuclear energy sources, the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction controlled by magnetic confinement seems the most likely way. Fusion reactions have an energy density many times greater than nuclear fission, and fusion reactions are millions of times more energetic than chemical reactions.įusion power offers the opportunity of an almost inexhaustible source of energy for the future, but fusion technology presents real scientific andĮngineering challenges. Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei (e.g., D+T) collide at very high energy and fuse together.įor elements like uranium and thorium, fission will yield energy. In that case, the nuclear particles will be more tightly bound than they were in the lighter nuclei, and that decrease in mass comes off in the form of energy, according to the Albert Einstein relationship. Suppose the combined nuclear mass is less than that of iron at the peak of the binding energy curve. If light nuclei are forced together, they will fuse with a yield of energy because the mass of the combination will be less than the sum of the masses of the individual nuclei. In nuclear physics, nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei collide at very high energy and fuse together into a new nucleus, e.g., helium.

Define nuclear fission and nuclear fusion how to#

The problem is, we don’t know how to make the box “. “We say that we will put the Sun into a box.