How does nuclear fusion actually work and why is it so hard when we already have nuclear fission?
In: 2
Fusion works by combining small atoms to make bigger ones. We know how to do it, not only can we see the Sun do it but we can use fission devices and lasers to cause it to happen.
The problem is controlling it. The Sun is super large, so we can’t do it that way, and it’s super dangerous, so we’re fortunately 93M miles away.
The fission pumped scheme works, that’s how hydrogen bombs work, but it’s not controllable. Using atomic bombs as a power source isn’t really something you want.
The laser scheme is safe, which is good, but it is being done on a very tiny scale – to avoid the possibility of accidents. It’s never going to be a good idea to make a hydrogen-bomb sized fusion reactor – what if it blew up.
So, we have super tiny and safe schemes that we’re trying to scale up safely. That’s going to take a very long time, because we’re already using pretty exotic stuff like superconducting magnets to control the super tiny version. The levels of magnetic field required to keep a power-plant sized reaction under control are difficult to achieve.
Latest Answers