How does nuclear fusion actually work and why is it so hard when we already have nuclear fission?
In: 2
Okay, so.
Fission is ‘easy’ because the radioactive materials that are used for fuel are already unstable and will easily break down to more stable materials, releasing the energy needed.
Fusion is a whole other ballgame.
It’s forcing two atoms together into one atom.
Fusion is ‘easy’ in the heart of a star because the insane amounts of pressure within the star’s interior. With that kind of pressure, you don’t need insane amounts of energy to force the atoms to fuse.
We can’t produce those levels of pressure, so we have to compensate by increasing the energy. We ‘can’ do it, but it takes a lot of energy and the whole point is to create a situation where we’re getting substantially more energy out of the fusion than we’re putting in.
And we’re not there yet.
Latest Answers