NUCLEAR FUSION
In Nuclear Fusion the nuclei of atoms fuse together, causing much more energy being released than in Nuclear Fission. This is the process which powers the Sun. Here the Deuterium and Tritium atoms (these are the isotopes of Hydrogen:- these have extra neutrons in the nucleus than normal) fuse together to form He. Energy is released due to a difference in mass between He atoms compared with the sum of the Hydrogen atoms therefore it is conclusive evidence that some mass is converted into energy via Einstein’s relationship of E=mc2; where E=Energy, m=mass of nuclei, and c=speed of light (3x108). This is why the energy (E) released is greater in fusion than in fission because of a very large mass deficit (m).
PROS AND CONS OF NUCLEAR FUSION
| PROS | CONS |
| There is a lot more energy released during fusion than fission so would be more profitable once set up. | Fusion will only occur at temperatures of 10-15 million Kelvin (K), hence there is no point of producing energy since it is not profitable. |
| Hardly any waste produced compared to Nuclear Fusion, so no money wasted in disposing Nuclear waste. | Even if fusion did take place, it would be far ahead of it’s time since no material exists which can cope with temperatures of 10-15 million K. |
| Fusion could power the entire world at a very low cost compared with power sources today. Fusion would not be depleted like non-renewable sources today since it would be possible to make hydrogen nuclei manually as it is a very simple element (requires only 1 proton and 1 neutron). | At the moment the only profitable way for fusion to occur is using cold fusion*, but this has not yet been discovered. (*cold fusion is fusion at low enough temperatures to make profits because this would mean that the output energy would be greater than input energy ). |
CONCLUSION: For the moment the only way to produce energy using nuclear power is via nuclear fission. This is because Physicists are still trying to discover ways in which to produce energy using cold fusion. If discovered all our energy crisis would be solved.