fusion

Examples of fusion in the following topics:

• Nuclear Fusion

  • In nuclear fusion two or more atomic nuclei collide at very high speed and join, forming a new nucleus.
  • The fusion of lighter elements in stars releases energy and mass.
  • Research into controlled fusion, with the aim of producing fusion power for the production of electricity, has been conducted for over 60 years.
  • At present, controlled fusion reactions have been unable to produce self-sustaining controlled fusion reactions.
  • Analyze possibility of the use of nuclear fusion for the production of electricity.

• Conservation of Nucleon Number and Other Laws

  • Through radioactive decay, nuclear fusion and nuclear fission, the number of nucleons (sum of protons and neutrons) is always held constant.
  • Finally, nuclear fusion follows the Law of Conservation of Nucleon Number.
  • Consider the fusion of deuterium and tritium (both hydrogen isotopes):
  • It is well understood that the tremendous amounts of energy released by nuclear fission and fusion can be attributed to the conversion of mass to energy.
  • Thus, the number of nucleons before and after fission and fusion is always constant.

• Nuclear Weapons

  • A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions—either fission, fusion, or a combination.
  • A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion.
  • The first fusion (i.e., thermonuclear "hydrogen") bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 10,000,000 tons of TNT.

• B.10 Chapter 10

  • If you assume that whenever the deuterons overlap they fuse and that you get to "roll the dice'' once each oscillation period, calculate the fusion rate in both cases.
  • It turns out that the rate-limiting step in muonic fusion is the formation of muonic molecules which takes about one thousand times longer than the fusion, but even this is not the killer.
  • It is the fact that about one percent of the time the muon stays stuck to the fusion product so cannot catalyse another reaction.
  • The first person to consider muon-catalysed fusion was John David Jackson, and Eugene Wigner suggested that "alpha sticking'' could be a problem.
  • This process was the original "cold fusion,'' and it almost breaks even (within a factor of a few).

• Problems

  • If you assume that whenever the deuterons overlap they fuse and that you get to "roll the dice'' once each oscillation period, calculate the fusion rate in both cases.

• Nuclear Fission in Reactors

• Other Forms of Energy

  • Nuclear Energy: This type of energy is liberated during the nuclear reactions of fusion and fission.

• Gamma Decay

  • Gamma decay from excited states may also follow nuclear reactions such as neutron capture, nuclear fission, or nuclear fusion.

• Internal Energy

  • Nuclear fusion in the sun converts nuclear potential energy into available internal energy and keeps the temperature of the Sun very high.

• Phase Changes and Energy Conservation

  • These amounts of energy are the molar heat of vaporization and molar heat of fusion.