Hydrogen fusion on the earth could make use of the reactions: Compare with fissionĮven though a lot of energy is required to overcome the Coulomb barrier and initiate hydrogen fusion, the energy yields are enough to encourage continued research. The deuterium fuel is abundant, but tritium must be either bred from lithium or gotten in the operation of the deuterium cycle. 80% of that energy yield is in the energy of the neutron, which is not as easily utilized as if it were carried by a charged particle. The reaction yields 17.6 MeV of energy but to achieve fusion one must penetrate the coulomb barrier with the aid of tunneling, requiring very high temperatures. The most promising of the hydrogen fusion reactions which make up the deuterium cycle is the fusion of deuterium and tritium. However, for the fueling of the stars, other fusion reactions will dominate. For elements heavier than iron, fission will yield energy.įor potential nuclear energy sources for the Earth, the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction contained by some kind of magnetic confinement seems the most likely path. ![]() If the combined nuclear mass is less than that of iron at the peak of the binding energy curve, then 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 Einstein relationship. ![]() 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.
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