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VIVA – Nuclear fusion is the reaction that churns at the hearts of stars, in which two light atomic nuclei merge into a single heavier nucleus. Fusion produces very little nuclear waste and no greenhouse gas emissions. It has long been touted as a potential clean energy alternative to conventional energy sources.
Fusion occurs when two light atoms bond together, or fuse, to make a heavier one. The total mass of the new atom is less than that of the two that formed it; the "missing" mass is given off as energy, as described by Albert Einstein's famous E=mc2 equation.
According to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, usually, atomic nuclei repel each other because they have the same charge. High temperatures, pressures, or both are required to overcome this repulsion. On Earth, temperatures in nuclear fusion reactors reach nearly six times those found in the core of the sun.
In this condition, hydrogen is no longer a gas but a plasma, an extremely high-energy state of matter in which electrons are stripped from their atoms.
Energi fusi nuklir.
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As launched by Live Science, on December 15, 2022, fusion is the dominant source of energy for stars in the universe. It is also a potential energy source on Earth if scientists can figure out how to get more energy out of the reaction than it requires to initiate it.
When set off in an intentionally uncontrolled chain reaction, nuclear fusion drives the hydrogen bomb. Fusion is also being considered as a possibility to power crafts through space.
Nuclear fusion energy will produce commercial energy from nuclear fusion reactions. Scientists have been pursuing this goal for decades. Fusion is an attractive alternative to existing conventional energy sources because it produces little radioactive waste or greenhouse gases and requires only relatively simple materials.
The key to this limitless clean power is to produce more energy from the reaction than it takes to produce it.
In 2022, scientists with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) announced that for the first time, a nuclear fusion core produced more energy than it consumed.
The ignition facility uses laser beams to confine a plasma of deuterium and tritium, two isotopes, or versions, of hydrogen. But experts say a viable commercial fusion reactor is likely decades away. That's because to heat the plasma, scientist must draw energy from the electrical grid.
So, to make the reaction viable, the energy produced by the reaction must also account for the sizable amount of energy lost as electricity is converted to the light that powers the lasers.
