Fusion Definition and 874 Threads

Hello, I am a junior in high school, and for the past few years nuclear physics has caught my attention. Mainly Nuclear Fusion. I have done some reading on the subject and I have looked around but I am having some difficulties finding what exactly I should start with studying first. Nuclear...

Why can't we use fusion for power generation? What are the problems with fusion power, and what are the limiting factors for construction?

I am inquiring as to what the theorem function is for the mean product of cross section and velocity for stellar fusion reactions? \langle \sigma v \rangle Mean product of nuclear fusion cross section and velocity. \langle \sigma v \rangle Maxwell–Boltzmann probability density function: f(v)...

Hello, I am doing a small research investigation into whether Nuclear Fusion will provide a safer and as efficient energy source as current Fission technology. Just interested if anybody has opinions on the topic and what their stance is on Nuclear Fusion, do they think it can work, any...

Hello nice people!:smile: As we all know, nuclear fusion energy in a tokamak power plant has to regenerate the tritium it burns, if fusion is to replace most fission reactors. We all now as well that this implies a neutron multiplier at the blankets, for which lead seems to be the only...

Recently I have placed here the new - viable by my opinion Concept how to produce fusion. By some reasons I have decided not to file the patent application and so for discussing now I am placing here the description of Cyclic Reactor on base of that Concept. Ioseb (Joseph) Chikvashvili

I was just wondering if, through all the fusion test done over the years, if anybody has ever mesaured the lux given off dureing a reaction?

Hello again, Physics Forums. I'm designing a Sci-Fi story and I'm fleshing out the background details. For it's sake, education, and my own curiosity, I was wondering if I could have some help with a few things related to the physics of it. A bit of an armchair Rocket Engineer, I'm using...

Hey all, I'm working in a lab and am trying to build a heat sink. Basically, I need to find the heat of fusion of a certain metal alloy (which contains multiple elements). The alloy consists of 50% Bismuth 26.7 Lead 13.3 Tin and 10% Cadmium. How do I find the heat of fusion? Is it the...

After poureing over countless fusion related text and information an idea struck me: Why is breakeven, breakeven? If the amount of energy you can extract off of a fusion reaction is highly effiecent and the fusion production method is equaly effiecent, then wouldn't that mean that input to...

essentailly cyclotrons are used to smash one atom into another. can it be done to fuse atoms? oh and i read that cyclotrons are used to treat canncer. they shoot ionizing particles at the cancer while, avoiding non cancer tissue. if anyone knows the best way to cure cancer in terms of...

Hello, I was just wondering if anybody could give me any ideas about a possible direction in a Physics issues investigation. I am looking at choosing one around nuclear energy and the issues of radiation. Any help or interesting sugestions of avenues in nuclear physics, and or possibe guiding...

1. Rank from greatest to least the reduction of mass per nucleon that accompanies the fusion of the following pairs of nuclei: a. Two hydrogen nuclei b. Two carbon nuclei c. Two aluminum nuclei d. Two iron nuclei 2. n/a 3. I know fusion is when two elements are combined and...

Some scientists have reported up to date success with such devices as tokamaks and Z-pinch devices by reporting neutron radiation that they registered inside such reactors.It gives them hope to build such a devices as ITER for following fusion researches. Meanwhile there have been overlooked...

I've been intrigued to see the Rossi claims being dismissed outright here, without any apparent examination of the evidence. There is pathological science, but there is the opposite - pathological refusal to accept any evidence. Personally, as a scientist and engineer, I prefer to keep an...

? Nuclear Fusion Homework Statement Two deuterium nuclei overcome the Coulomb force of repulsion and attain the necessary 1 × 10−14 m distance for fusion. What is the minimum initial velocity of each nuclei, as measured in the center-of- mass frame? The permittivity of free space is 8.85419 ×...

fission typically uses U-235 and fusion titrium- deuterium for their reactions. which is more easily obtained and more plentiful? also I've heard of a new fission fuel called thorium which has a radioactive half-life under a 10 years and is plentiful so, any info on this stuff will be...

i'm new to nuclear power and i wanted to know some things ANY help/ insight would be appreciated. I am still in high school and I am just interested in nuclear power 1. does fusion always involve just 2 atoms? i know that fusion and fission both require huge amounts of energy so, is there no...

Curious, why does He3 fusion (3He + 3He → 4He+ 2p) create He4 + 2 protons instead of Beryllium? (or any other arbitrary rearrangement of the protons & neutrons)

At what mass (if any) could a perfectly spherical, stationary object, without the influence of external gravitational forces, achieve fusion in space? Why/why not? What would, or would not, be the outcome of the sphere? Please supply link(s) to additional information.

Hello Guys, I have some questions relating to Cold Fusion / Low Energy Fusion. It seems Gamma Rays are not present from Cold Fusion experiments and Neutrons cannot be seen released from a sonar luminance reaction within the same nanosecond of time as the Alpha Process Completes...

Rusi Taleyarkhan published many papers in pretty well-respected journals claiming that he was able to achieve hydrogen-hydrogen fusion using bubble cavitation/sonoluminescence. However he was found guilty of falsifying his research and got his funding revoked. Has anyone with a background in...

What do you guys think about this? [crackpot link deleted] Personally I think this should be researched with utmost effort of the science community. Had to do research on this. I am not a nuclear physicist but i have some knowledge of electrochemistry and nuclear chemistry. Peer reviewed...

Where does the heat come from? What pushes the atoms together?

Homework Statement The explosive fusion occurs in several steps, but the ultimate result is that carbon is fused into nickel Assuming that the entire white dwarf is carbon that fuses to nickel, show that the energy released in the explosion overcomes the gravitational potential energy, thus...

I haven't thought about it TOO much, but it seems that you should only get power from either fusing atoms or splitting (fissing?) them, but how come both? Wouldn't that mean you could continually fuse and split atoms for continual energy gain? (My currrent thought against that is, that you can...

I keeps seeing news about iran making uranium and everybody is using nuclear fission bombs instead of nuclear fusion. Hydrogen bombs are much more powerful because they use fusion, but still all countries that have nuclear weapons use uranium fission bombs, Why? What advantage does fission...

What do you guys make of this?? http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/17/nuclear-future-beyond-japan/ It says, and i quote: Which makes me feel at least partly safe posting this on PF. Any thoughts?

Basically as the title says, what type of fusion would give the highest number of neutrons for a given amount of power. Also am I correct in assuming that most fusion methods will always produce more neutrons than other neutron sources such as americium-beryllium? (There are probably some...

Homework Statement The ice piece of 380 g was taken from the deep-freezer, temperature was -9,6 °C, and well insulated container to the being stone-cold ( 0 °C) water. Inside the Ice piece was small temperature detector. When temperature of the the ice piece had balanced 0 °C. part of the...

Note: Fusion engineering, not pure fusion. I've seen a few of these programs around (like at UC Berkeley or MIT) and was wondering if that was all that is needed to do industry or academic level research or is a PhD necesary. I would really prefer to spend as little time in school as possible.

I had a question after having read an article in an old Popular Science magazine I found at a children's Hospital. These two guys apparently are building a nuclear fusion generator that's going to excite hydrogen plasma inside of a magnetic "sphere", and then they're going to use magnetic...

Homework Statement In a fusion reaction, the nuclei of two atoms join to form a single atom of a different element. In such a reaction, a fraction of the rest energy of the original atoms is converted to kinetic energy of the reaction products. A fusion reaction that occurs in the Sun converts...

I was hoping someone could help clear up a few things about fusion for me. I've read that fission produces around 1,000,000 times more energy than any chemical recation and that fusion produces 3 to 4 times more energy than fission. I can only find 'estimated' numbers like these, but is there...

Most research on nuclear fusion obviously is done in materials for containing and generating the plasma and this is not the speciality of a nuclear physicist. Is there actually anything for nuclear physicists to do for research other than figuring out a totally new path for achieving fusion?

We did a calorimeter experiment in my school however the teacher warned us that the latent heat of fusion of ice value will be different from the standard value because the ice has water in it and because the ice melts little before actually doing the experiment. However my question is which way...

Hello,I've been wondering if any of you can suggest an internet source that explains nuclear fusion in a not too complicated way.My problem was,that I need it to make a presentation in physics class,but the simple ways it explains it,it says things like ''protons and neutrons are clumped...

Homework Statement the heat of fusion of water is 6.01 kj/mol. the heat capacity of liquid water is 75.3 j/mol*k. the conversion of 50g of ice at 0 degrees C to liquid water at 22 degrees C requires _____kj of heat. The Attempt at a Solution i converted grams of ice to mols and got 2.778...

Q. Our present theory of the sun and the mechanism of thermonuclear fusion inside it predicts that the following reactions occur in the sun. 1H + 1H --> 2H + antielectron + neutrino 1H + 1H --> 2H + antielectron + neutrino electron + antielectron --> photon + photon electron +...

Homework Statement Our present theory of the sun and the mechanism of thermonuclear fusion inside it predicts that the following reactions occur in the sun. 1H + 1H --> 2H + antielectron + neutrino 1H + 1H --> 2H + antielectron + neutrino electron + antielectron --> photon + photon...

Hi everyone, I am studying the feasibility of using the collision of two beams to obtain nuclear fusion energy. I would like you to recommend me some serious and intersting articles about this. Is there any experiment that does fusion by beam collitions already? Im open to hear about any...

Hi everyone, Im currently in the way of learning about fusion to prepare myself for a thesis in this area. The method of colliding beams was what came to my mind the most naturally at first and it has catched my interest ever since. So, this is what i want to ask: Is there any serious...

Homework Statement A small 50:50 D-T pellet of density p=3g/cm^3 is used for inertial fusion. Estimate minimum energy and power of the laser device required to heat the pellet to T=10^4 eV and to achieve the energy break-even condition Homework Equations Lawson criteria: nt>10^20...

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-italian-scientists-cold-fusion-video.html I know you guys had to have seen this article by now. I am a just a tech guy so most of this is over my head but I am curious what you guys think about it. Is it possible? If you combine Hydrogen with Ni62 or Ni64...

Anything to this? Or are these guys quacks? Anybody know? http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-italian-scientists-cold-fusion-video.html

e^- + e^+\rightarrow\overline{\nu}_e + \nu_e + H Can it possible for this process happen in lab frame? i.e. the positron is accelerated to collide with the electron target.

I am hopeful that the new large ITER tokamak style fusion reactor will be successful. According to wikipedia: The ITER fusion reactor itself has been designed to produce 500 MW of output power for 50 MW of input power, or ten times the amount of energy put in. Hereby the machine is...

why is "melting" called "fusion"? any idea why is "melting" called "fusion"? molecules during melting are moving farther apart, they are not "fusing" together. It seems counterintuitive to call "melting" "fusion"

I was looking over an old qualifying exam and I came across a problem asking what the maximum height of a mountain on Earth could be. The solution states that the rock at the base of the mountain will melt and flow away when the potential energy of the top layer of the mountain is equal to the...

Hello, Why is confinement a big problem in fusion and not in fission? Is it simply due to the fact that in fission, we're injecting a neutron that is neutral, and in fusion we're pushing together charged particles? If so, why is that facet not taken care of by reaching the critical ignition...