Fusion Definition and 849 Threads

Could quasars be generating energy from fusion? I mean with all that material falling on it...

[Moderator note: Thread moved from technical section, thus no template is shown] Hi everyone! I'm currently learning nuclear physics and I have a question: Watching the binding energy per nucleon curve, is the following reaction energetically favorable? 2H + 4He -> 6Li And why? Thanks!

Essentially, I'm wondering (knowing virtually nothing at present), what is at the front of modern research in the realm of energy. Whether this be renewable energy, or simply more efficient ways of using energy (e.g. fuel cells?). I assume nuclear fusion will be mentioned too, so what obstacles...

<< Disclaimer by PF -- You may need to get government permits to operate a reactor that produces neutrons and radiation, and this could potentially be a dangerous project >> Hello, I recently finished building a functioning IEC fusion reactor and posted a video of its construction and...

Hello everybody, Is there a way to calculate/predict the electron number density of a plasma? Thanks in advance

1. Homework Statement Homework Equations First law of thermodynamics, ΔU=q+W The Attempt at a Solution Ok so, I know that when liquid evaporates, the change in volume is much greater than that when solid melts. And for both cases, distance of separation of atoms increases too, so PE...

Hi folks, IMO, it should be possible to initiate a nuclear fusion of H1-H2 and H2-H2 in crystals of Lithium Hydride induced by gamma photons emitted form decay of Na24. Could anyone please verify if the following is correct? By using nuclear photodisintegration effect, we need a gamma photon...

Hello all! In my Nuclear Power assignment I decided to analyse this graph: I mention that "The difference in atomic mass and binding energy per nucleon for deuterium and helium (fusion elements) is ≈3u and 5.96 MeV respectively. However, for all elements past Iron (fission elements) the...

Homework Statement Ok, these questions are very simple but they are really bugging me and I would greatly appreciate an explanation. Question 1 is "which of the following elements must have been made in stars". The options are hydrogen, helium, carbon, oxygen and iron. Question 2 is "which of...

Hello, all! I am involved in a discussion where the topic is the heat of fusion for hydrogen. From what I've found, the heat of fusion for H2 is around 22.5 million °F and the average house fire is no more than 1,800 °F or so. So, what I'm trying to find is, how far from 0.10 grams of a...

Hi, I have heard that fusion can generate power and potentially make breeder reactors obsolete; but to even bring atoms close enough to fuse, wouldn't take a significant amount of energy in the first place? I feel like we are allotting high voltage toward fusion and getting a lesser...

has anyone looked into the possibility of nuclear fusion without neutrons? it would make IEC fusion easier without all the neutrons running around making things radioactive and wearing them down. I am wondering if p-B11 (proton-boron11) fusion is really an aneutronic fuel. deuterium-Helium3...

I'm looking to figure out how fast ions are traveling in the fusor I have access to. The chamber is roughly 12-14" long, with a central electrode charged to 75 kV and 5 mA. Is the type of ion relevant? What would I have to do to figure out how fast the ions are moving?

In a nutshell: is there any free software, which can take as input full description of a relatively large system (20-100 light atoms + photons), simulate its evolution over a period of time, and tell the probability of fusion over that time? If there's no such thing available, how close could...

Hello Everybody i hope you all will be fine, can some one tell me about the activation analysis of fusion? why Activation is needed in Fusion reactor? what methodology can be used for this calculation?

I'm looking into a science fair project involving proving the existence of tritium in the exhaust of a Farnsworth fusor, and was wondering what the ideal method to prove it is. I've thought of three so far. The first is ionizing the gas and analyzing the spectra. The second is placing an alpha...

Homework Statement I'm given that for water near 0 degrees, dp/dT = ##-1.4\times 10^7PaK^-1##. And that water has a specific volume of ##1\times 10^{-3}m^3kg^{-1}##, while for ice the specific volume is ##1.09\times 10^{-3}m^3kg^{-1}##. Calculate the latent heat of fusion L for ice, and...

Homework Statement The graph below shows the result of an investigation in which an initially solid specimen of nitrogen absorbs heat a constant rate. Nitrogen melts at 63 K and the specific heat capacity of solid nitrogen is 1.6 kJ kg^-1 K^-1. Homework Equations shc od solid nitrogen = 1.6...

Hello everyone, I have a question about nuclear fusion. Deuterium-Tritium fusion generates 3.4 * 1014 J/kg when you have a mixture of around 400 grams of deuterium and 600 grams of tritium. My question is: what is the rate at which this fusion reaction takes place? Is there a formula for the...

So, I was wondering this; since fusion takes two atoms and combines them into one nucleus, can that increase the density of the resulting nucleus?

I just read an interesting article on a fusion reactor that was fired up and actually produced hydrogen plasma just like in our own sun. How practical is this technology? And is it safer than fission reactors? What's the waste products if any this will produce? I know its very early faze, but it...

Hello everyone, I have a question about nuclear fusion. The simplest form of nuclear fusion is the fusion of 4 hydrogen atoms into 1 helium atom. Jupiter has a mass close to 1.9 * 1027 kg and around 90% of its mass consists out of hydrogen -> 0.9 * 1.9 * 10 27 = 1.71 * 1027 kg. I know that it...

I can't tell the difference between fusion and fission reactions. I know alpha decay is when when Hydrogen is one of products and beta decay is when there is an electron but how do you tell the difference between fusion and fission?

Thank you for opening my first thread. I have just began studying Physics at a university in Hungary and would like to get some information about Network Science and Plasma Phyics/Nuclear Fusion. I am looking for a branche in Physics in which I can do research in the coming years and get a job...

I'm wondering if a fusion reactor would make its walls more radioactive thru neutron activation than a fission reactor, for a given amount of energy. It seems to me that (hydrogen) fusion produces most of its energy as neutrons that are unlikely to absorbed by the sparse near vacuum plasma...

Would it be possible that you could create a black hole from heating something really hot. I heard Vsauce said if you heat something hot enough that it's wave length of the light released is smaller than the plank length, it would become a black hole. That means that the energy would be on the...

Homework Statement In a particular nuclear reaction, a neutron moving at 3.6×105ms−1 has a 70% chance of initiating a nuclear fusion reaction. Which of the following options is a possible probability of a neutron moving at 2.2×105ms−1 initiating the same nuclear reaction? I wouldn't be asking...

Hydrogen fusion as described by proton-proton chain reaction that dominates in the sun produces two positrons for each helium nucleus produced. These annihilate with free electrons while the number of protons remain the same. Over time the sun is supposed to become positively charged, yet the...

I have this project in school for settlement on moon. I have this idea that the large quantities of He 3 on moon could be extracted by heating the regolith at 700 degrees celsius and then could be taken to a reactor in which He 3 could be fused with Deuterium or itself. The heat produced could...

Hello all, This might sound very optimistic for a project but I want to design a thermonuclear fusion reactor. Does anyone know how I can calculate the required plasma current I need in order to start a thermonuclear fusion process? I am using a mixture of Deuterium-Tritium gas. Thanks!

I'm writing a paper for my teacher, not an assignment, just because I was interested in the topic. I've searched a lot of websites, but most only talk about fusing two atoms, and not saying if it is possible to fuse more than two at the same time.

I do think that the idea I had recently and one that I have been pondering about since is something mundane. Specifically because its so simple. Yet its an abstract one that I would like to know more about it from someone who can take the time to think about it and write a paragraph or two. In...

I would like to share this recent article by Linda Gunter: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/11/the-false-promise-of-nuclear-fusion/Are renewables really the future of an increasingly energy hungry human civilization, as mentioned by Linda? Or can we use HITACHI's PRISM reactors to solve the...

Hello everyone and happy new year! I would like to ask why it takes so long to create nuclear fusion power plants. The world's first nuclear fission power plant to generate electricity was started in 1954, some nine years after the nuclear fission bomb was detonated. Now we are more than 50...

this question might be a bit stupid, but if the plasma in the fusion reactor has very high temperature, then how do we make the chamber not melt? i mean, not to join? contact? each other(chamber wall and plasma). do we use magnetic field to make the distance? then how do we do that?

Recently, Germany broke headlines when they fired up their nuclear fusion reactor. As I'm sure most everyone on this forum knows this, they plan on creating fusion by heating plasma to absurd temperatures while containing it in a magnetic field. What method do they use to heat the gas and...

Hi, On Wikipedia (here), we can find that in following channels of nuclear fusion reactions: H-2 + H-3 -> He-4 (3.5 MeV) + n (14.1 Mev) H-2 + H-2 -> H-3 (1.01 MeV) + H-1 (3.02 MeV) H-2 + H-2 -> He-3 (0.82 MeV) + n (2.45 MeV) H-2 + He-3 -> He-4 (3.6 MeV) + H-1 (14.7 MeV) The released energy is...

Would it be possible to mechanically trap deuterium and tritum atoms and squeeze them together in a nutcracker type device to fuse them? I believe we have technology to manipulate individual atoms, or at least small quantities, and it should be possible to get them into a vise. This would avoid...

When you do a Z-pinch and deuterium is present in the plasma there will be fusion; now I wonder about other elements or isotopes. If, say a Lithium wire, is imploded in a Z-pinch will there be fusion and bursts of neutrons? Or if you use a mixture of He and Li or whatever light elements...

http://gehitachiprism.com/what-is-prism/how-prism-works/ Said to be able to generate very little nuclear waste. Highly energy efficient. Given the technical challenges of nuclear fusion, will PRISM be a more easily manageable alternative?

Question about fusion power sources. An article I just read stated that they would be safe as if anything went wrong they would just stop working. Is this correct ? If so than why do stars continue to burn and seem (to me at least) to be self feeding. Respectfully, Pat Hagar

I was wondering if you could use a very strong magnetic field to produce nuclear fusion. The basic idea is a spherical cavity containing Deuterium (and possibly tritium) nuclei whose walls will be electromagnets whose fields slowly increase in strength and will repel the nuclei and thus the ball...

I am interested in applying plasma physics in nuclear fusion program in France or Germany . Both are good in this field , but where i can get good scholarships and i am from electrical engineering background so where i have better chance of getting admitted.

Hey guys, I'm working on a homework problem about nuclear fusion in stars and am..stuck on the first step: calculating the temperature needed for protons to come within 2 fm of one another and overcome Coulomb repulsion. 1. Homework Statement Given that the protons have an average kinetic...

Thank you for opening my first thread. I have just began studying Physics at a university in Hungary and would like to get some information about Physics of Complex Systems and Plasma Phyics/Nuclear Fusion. In my life, finding a goal have always helped me work harder and focus on my studies...

Hi I have a really weird idea that is robbing me of my sleep. One of the many problems with fusion seems to be how to harvest the energy released by the reaction efficiently. So as I was slowly drifting into sleep I was wondering, how we usually harvest energy from reactions, and the piston...

Hello All, I am a junior physics undergraduate and I am looking at graduate programs in physics. My field of interest is fusion physics (plasma physics, nuclear fusion and the like). Due to balancing obligations outside of school with my classes, I will be limited in the number of upper level...

http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2015/08/secretive-fusion-company-makes-reactor-breakthroughAbove is a link to a news story about the recent Tri Alpha Energy “breakthrough”. It looks to me like a very nice development in increased stability of a proposed reactor design. Tri Alpha emphasizes...

I finished my bachelors in electronics and communication in 2014 from India. Since then I have worked as an Application Engineer in the VLSI domain at a reputed company. I would like to transition to Nuclear Fusion Physics. I am planning to give my Physics GRE in October 2015. Some background...

I have done my Bachelors in Electronics and Communication in 2014. I am looking to get into a Nuclear Fusion based graduate program.