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In 2019, National Geographic described nuclear fusion as the "holy grail for the future of nuclear power." Not only would it produce more energy more safely, it would also produce far less harmful radioactive waste than fission, from which weapons-grade material in spent fuel rods taking millions of years to decay requires extremely careful and expensive storage. What are the pros and cons of nuclear fusion? Harnessing, rather than unleashing, that inherent power will require self-sustaining, controlled "break-even" fusion. Humankind has already witnessed the power of thermonuclear bombs, which produce effectively an uncontrolled release of fusion energy. That's the scale of the task scientists are tackling – as well as keeping the whole thing under tight control. On Earth, where atmospheric pressure is roughly 1 bar, the interior of the ITER fusion reactor will need to reach 150 million degrees Celsius – 10 times hotter than the Sun's core. Overcoming that innate repulsion happens in the Sun's core because it is under immense pressure of gravity as well as heat – around 15 million degrees Celsius and 265 billion bar of pressure. But forcing two nuclei together is difficult because they're both positively charged, so they strongly repel one another. That’s what happens in the Sun's core, where hydrogen atoms fuse to produce helium and energy. "Thermo" here simply means heat, because that method relies on achieving fusion via extremely high temperatures. There are several theoretical methods to attain fusion, but the one most exciting the modern scientific community is thermonuclear fusion. Eager scientists have pursued the harnessing of nuclear fusion's power-generating capacity for almost three-quarters of a century –the UK Atomic Energy Authority patented a fusion reactor in 1946 – but without reliable success. Each reaction releases energy, which can be harnessed for destruction – the bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 were fission, but fusion was behind the second-generation "H-bomb" and can generate vast amounts of power. In fission, the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei in fusion, two or more nuclei combine. There are two types of nuclear power: fission and fusion. "We try to understand nature and then we try, with the best of human imagination, to recreate what nature shows us."īut what is nuclear fusion, what are its advantages and disadvantages and when – if at all – is it likely to happen? "The concept of recreating that incredible energy source here on Earth is a typical human approach – to take the best of nature," enthused Bigot. Visibly excited as his dream neared reality, the septuagenarian leader of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project today invited the world to celebrate an important milestone in a scientific quest that has lasted his entire lifetime.īernard Bigot was speaking at the formal launch of the "tokamak" assembly that aims to recreate the source of energy that powers everything in our galaxy not so much harnessing solar power as creating it. Without fusion taking place in the Sun, we would have no light or warmth and there would be no light on Earth" - Bernard Bigot, ITER director-general. These broken nuclei then go and bombard other nuclei, those nuclei then break into more nuclei and this process can go on and on releasing a tremendous amount of energy."It is because of hydrogen fusion that we are all alive today. When the nucleus breaks, some matter is lost, this small amount of matter is converted into a large amount of energy. In nuclear fission, the nucleus of an atom breaks into two or more nuclei (plural for nucleus).Nuclear Fission is the process through which energy is created in nuclear power plants.A little bit of matter is left out- that little bit of matter is converted into a lot of energy. Inside the sun- where it is very hot, the nucleus of one atom and the nucleus of another atom come together and become one.The Sun produces sunlight through nuclear fusion.All matter is made up of molecules, molecules are made up of atoms and atoms have a nucleus and electrons.When matter fuses together to release energy, that is nuclear fusion.What is the relationship between matter and energy? Matter is anything and everything in the universe that occupies space. The world you see around us has many things and all of this is made up of matter. Nuclear Fission and Nuclear Fusion are reactions which convert matter into energy.