Sustainability of Nuclear Fusion

- Nuclear fusion is amazing because the reaction will never become uncontrollable, unlike nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is used in current nuclear facilities and anytime there is not enough water or the water is too hot, the reactions will not stop.  Three Mile Island is a perfect example of an out of control nuclear fission reaction. It was a tragic event that happened in Pennsylvania. Uranium will not stop the fission and decay processes if the reaction gets out of control. It will continue to heat the water or whatever may be surrounding the uranium to extreme temperatures, also known as decay.

- An unfortunate truth about nuclear fusion is that it cannot yet be sustained indefinitely here on Earth Physicists have been working on the fusion reactor for a very long time, and still there is no for sure date as to when fusion power plants will be installed. Nuclear fusion is an exact science and requires very precise conditions in which temperature, pressure and a magnetic field are all controlled. Restating what has been said earlier in the web page, it takes immense heat and energy to penetrate the barrier of electrical repulsion. Again, this is the process that two identically charged atoms repel each other because of their charge.

-The sun contains mass amounts of pressure and heat so the reactions are easily reached. Here on Earth electrical repulsion and electrostatic forces are hard to overcome and because of this most atoms will not fuse together naturally. Electrical repulsion is where two atoms will not join together because of their identical electron charges it will cause an electrical repulsion force. Furthermore, the electrostatic force is known as “Coulomb’s Barrier”, which is a much harder force to overcome. The force required to break the identical positive nuclei charge in order to join two atoms together needs to be created. So in order to fuse atoms together, they need to be heated to extreme temperatures as it will give them more energy. This process is known by nuclear physicists as thermonuclear fusion.

- There is promise however. It has been said, which people listen with the medium (also a part of physics, sound travels with a velocity of 340 meters/second, speed = frequency * wavelength) that exists on Earth for noise to travel. Physicists suspect that nuclear fusion will be implemented as a resource for energy in fifty years; however that number is subject to change depending on:

a) Advancement in technology.

b) Amount of money put into research of usable nuclear fusion.

c) Amount of people putting research into usable nuclear fusion.