Nuclear Fusion

As we have learned, stars manufacture their energy through nuclear fusion. According to Modern Physics by Serway, Moses, and Moyer, nuclear fusion occurs "[w]hen two light nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus," and is both a confirmation and consequence of special relativity. It is very thought-provoking that "the total rest mass of the products is less than that of the reactants" in a reaction, but this fact and the amount of energy released during nuclear fusion demonstrate Einstein's mass-energy equivalence. This has to do with the binding energy, and the amount depends on the atomic mass. The peak of the function of binding energy (pictured below) occurs at the mass number of iron, which means we cannot obtain elements "heavier" than iron through fusion.

Our textbook, An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Carroll and Ostlie, tells us that the likelihood of fusion depends on the kinetic energy of the collision. The peak from the graph below corresponds to the collision of two protons at the central temperature of the Sun and depends on a very narrow range of temperature of the gas and the charges and masses of the reactants involved. This makes fusion very difficult to achieve here on Earth...

Nevertheless, physicists are trying to find a way to convert water into deuterium and use it as fuel for controlled nuclear fusion. It seems impossible to even be able to originate nuclear fusion, let alone finding a way to control and then harness the staggering amount of energy it would create, and I don't like the fact that we would be using the most precious resource we have, but given our current energy crisis and the pursuit of cleaner, sustainable energy, it seems like at least a hopeful future candidate for a source of alternative fuel. On the plus side, the process isn't radioactive. Oh, and it isn't impossible. Click here to see how a 14-YEAR-OLD MADE A NUCLEAR FUSION REACTOR.

How a nuclear fusion reactor works: (according to howstuffworks.com)
In order to achieve the high temperatures and pressures needed for nuclear fusion, reactors will either use magnetic confinement, which uses electromagnetism to heat and compress hydrogen plasma (which is the process France's International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will be using) or inertial confinement, which uses lasers or ion beams to do the same thing. In order to get the hydrogen plasma, hydrogen gas streams will be heated by accelerators and then compressed by super magnets. Not many people at school know this, but I was an aviation electrician/mechanic in the Marine Corps, and one of my first licenses was my universal technician's certification to work with air conditioners. I'm telling you this because this nuclear reactor looks everything like an air conditioner to me:

See what I mean? The way that the reactor generates power is just like almost any other power plant, once the heat has been produced, by either process I mentioned before. The heat is used to turn water into steam which turns a generator. The simplicity of this design is beautiful.

I encourage you to research this on your own, and if you do, please comment below which method you favor. I like the magnetic confinement process, personally. The inertial confinement setup is much more complicated, and it takes 192 laser beams to work!

Also, click here to educate yourself about California's Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI)!

(P.S. happy belated birthday, Albert! 3.14)