What are the challenges of nuclear fusion?

The physical and technological challenges are numerous: the fuel must be heated up to millions of degrees, the reactor components must withstand extreme particle fluxes and heat loads, potentially radioactive material must be handled with care, the very hot fuel must be contained inside the reactor vessel…

What factors make nuclear fusion difficult?

The simple answer is that it has been particularly difficult to obtain high enough plasma densities , temperatures , and energy confinement times simultaneously for a reactor to approach ignition conditions.

Why is it difficult to get nuclear fusion to work?

Normally, fusion is not possible because the strongly repulsive electrostatic forces between the positively charged nuclei prevent them from getting close enough together to collide and for fusion to occur.

What two factors are needed to make fusion occur?

On earth, we need temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius and intense pressure to make deuterium and tritium fuse, and sufficient confinement to hold the plasma and maintain the fusion reaction long enough for a net power gain, i.e. the ratio of the fusion power produced to the power used to heat the plasma.

What is the process nuclear fusion?

In a fusion reaction, two light nuclei merge to form a single heavier nucleus. The process releases energy because the total mass of the resulting single nucleus is less than the mass of the two original nuclei. The leftover mass becomes energy. DT fusion produces a neutron and a helium nucleus.

Can we harness nuclear fusion?

Devices designed to harness this energy are known as fusion reactors. Fusion processes require fuel and a confined environment with sufficient temperature, pressure, and confinement time to create a plasma in which fusion can occur. As a source of power, nuclear fusion is expected to have many advantages over fission.

What is the nuclear fusion process?

Nuclear Fusion reactions power the Sun and other stars. In a fusion reaction, two light nuclei merge to form a single heavier nucleus. The process releases energy because the total mass of the resulting single nucleus is less than the mass of the two original nuclei. The leftover mass becomes energy.

What is nuclear fusion and how does it work?

Nuclear fusion powers the sun and all of the stars of the universe. Harnessing fusion energy on earth would provide a practically unlimited amount of renewable energy to supply the needs of the growing world population.

Is nuclear fusion the future of base load energy?

Nuclear fusion energy is a good choice as the base load energy in the future with many advantages, such as inexhaustibility of resources, inherent safety, no long-lived radioactive wastes, and almost no CO2 emissions.

What are the systems of fusion energy?

The systems of fusion, are illustrated in Section 3, including the approaches to controlled fusion energy by magnetic confinement and inertial confinement, the blanket system that is the key component for converting nuclear fusion energy to thermal energy, and some prospective fusion reactor concepts and fusion-fission hybrid reactor concepts.

When was nuclear fusion first discovered?

Nuclear fusion, the reaction that fuels the sun and the stars, has excited scientists and technologists ever since the process was identified during the 1930s. Unsuccessful attempts at fusion took place during the 1930s but halted during World War II. Experimental work restarted during the late 1940s.