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Hydrogen Fusion

Morning Sun

One example of hydrogen fusion is the energy given off by the sun.  The extremely high temperatures of the sun are caused by the gravitational pull at the core due to the mass of the sun.  A constant nuclear fusion reaction occurs due to the compression causing a hot enough temperature.

Hydrogen fusion occurs when two hydrogen protons combine and emit a positron, one of the original protons changes state into a neutron and the deuterlium atom combines with another proton to create helium-3.  Then two separate heliom-3 nuclei fuse together to form He-4.  The He-4 has two protons and two neutrons and in this stage the two protons are split off causing the entire process to start all over again.

Say that again you say, OK.  You start with two H-1 and they get together to make H-2.  Now you add in another H-1 to get H-3.  When you add two H-3s together you get an H-4, from that you remove two H-1s and stat over again.  You are now producing hydrogen fusion, an energy source.

In this example the total amount of energy produced is only slightly less than the total mass of all the ingredients.  This is the reason the sun has been burning for millions of years and should continue to do so for millions more.  When the time comes, and it should eventually, when the hydrogen is depleted the lights will go out and the sun will shine no more.  It does not look like that will happen anytime soon so don't loose any sleep over it.

Hydrogen Fusion is not an energy source we have used, but that may all be changing in the near future.  Hydrogen fusion shows many advantages over fission power and large amounts of money are being spent to further research it.  There are two types of nuclear power, fission and fusion.  In fusion power atoms are combined and in fission they are dissociated.  It is fission power being used in our nuclear power plants around the world.  Fusion, on the other hand, could be the power of the future.

There are many reasons why this is being further researched as a viable power source.  The main byproduct of this power is H-4, a harmless gas.  Fusion is cleaner on the environment than fusion and there are no greenhouse gas emissions.

Meltdown can not occur in a fusion reactor making it safer to operate than a typical fusion one.  Fusion does not continue without a continued flow of fuel and this can be controlled.  And because fusion is not a chain reaction it does not self sustain.

The only fuels used in fusion are deuterium and tritium.  Deuterium can easily be manufactured from water and tritium is relatively cheap and abundant.

Hydrogen fusion power does, however, have it's share of disadvantages, problems still in need of being worked out.  As we mentioned before, fusion produces no radioactive wastes.  There is still the problem of the emitted neutrons causing to much radioactivity in the core, making the process unsafe to continue.  At this time the only remedies are expensive ones.

Another major drawback to anything nuclear is public opinion.  Fusion power plants caused an uproar, an even bigger uproar when a couple of the reactors melted down.  The politics involved will be timely and exhausting, but probably doable in the end.  Why is it the public has such a bad opinion of creating power from something similar to a controlled nuclear bomb.  Go figure.

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