Fusion doesn’t produce harmful long-term radioactive waste as a by-product like fission does.The fusion reaction releases more energy than fission.Fission releases energy when atoms are split, while fusion releases energy when atoms are joined.What Are The Key Differences?Īlthough both fusion and fission use atomic energy, there are a number of key differences between the two processes: Other, alternative reactors being tested use lasers to heat and compress hydrogen fuel to create fusion. These conditions allow the highly energised particles to overcome their natural electromagnetic repulsion as they collide, fusing them together and releasing huge amounts of energy. The energised plasma particles collide and heat up as auxiliary heating systems increase the temperature to the required levels for fusion (150-300 million ☌). These temperatures are ten times that found at the core of the Sun, but are needed for the process as it is impossible to create the gravitational pressure within the Sun instead. This plasma is a superheated, ionised gas that needs to be contained by strong magnetic fields as it can reach temperatures of 100,000,000☌ or more. When subjected to high heat and pressure electrons are forced away from the deuterium atoms to create a plasma. While still being developed, a fusion reactor (known as a tokamak) uses a gas – usually a hydrogen isotope that can be extracted from seawater called deuterium. This process occurs naturally in the centre of stars like the Sun and creates no long-term radioactive waste or greenhouse gases.įusion power plants operate in a similar manner to fission plants, using the heat generated by the atomic reaction to heat water, produce steam, drive turbines and generate electricity, but it has been a challenge to create the required conditions in a fusion reactor without consuming more energy than is produced. Nuclear fusion is the process of combining atomic nuclei rather than splitting them (as with fission) to produce energy. For example, uranium-235 atoms split into nuclei of krypton and barium along with three extra neutrons that create fission chain reactions by hitting other uranium-235 atoms. Neutrons are then fired at the uranium atoms, causing them to split and release more neutrons that hit other atoms, creating a chain reaction that splits more atoms, releasing energy as heat and radiation. The process of splitting an atom at a power plant involves placing uranium in sealed metal cylinders inside a steel reactor vessel. As the process uses uranium rather than fossil fuels to generate the heat, there are no carbon emissions with the nuclear fission process. This energy is released as heat and radiation, with the heat being used by a nuclear power plant to boil water into steam to turn a turbine and drive generators to produce electricity. Nuclear fission involves the splitting of atoms to release the binding energy of the atomic nuclei. National Structural Integrity Research Centre.Structural Integrity Research Foundation.
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