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Nuclear Fusion: Luis Sahua Villegas UNI Thermal Physics

Nuclear fusion occurs when atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nucleus, releasing energy. For fusion to take place, atoms must be heated to extremely high temperatures to form plasma and confined under intense pressure long enough for reactions to occur. Two main confinement methods are inertial confinement fusion, which uses lasers to rapidly compress and heat fuel to ignite fusion, and magnetic confinement fusion, which uses magnetic fields to contain heated plasma in donut-shaped devices called tokamaks. Achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion could provide a virtually limitless source of clean energy.

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38 views

Nuclear Fusion: Luis Sahua Villegas UNI Thermal Physics

Nuclear fusion occurs when atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nucleus, releasing energy. For fusion to take place, atoms must be heated to extremely high temperatures to form plasma and confined under intense pressure long enough for reactions to occur. Two main confinement methods are inertial confinement fusion, which uses lasers to rapidly compress and heat fuel to ignite fusion, and magnetic confinement fusion, which uses magnetic fields to contain heated plasma in donut-shaped devices called tokamaks. Achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion could provide a virtually limitless source of clean energy.

Uploaded by

luis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Nuclear Fusion

Luis Sahua Villegas

UNI

Thermal Physics

June, 2018

Luis Sahua Villegas UNI Thermal Physics Nuclear Fusion


Nuclear Fusion

• In nuclear fusion, the energy is released when the nuclei


of the atoms combine or fuse together to form a larger
nucleus.
• These reactions can absorb or release energy, depending
on whether the mass of the nuclei is greater or lesser than
iron, respectively.

Luis Sahua Villegas UNI Thermal Physics Nuclear Fusion


An example of fusion reactions are those take place in the
Sun, in which the fusion of hydrogen nuclei takes place for
form helium, releasing a large amount of energy in the process
in the form of electromagnetic radiation, which reaches the
earth’s surface and which we perceive as light and heat.

Luis Sahua Villegas UNI Thermal Physics Nuclear Fusion


Requirements

 To achieve the necessary energy, particle accelerators can


be used or resort to heating at very high temperatures.
This last solution called thermal fusion and involves
heating the atoms to achieve a gaseous mass called
plasma, composed of free electrons and atoms highly
ionized.
 It is also necessary to guarantee the confinement and
control of plasma at high temperatures in the cavity of a
fusion reactor the time needed to that the reaction occurs.
 It is also necessary to achieve a sufficient plasma density
so that the nuclei are close to each other and can give
rise to the reactions of fusion.

Luis Sahua Villegas UNI Thermal Physics Nuclear Fusion


Confinement methods

Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF): Consists of creating


such a dense medium that the particles have almost no chance
of escape without colliding each. For this, a small sphere
composed of deuterium and tritium by a laser beam causing
its implosion. Thus, hundreds of times more dense than in its
normal solid state allowing it to occur the fusion reaction.
Currently there are research reactors with the objective of
producing energy through this process.

Luis Sahua Villegas UNI Thermal Physics Nuclear Fusion


Confinement methods

Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF): The particles


electrically charged from the plasma are trapped in a reduced
space by the action of a magnetic field. The most developed
device has a toroidal shape and is he calls Tokamak.

Luis Sahua Villegas UNI Thermal Physics Nuclear Fusion


Bibliography

1 Controlled Nuclear Fusion


Samuel Glasstone

Luis Sahua Villegas UNI Thermal Physics Nuclear Fusion

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