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Energy
is a valuable commodity. It is needed for almost everything we do
today. It powers lights, refrigerators, microwaves, televisions,
and computers. People have come to depend on electricity so much
that if we did not have enough, millions of people would probably
die. We rely on it, and in the future it may become one of our
most valuable commodities.
Unfortunately, generating that energy almost always damages the environment. Burning fossil fuels pollutes the air, and today's nuclear energy reactors produce large amounts of radioactive waste. There are renewable energy sources, such solar cells, windmills, and hydroelectric plants, but often they do not provide the amount of energy that is needed for the world's population.
Tomorrow's solution to this problem may be Fusion Energy. It uses the most abundant material in the universe, hydrogen, to produce energy with the same method that stars use. Unlike its brother nuclear fission energy, it does not need rare uranium and it does not produce radioactive waste! It can be powered for an eternity from water, and its only waste is harmless helium and oxygen gas. In fact, it could produce so much energy from one gallon of sea water, that it would be equal to the energy content of several gallons of high-octane gasoline! Also, once the sea water has been used for fuel, it can safely return to the environment.
How does Fusion
Energy work?Fusion energy is produced by joining the nuclei of two hydrogen atoms together. There are three main fusion energy methods: laser fusion generators, cold fusion, and tokamaks. Each of these three have they're own separate strategies for accomplishing fusion.
•Laser Reactors hold the nuclei close together over long time periods, so that they will eventually fuse.
•Tokamaks smash the nuclei together with a large force, so that the high forces involved force the atoms into fusing quickly.
•Cold Fusion uses an unknown method and nobody seems to agree on anything about it, even its existence. It does not occur in all attempts, and its scientific validity is questionable.
Two methods of "hot" fusion have been extensively researched, and many prototype research reactors have been built. Both methods can obtain fusion for a limited period of time, and both will probably have working power plants early next century. Both of these methods are referred to as "Hot" fusion methods because they use extreme heat and pressure to achieve fusion.
Laser fusion uses a hydrogen "pellet" that
contains a small amount of liquid hydrogen. This is blasted by
several powerful lasers in order to obtain fusion. The energy is
released as heat and light, which is collected and outputted.
Because much of the energy generated is used in the next fusion
pellet, this method is less efficient than other methods.
Tokamaks work by heating hydrogen into plasma and, contained by a strong magnetic field, it is accelerated in a large taurus (a donut shape) and compressed so much that the nuclei are forced to undergo fusion. Both methods achieve fusion by forcing them, thus using a large amount of energy.
There is a widely disputed method of fusion, called "Cold Fusion" because of its low temperatures. It is produced by passing a large current through deuterium water using platinum (nickel has also been used) and palladium electrodes. Deuterium water is an isotope of hydrogen, and it has one extra neutron. Nobody knows how, but sometimes a large excess of heat is given off. Unfortunately, it is very unreliable, and does not always work. It may work for days, and then just stop for no apparent reason. Just as suddenly it may start up again. Also, lower than expected levels of helium are given off, so it may not even be fusion at all. On this topic, there are more questions than answers and more is a mystery than not. Because this is such a disputed field, you are better off getting information on it directly from a university web site, or other up-to-date site. You may find links on our link page or another search engine.
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