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What
lies beyond the year 2000? Future Power
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Nuclear Fission involves splitting an atom. Fusion is the exact opposite. It is the combination of atoms, fusing together to form a heavier element. Nuclear Fission uses hard to find and expensive materials to use to split their atoms, whilst nuclear fusion uses what is one of the most abundant, if not the most abundant element on this planet or the entire universe, Hydrogen. In it's gaseous state, atoms can't fuse together. The electrons in it repel each other, so, to make them fuse, you need to get rid of the electrons. This can be done if the gas is heated to thousands of degrees. It then becomes a different state of matter, known as plasma. This plasma is also known as ionised gas. In it, all the electrons are freed, and only the nucleus is left. These are free to combine with each other. When two hydrogen nuclei combine, helium is produced. The mass that is lost is converted into energy. The amount of energy released is worked out by Einstein's famous E=mc˛ that was part of his theory of relativity. This is used in thermonuclear weapons (also H-Bombs/Hydrogen Bombs). However, generating that amount of heat in such a small area is hard, so a normal fission nuclear weapon is detonated to create enough heat for a fusion reaction to take place. A lot of energy is lost in creating fusion reactions, so it is not really the most efficient way of producing energy, however, if we could find a way of cold fusion to take place, it would become a lot more efficient. Click here to find out more about Cold Fusion.
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