Nuclear Reactions: Fusion (11.5 pg 327-331)

The Sun is a giant nuclear furnace but unlike the nuclear reactors that we use on Earth the Sun uses nuclear fusion.

Nuclear fusion is when two or more nuclei are fused together.

Fusion creates an enormous amount of energy (e. g. see Table 1&2 p

Even though we understand how nuclear fusion works, so far we have not been able to create a nuclear fusion power plant. The desire to do so is high because it would produce no radioactive waste (the biggest concern with fission reactors). Also, in theory it would provide more power.

While we have not been able to make a power plant using fusion, we have been able to build nuclear fusion weapons (called hydrogen bombs, or ‘H-bombs’). In 1952, the first fusion bomb was detonated, and made a mushroom cloud 150 km wide and 42 km high (Fig.2 p.329).

Nuclear fusion takes place in stars (Fig.3 p.330), like our Sun. In fact, you owe your existence to stars since fusion inside stars is what creates all atoms heavier than helium.

When a star blows up, it spreads its matter throughout the universe. Some people call stars “God’s recycling program”.

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