1. Nuclear Fusion By: Renee Alshefski

2. What is Nuclear Fusion? Nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple atomic nuclei join together to form a single heavier nucleus. It is accompanied by the release or absorption of energy. Large scale fusion processes, involving many atoms fusing at once, must occur in matter which is at very high densities.

3. Fusion is what happens when two atomic nuclei are forced together by high pressure... high enough to overcome the strong repulsive forces of the respective protons in the nuclei. When the nuclei fuse, they form a new element, and release excess energy in the form of a fast-moving neutron.

4. Nuclear fusion is what provides the sun and stars with the energy to shine continuously for billions of years. The nuclei used by the sun, and in experiments on earth, that undergo fusion, are two isotopes of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium. The simple hydrogen atom, which has one proton in its nucleus, has two isotopes... similar forms of hydrogen, but with extra neutrons in their nuclei. One is called deuterium, the other tritium.

5. Facts ! Nuclear energy comes from mass-to-energy conversions that occur in the splitting of atoms. Albert Einstein’s famous mathematical formula E = mc 2 explains this. The equation says: E [energy] equals m [mass] times c 2 [c stands for the speed or velocity of light]. This means that it is mass multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. Nuclear energy is produced by a controlled nuclear chain reaction and creates heat—which is used to boil water, produce steam, and drive a steam turbine. Nuclear power can come from the fission of uranium, plutonium or thorium or the fusion of hydrogen into helium. Today it is almost all uranium. The basic energy fact is that the fission of an atom of uranium produces 10 million times the energy produced by the combustion of an atom of carbon from coal. Nuclear power plants need less fuel than ones which burn fossil fuels. One ton of uranium produces more energy than is produced by several million tons of coal or several million barrels of oil.

6. Facts Continued. In France, nuclear power is the most widespread, supplying 80 percent of the country's electricity. A protest movement exists, called Sortir du Nucléaire, or "Get Out of Nuclear," but it appears to have made little headway. Nuclear energy was first discovered accidentally by French physicist Henri Becquerel in 1896, when he found that photographic plates stored in the dark near uranium were blackened like X-ray plates, which had been just recently discovered at the time. As of 2004, nuclear power provided 6.5% of the world's energy and 15.7% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for 57% of nuclear generated electricity. Nuclear energy (nuclear power) accounts for about 19 percent of the total electricity generated in the United States, an amount comparable to all the electricity used in California, Texas and New York, three most populous states.

7. Nuclear power plant - Steam towers are generally the buildings that people associate with nuclear power plants.

8. Fusion Vs. Fission Fusion is the opposite of Fission. It creates nuclear energy by combining atoms. Unlike Fission, Fusion can generate energy from un- radioactive materials such as hydrogen. Fusion is known to deal with many light atoms instead of Fission which deal with very heavy atoms such as uranium. The first fusion reactor is located in Russia, and it is in process of research for it to work as a power plant.

9. Additional Information ;) Although fusion has been in research for many years after fission, it has not yet created popularity. Scientists keep on looking for a way to make fusion a possible energy source as nuclear energy. Fusion can create very small amounts of energy by using light elements, but later on scientists believe they could find a way to make this as a "mass productor" of energy. The fact that this energy source produces less than it consumes, it will take a few years for it to be completely revealed. The good side of this is that it creates no dangerous hazardous materials which can harm the Earth today. Being that it uses un-radioactive elements, it does not cause danger to the public, and if the research is done correctly, we won't have to worry about nuclear waste in a few years. The reason that this energy isn't as efficient as fusion is because fission requires a great amount of energy to start off the process which is still not to be found at earth. It happens at space because there are great amounts of energies out there, such as the Sun, but it is very hard to find such thing at Earth. Today we use this power to make smaller things than power plants, such as bombs