Fusion: Harnessing the Power of the Sun Essay -- physics fusion

HistoryIt has been a well-accepted fact that the sun is a source of great power since the early part of this century. In 1929, scientists initiative theorized that the energy production in stars was created by conglutination nuclear controvertions involving soft elements reacting to form heavier elements. By the late thirties, H. Bethe had analyzed close of our suns nuclear fusion cycle. Fusion in our sun is caused when deuterium and tritium, both Hydrogen isotopes, react (in the presence of large amounts of heat) to form Helium, energy, and an extra neutron. Man-made fusion reactions were conceit to be impossible until the first uncontrolled fusion reactions were witnessed when nuclear bombs cognise as George and Mike were detonated in 1951 and 1952, respectively. Efforts to control fusion energy began in the 1950s. By 1955 scientists had witnessed the enormity of the task. A successful fusion reaction would not only require temperatures in excess of 50x106 K, but would also destiny to be isolated for a long enough time so the reaction could produce more energy than required to begin the reaction. The most promising go offs for fusion reactions argon deuterium, and tritium. Deuterium and tritium both are total heat isotopes. Deuterium is a stable isotope and is naturally found in water, time tritium is very unstable, radioactive, and must be man-made. Several methods for containment exist. They include the Tokamak generator, inertial containment, and reverberate confinement. The TokamakProblems with early power builds led to the development of the Tokamak. An old design, known as the linear pinch method, suffered from large energy losses at the ends of the plant and macroscopic plasma instabilities. To overcome these problems, a new design ... ...llion degrees, the fuel ignites and fusion occurs. The reaction then spreads through the constringeed capsule, producing energy several(prenominal) times greater than what was deposited by the distribu tes.The majority of research so outlying(prenominal) involving this type of fusion has dealt with laser beams. These powerful flashes of light, with varied wavelengths and duration, are focus on the capsule to initiate fusion. However, our modern lasers are very inefficient. To be used in a commercial fusion plant, laser technology would first have to greatly improve. Another option in inertial Confinement is ion beams instead of lasers. The ion beams are much more efficient, but are still very experimental. The biggest problem is the beams short span. An intense enough beam to cause the reaction only lasts about 10 nanoseconds. To compensate, scientists must compress the beam and make it stronger.