Nuclear- Nuclear Fusion Power

Nuclear Fusion Power is one of the newly possible eco-friendly way to produce huge amount carbon-free energy. This technology is not use by anyone yet to produce energy (electricity) because it is still in the research process. Joint European Torus which is the world's largest tokamak have proof that nuclear fusion is a possible way to generate clean energy but they have not discover an appropriate way to produce these energy in an industrial scale and decrease the amount of energy required for the nuclear fusion to take place. As a result, this technology still remain as a mystery. 

If we are able to use Nuclear Fusion Power in the future we will no longer have to worry about energy shortage because this technology produce energy more efficient than fossil fuel. Currently, this technology is considered to be the most efficient at producing energy because with one kilogram of fusion fuel it can produce the same amount of energy generated from 10 million kilogram of fossil fuel. The next advantage of Nuclear Fusion Power is that the only byproduct produce from this technology is a small amount of helium, which is an inert gas that have nothing to do with atmospheric pollution. The third advantage of this technology is that it only use tritium and deuterium, which is an abundant resource that are available on earth. Deuterium can be extracted from seawater, while Tritium can be produced from lithium that is found in the earth’s crust. The last advantage is that this technology would not leave a long-life radioactive waste behind because it can be safely recycle and will dispose within 100 years.
Watch the video below if you want to find out more about Nuclear Fusion Power research in different countries:

The way the Nuclear fusion power work actually follow the fusion concept in nuclear chemistry. Fusion is when the nuclei combine together to become more stable and this result in an increase in the mass of the atoms. Similarly, in the Nuclear fusion power the goal is to combine the deuterium and tritium to produce helium. Deuterium is a stable atomic species that is an isotope of hydrogen, which contain a proton and a neutron. Tritium is is a not stable atomic species that is also an isotope of hydrogen, which have one proton and two neutrons. To achieve a high fusion reaction rate the two hydrogens species (fuels) must be heated to a temperature that is over 100 million degrees celsius and this will cause the fuels to change from a gas state into a plasma state. Plasma is a state of matter where the particles that make up the atom lose most of it electrons because of its high-temperature, in the context of nuclear chemistry plasma is a very hot mixture of electrons and positive nuclei. This is why the negatively-charged electron separated from the positively-charge atomic nuclei when the fuel is heated. This result in a plasma that is a million times less dense than air. The plasma are extremely hot so it can not come in contact with any type of materials. As a result, scientists is still working to find the best way to confined these plasma, some of the possible ways that is found so far include Tokamak and Stellarator. Magnetic confinement used Tokamak, which confined the plasma by creating a strong magnetic fields. Figure 1 is a Tokamak, from this figure it show that Tokamak use multiple magnets one of it is located in the middle while the rest is wrap around the plasma like a coil and also around the top and bottom in order to control the position and shape of the plasma. Stellarator also use magnetic field to confined the plasma but the location that the magnet are place is different. Figure 2 show that the magnet that Stellarator place around the plasma are like a twisted coil, the purpose of the twist is to control the direction of the plasma so it will remain inside the chamber.

Figure 1. Tokamak

Figure 2. S Stellarator 

Normally, it is not possible for fusion to occur because they are not close enough to each other to collide. This is because the positively charged nuclei have a strong repulsive electrostatic force that prevent them from getting close to each other. Electrostatic force is the force between particles causing by their electric charges. But this problem can be solve if apply more heat to increase the temperature because it will cause the nuclei to move faster and they will eventually reach a speed that allow them to overcome the electrostatic forces and shorter the range so they are closer to each other. This will allow nuclei to fuse because the attractive nuclear force will outweigh the electrostatic force and when they fuse a huge amount of energy will be release. As a result, when Deuterium fuse with Tritium the product that is produce is a free neutron and helium-4, which means that it contain two protons and two neutrons. Below is an equation that show the fusion process. The amount of energy release from this fusion is 17.6 MeV and it is in the form of kinetic energy. The amount of energy produce each time will vary depending on the amount of Deuterium and Tritium used but the formula that can be use to calculate the energy is the Mass–energy equivalence formula (E=mc^2).

In conclusion, Nuclear Fusion Power is very important because if the research is success and the technology is put into use in the future people will not have problem with energy shortage. Moreover, people will also be able to reserve the remain fossil fuel that have not been use to generate energy. Lastly, people will be able to reduce global warming and improve air quality because this technology does not produce any green house gas or poisonous gas that will affect people's health.

Please check this link to see the animation of the fusion reaction: http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/How_fusion_works.aspx

Work Cited
Modern Chemistry by Holt McDougal

http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/introduction.aspx

http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/How_fusion_works.aspx

http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/nuclear-fusion-power.aspx

http://www.polymedia.ch/files/RP/Articles/857/images/7569_2_p13_Lausanne_W7X-2.jpg

https://www.britannica.com/science/deuterium

http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/tritium.htm