This is why fusion is still in the research and development phase – and fission is already making electricity. May 25, 2023, 1:11 PM ET (AP) Georgia nuclear rebirth arrives 7 years late, 17B over cost The first new U.S. The reasons that have made fusion so difficult to achieve to date are the same ones that make it safe: it is a finely balanced reaction which is very sensitive to the conditions – the reaction will die if the plasma is too cold or too hot, or if there is too much fuel or not enough, or too many contaminants, or if the magnetic fields are not set up just right to control the turbulence of the hot plasma. Following are the advantages of nuclear fusion: It is a safe source for the generation of electricity. Unlike nuclear fission, the nuclear fusion reaction in a tokamak is an inherently safe reaction. In conventional nuclear power stations today, there are systems in place to moderate the chain reactions to prevent accident scenarios and stringent security measures to deal with proliferation issues. This chain reaction is the key to fission reactions, but it can lead to a runaway process resulting in nuclear accidents. The result of the instability is the nucleus breaking up, in any one of many different ways, and producing more neutrons, which in turn hit more uranium atoms and make them unstable and so on. It is triggered by uranium absorbing a neutron, which renders the nucleus unstable. Fission and chain reactionsįission is the nuclear process that is currently run in nuclear power plants. Both reactions release energy which, in a power plant, would be used to boil water to drive a steam generator, thus producing electricity. Joseph A Nathan is Scientific Officer in the Reactor Physics Design Division, BARC and a resource person in the Mathematics and Physics Olympiad programme of HBCSE (TIFR). However, fusion is combining light atoms, for example two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, to form the heavier helium. The Design of a Nuclear Reactor Joseph A Nathan and Vijay A Singh 1 See Amit Roy, Story of Fission: Unlocking Power of the Nucleus, Resonance, Vol.21, No.3, 2016. In fission, energy is gained by splitting heavy atoms, for example uranium, into smaller atoms such as iodine, caesium, strontium, xenon and barium, to name just a few. In a fission reaction, energy is produced when a single large radioisotope splits into two smaller nuclei and subatomic particles, such as neutrons. 13, 2023, 1:07 PM ET (AP) UN nuclear chief says large Ukraine atomic power plant held by Russia faces 'dangerous situation' The largest nuclear power plant in Europe faces a relatively dangerous situation after a dam burst in Ukraine and as Kyiv launches a counteroffensive to retake ground occupied by Russia Jun.
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