Nuclear fusion is the process of forcing together atomic nuclei to produce energy and involves using extremely high temperatures over 100 million Kelvin to fuse hydrogen atoms together. Successful nuclear fusion requires achieving and maintaining high plasma density and confinement through magnetic fields to contain the hot plasma long enough for fusion reactions to occur at significant rates and has been achieved at experimental facilities like JET in the UK and JT60 in Japan which have produced over 16 megawatts and 5.4 megawatts respectively through magnetic confinement fusion since the 1980s.
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2. What is nuclear fusion? Nuclear fusion is the process by forcing two or more atoms together which causes a reaction.
3. Conditions Temperature - Reactions occur at a sufficient rate only. - Over 100 million Kelvin is needed. Density - Must be sufficiently large for fusion reactions to take place at required rate. Energy Confinement - Measure of how long the energy in the plasma is retained before being lost. - Magnetic fields to isolate very hot plasmas in order to keep the energy for as long as possible.
6. Advantages Can create high amounts of energy using a small amount of minerals which are found in water. Energy created can equal the total amount of energy the sun produces. Since no fossil fuels are used, there will be no release of chemical combustion products, which means no polution.
7. Disadvantages Requires high temperatures Radiation is present Can distroy anything around the surrounding area if plasma cannot be controlled.
