fusion: why is it so hard to make?

[quantump4577]

Fusion is when two nucleouses collide to form a new element, almost like what was attempted with alchemy. it requires extrem pressure and heat to do so, which is why our only self sustaining form is the sun. now, it prouduces a lot of energy and would be great as a fuel source. w are trying to do this now, but why is it so hard?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Because of two things: it takes a lot of energy to make things fuse, and it's really hard to capture the energy released when they do fuse without it destroying your equipment.

[quantump4577]

but it has quite a magnetic charge, so it can be held in the center of a reactor, and the energy output for the one at princeton(only tenths of seconds) have had tons of energy come out from it

[Klaynos]

You've got to capture that energy though, and alot of energy in a very short time is MASSIVELY difficult to capture without overloading all your mechanisms... Or just destroying your whole reactor....

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

but it has quite a magnetic charge, so it can be held in the center of a reactor, and the energy output for the one at princeton(only tenths of seconds) have had tons of energy come out from it

 

The trouble is that it escapes from the magnetic confinement after a bit, and there's no easy way to fix that yet. Nobody's worked out a perfect method.

[Mr Skeptic]

The biggest problem is confining the plasma. If you don't confine it, it will at best cool off and loose all its energy. The plasma can also damage the walls, throwing wall material into the core (sputtering); the heavier element will poison the reaction. Plus, producing the magnetic fields necessary to confine the plasma is very energy intensive, and you need to get more energy out than you put into heating the plasma and confining it. Another restriction is that the confinement should be dense enough, or the rate of fusion will be too slow to maintain its heat faster than it cools.

 

I have an idea I'm sure will work though. Get a large amount of hydrogen together, and use its own gravity to compress and confine the plasma. As it compresses, it will heat up on its own accord. Since no energy is wasted in the confinement, it would be nearly 100% efficient. Man, I'm a god

[Realitycheck]

Considering that the temperatures at the core of the sun is over a million degrees, I have a hard time seeing how they accomplish any hot fusion at all in the lab, since the hottest melting points we can come up with are only around 4 or 5 thousand degrees.

[vampares]

Fusion is not difficult to achieve.

 

It is very effective as a weapon of mass destruction. The fallout from an H-bomb is low considering the high yield. This is the most plausible tactic for crippling a major city with minimal (human etc.) resources. Due to the wide radius of such a weapon, the construction of a bulky device in a highrise building could be accomplished without additional consideration to engineering a self-contained "bomb".

 

Fission, of course, generates cost effective energy. The issues is not the cost effectiveness but the potential missuse of the resource. Reactor meltdown prevention is not the over-ridding cost.

 

Almost all fussion attempts rely upon energy or fuel provided by fission. So, this is sort of paradox.

 

The real reason they bang atoms and whatnot together is to try to produce some sort of universal void (any will do). Very strange.

[swansont]

Considering that the temperatures at the core of the sun is over a million degrees, I have a hard time seeing how they accomplish any hot fusion at all in the lab, since the hottest melting points we can come up with are only around 4 or 5 thousand degrees.

 

That's exactly why you use confinement that does not require physical contact with any material. The same principle applies to things that get extremely cold (i.e. a very small fraction of a Kelvin). You still have the problem of radiation, but have basically eliminated conduction and convection.

[ydoaPs]

Fusion is when two nucleouses collide to form a new element, almost like what was attempted with alchemy. it requires extrem pressure and heat to do so, which is why our only self sustaining form is the sun. now, it prouduces a lot of energy and would be great as a fuel source. w are trying to do this now, but why is it so hard?

 

Are you asking about why fusion itself takes so much energy(steepness of binding energy per nucleon curve before about 60 nucleons), or are you asking about why self-sustaining fusion reactors aren't yet technologically feasable?

 

Almost all fussion attempts rely upon energy or fuel provided by fission. So, this is sort of paradox.

 

Plenty of reactors have successfully achieved fusion without fission. The problem is that it takes more energy than it puts out.