Fusion power, nuclear power?

Question

What is the difference between existing nuclear power plants we have and fusion power plants in the future.
Also, there are already fusion power plants?

Answer 1

Ivan, existing nuclear power plants use the process of nuclear fission to produce heat. A large number of atoms of uranium, inherently unstable, are brought into proximity. The decay (fission) into smaller atoms releases heat and neutrons which make other atoms break up in what is called a chain reaction. The speed of the reaction determines how much heat is released. If there is no "brake," you have an atomic explosion. A nuclear reactor uses "brakes" to slowdown the reaction to useful levels or even stop it if desired. The heat produces steam which drives a turbine which drives a generator producing electricity.

Nuclear fusion is almost the reverse: light atoms are forced to combine (fusion) into heavier ones, again releasing heat. Problem is to get the fusion to occur, the temperature has to be really high, hotter than the surface of the sun. That has held back the development of fusion power plants: you have to produce the heat and then, somehow, hold it in something. Two approaches are in the works: instantaneous fusion and continuous. Instantaneous fusion uses lasers to focus on a spot and raise the temperature high enough for fusion to occur. But the lasers can only produce a single burst of energy; they are not continuous. Continuous heat can be produced within a high magnetic coil. Using light atoms in the form of a plasma, fusion can occur. So far, however, the energy output has not exceeded the energy input. The most successful continuous machine is the Tokomak, a Russian design I believe working in Princeton, NJ.

Everybody predicts that fusion will answer all our energy needs -- and it could. Problem is the technology just isn't there yet. A funny saying I heard recently is this: "For the past 40 years the promise of fusion power has always been 20 years off." And so it remains.

Answer 2

Nuclear power, or Nuclear energy, is the use of exothermic nuclear processes, to generate useful heat and electricity. The term includes the following heat producing processes, nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion.

Presently the nuclear fission of elements in the actinide series of the periodic table produce the vast majority of nuclear energy in the direct service of humankind, with nuclear decay processes, primarily in the form of geothermal energy, and radioisotope thermoelectric generators, in niche uses making up the rest. Nuclear (fission) power stations, that is excluding the contribution from naval nuclear fission reactors, provided about 5.7% of the world's energy and 13% of the world's electricity,

Fusion power is the power generated by nuclear fusion processes. In fusion reactions, two light atomic nuclei fuse to form a heavier nucleus (in contrast with fission power). In doing so they release a comparatively large amount of energy arising from the binding energy due to the strong nuclear force which is manifested as an increase in temperature of the reactants. Fusion powered electricity generation was initially believed to be readily achievable, as fission power had been. However, the extreme requirements for continuous reactions and plasma containment led to projections being extended by several decades. In 2010, more than 60 years after the first attempts, commercial power production was still believed to be unlikely before 2050.

Answer 3

Current nuclear energy uses fission (they break apart the nucleus of the atom). Fusion combines atoms to produce heavier atoms. For instance, two atoms of hydrogen can be fused to produce one atom of helium. The stars (our Sun, for instance) are fusion reactors. The outside of a typical star like our sun is combining hydrogen to produce helium. The gravity on our sun is so extreme that there is a small layer of helium beneath the hydrogen that we see on fire. beneath that will be a layer of denser material caused by fusion of the helium, beneath that, another layer of heavier material and so on and on until one reaches the center of our sun. Depending on the total mass of a given star, this continuesto the star's center. All of the heavier elements we have were created in the heart of a supermassive star that blew up.

Answer 4

properly, form of. All nuclear-powered ships are, in a feeling, steam ships; the nuclear reactors boil water, which makes steam, which spins a turbine, it fairly is coupled to the two a generator or to thepersistent device. Nuclear potential flowers, like very almost all potential flowers, use warmth to boil water to make steam to spin turbines to tutor turbines.