Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Nuclear fusion reaction of two helium-4 nuclei produces beryllium-8, which is highly unstable, and decays back into smaller nuclei with a half-life of 8.19 × 10 −17 s, unless within that time a third alpha particle fuses with the beryllium-8 nucleus [3] to produce an excited resonance state of carbon-12, [4] called the Hoyle state, which ...
Fusion powers stars and produces virtually all elements in a process called nucleosynthesis. The Sun is a main-sequence star, and, as such, generates its energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium. In its core, the Sun fuses 620 million metric tons of hydrogen and makes 616 million metric tons of helium each second.
As a result, there is little mixing of fresh hydrogen into the core or fusion products outward. In higher-mass stars, the dominant energy production process is the CNO cycle, which is a catalytic cycle that uses nuclei of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen as intermediaries and in the end produces a helium nucleus as with the proton–proton chain. [22]
Fusion forces together atoms of very light, stable elements like isotopes of hydrogen, creating slightly heavier elements like helium and producing as much as four times as much energy, per unit ...
If the fusion temperature is below that for the helium nuclei to fuse, the reaction produces a high energy alpha particle which quickly acquires an electron producing a stable light helium ion which can be utilized directly as a source of electricity without producing dangerous neutrons.
What is nuclear fusion, ... when two atoms of a light element such as hydrogen are heated and fused together to form a heavier element such as helium. In order for that process to occur, the atoms ...
This produces a helium nucleus and an energetic neutron. [5] Most designs aim to heat their fuel to around 100 million kelvins, which presents a major challenge in producing a successful design. Fusion fuel is 10 million times more energy dense than coal, [6] but tritium is extremely rare
Some stable helium-3 (two protons and one neutron) is produced in fusion reactions from hydrogen, though its estimated abundance in the universe is about 10 −5 relative to helium-4. [ 92 ] Binding energy per nucleon of common isotopes.