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The history of nuclear fusion began early in the 20th century as an inquiry into how stars powered themselves and expanded to incorporate a broad inquiry into the nature of matter and energy, as potential applications expanded to include warfare, energy production and rocket propulsion.
Nuclear fusion–fission hybrid (hybrid nuclear power) is a proposed means of generating power by use of a combination of nuclear fusion and fission processes. The concept dates to the 1950s, and was briefly advocated by Hans Bethe during the 1970s, but largely remained unexplored until a revival of interest in 2009, due to the delays in the ...
The first Soviet fusion bomb test, RDS-6s, American codename "Joe 4", demonstrated the first fission/fusion/fission "layercake" design, limited below the megaton range, with less than 20% of the yield coming directly from fusion. It was quickly superseded by the Teller-Ulam design. This was the first aerial drop of a fusion weapon.
The Joint European Torus (JET) magnetic fusion experiment in 1991. Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices designed to harness this energy are ...
Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles Fusion power , power generation using controlled nuclear fusion reactions Cold fusion , a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at or near room temperature
Articles dealing specifically with using this process to produce useful power are contained in the subcategory Fusion power. Articles about nuclear processes that are speculative or poorly understood (like cold fusion ), or whose potential for power production is remote (like muon-catalyzed fusion ) are kept in the main category.
Nuclear fusion is normally understood to occur at temperatures in the tens of millions of degrees. This is called "thermonuclear fusion".Since the 1920s, there has been speculation that nuclear fusion might be possible at much lower temperatures by catalytically fusing hydrogen absorbed in a metal catalyst.
Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a fusion energy process that initiates nuclear fusion reactions by compressing and heating targets filled with fuel. The targets are small pellets, typically containing deuterium ( 2 H) and tritium ( 3 H).