Nuclear fusion involves the joining together of two atomic nuclei, fusing them into a single nucleus. When you join two nuclei together (usually light nuclei with only a few protons and/or neutrons), a tremendous amount of energy is released. Just as it takes a tremendous amount of energy to pull apart the pieces of a nucleus, when you put two pieces together, a lot of energy is released. Fusion is often confused with nuclear fission, but they are very different. Fission involves the breaking apart of a single nucleus into two smaller nuclei. Fusion is joining nuclei. Fission is breaking apart a nucleus. A tremendous amount of energy is released upon joining two nuclei together (it is this reaction that is happening inside the sun). It also takes a huge amount of energy to get this reaction to occur. The only way we currently know how to start a nuclear fusion reaction efficiently is to use an atomic bomb to get it started! This is how much energy you need to start the reaction! There are several other ways that we know of to start fusion reactions, but they all require more energy input than you get as energy output. There is a tremendous amount of research currently on so-called "cold fusion" or a way to do fusion without this huge amount of energy input. Currently all known methods involve putting in MORE energy than you get out! That's not a good design for a power plant, to say the least (nor is having atomic bombs going off inside to keep the reactors going!). See the Web Links to the left of the page for more information.
Wiki User
∙ 2007-05-21 19:59:46Nuclear energy is not "produced" in an atom. It is already there. All we do when we initiate fission or fusion reactions is to move the energy from one frame of reference to another.
Both types of energy are important in our life. Atomic energy deals with the energy produced by the chemical reactions caused by interactions among the electrons that are surrounding the relevant atoms. It is the type of reactions responsible of the energy obtained from burning fossil fuels as oil, gas, and coal. Nuclear energy deals with the energy produced by the nuclear reactions caused by interactions among the nuclei of the atoms resulting in nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. It is the type of reactions responsible of the energy produced by nuclear fuel in the nuclear power plants or fusion nuclear reactors.
It is nuclear energy, which is released either by nuclear fission or fusion
Helium a+
Nuclear fusion.
Now nuclear energy is produced by fission.
The suns energy is produced by nuclear fusion
The energy of stars is produced by nuclear fusion
Energy produced by nuclear fusion is much greater than (by around 400 times) energy produced by nuclear fission per unit mass.
This is produced by nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion and hydrogen.
No, the impact energy of a meteor is all from kinetic energy, nothing nuclear is involved.
The energy of the Sun is produced by nuclear fusion - the fusion of hydrogen into helium.
Hydrogen
The sun's energy is produced by nuclear fusion (not fission) at the core of the sun.
when the nuclear bumps around What does that mean!?
Nuclear energy is produced when atoms split or undergo fusion.