nuclear fusion is when 2 hydryon atoms combine or FUSE together. when this happens the neculous combine therefore causing nuclear fussion which releaces masses of heat and light enegry that radiates to earth

Nuclear fission means that in this process the heavy nuclei are split into fragments (or fission products) when bombarded by neutrons and results in release of energy.

There is an existing fusion technology that produces controlled amounts of fusion energy - more energy out of the fusion power generating system than it takes to run the fusion power generating system.

It might be worthwhile to remember that Ivy-Mike technology worked the very first time it was tried in the 1952 nuclear test. Mike technology was the basis of the first thermonuclear weapons in the US arsenal. Adapting Mike technology to be pure DT-DD fusion opens up many new applications in safe, economical, fusion power generation.

While historically practical nuclear fusion has used a small amount of fissionable material like U235 to produce the conditions for fusion - Today, there are smaller pure fusion devices optimized to make clean energy (not blast effects) from hybrid pure DT-DD fusion while producing no radioactive fission products and high level nuclear waste. Modern DT-DD pure fusion devices produce the overwhelming majority of their energy from the DD fusion reaction of Deuterium separated from sea water.

One such modern hybrid DT-DD fusion design is called mini-Mike, which produces a small predictable controlled energy yield of 250 GJ per shot.

(Since pictures and outside web links are not allowed on Answers)

Description of a practical hybrid 2-stage fusion device -

mini-Mike is a two stage device that features a small hollow 2 mm diameter Deuterium-Tritium fusion capsule which in turn ignites a column of pressurized Deuterium cryo-liquid resulting in devices with safe and reliable energy yields optimized for power generation.

In 60 years, all existing MCF and ICF fusion systems have never worked (in the sense that they have not produced more energy from fusion than it took to get the fusion plasma to fusion conditions)..

Mike technology worked the first time it was tried and produced huge amounts of net energy (and has never failed).

Rather than placing our faith in scaling laws while we build ever larger and more expensive fusion experiments while trying to achieve break even energy generation - why not go back to the field and adapt technology that has never failed to finally find success in fusion?

So far, only one reactor has successfully produced more energy than was expended, and that one is in California. But 23 countries currently have experimental reactors: USA, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, South Korea, the European Union, the Czech Republic, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, UK, Ukraine, and Sweden.

Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction in which when a atom collides with another, and, instead of splitting each other apart like nuclear fission, if enough pressure and heat is available, they would merge into an compound or an heavier element.

Fusion currently is not very easy to use, as it requires extreme pressure and heat in order to work, but if that energy is able to be used, it is very powerful. You might have heard of hydrogen bombs, which use nuclear fusion. The heat is generated by x-rays and the pressure fuses hydrogen together to make a big kaboom.

Our sun uses fusion to create light. In the core of the sun, the intense gravity creates heat and pressure, which is the perfect condition for nuclear fusion. The gravity pull collides hydrogen atoms together, which form helium, at that point creating a blast of energy, which is the light you see during the day.

Pressure.

See related question for more information

The nuclear fission and/or fusion results in loss of mass (or mass defect) that transforms into energy according to formula E = mc2 (c is light velocity). The resulting energy manifests itself as heat energy that produces steam. The steam spins the turbines that spins electric generators and hence producing electricity.

Nuclear fusion releases energy as heat.

1. You need to contain the material. If it blows apart, it isn't contained.

1a. Fusing H to make He, means you are working with gases at STP.

1b. How do you handle the waste (He)?

1c. How do you capture and use the energy that is released? (Ye olde steam engine?)

1d. How do you feed the reaction? (Is it merely one explosion?)

2. How do you get a permit to allow you to experiment (local, state, federal)?

May I suggest experimenting not in Manhattan but in Arizona?

Heat generated in a nuclear fusion depends on the resistance of the plasma and the current.

Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction, but so is fission. So not all nuclear reactions are fission.

Small nuclei combine to form larger nuclei

Nuclear fission

Nuclear energy is produced by the release of heat from unstable elements such as Uranium. The energy is harnessed by using the energy to heat water. The radioactive water is than pumped through a heat exchanger where the 'dirty water' is used to heat 'clean' water. The clean water can then be used to drive turbines and other forms of engine.

Mostly in test reactors, though some operational reactors (though only a small number) are in service. Also, if you have ever heard of an H-bomb, or a hydrogen bomb, that is nuclear fusion.

Nobody can predict this, though some people do give opinions. The fact is that no successful way of reliably producing and harnessing fusion on earth has been developed, and scientists are still trying to devise better experiments which involve spending a lot of money and time. Personally I would give it at least 50 years. Hopefully it will be ready within 100 years because the suplies of uranium may be running out by then.

About every 10 years fusion reactor researchers have traditionally predicted that they expect to have it working in about 10 years. It is always "just over the horizon". Also I expect it will be far less "clean" than has usually been predicted (e.g. there will be disposal issues for the radioactive reactor at shutdown just like with fission - maybe smaller problems but still problems).

Various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.

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!).

At the center, where the gravitational pressure is highest.