I.

Introduction:

Today, nuclear energy is one of the top energy sources worldwide. This
technology depends these days, on a complex method that involves breaking
down a specific atom, such as Uranium, to unleash huge quantity of energy.
But this method is dangerous, since the atoms used in it are radioactive
which leaves behind extremely toxic wastes. But what if we can mime this
technology, using a cup of water instead of radioactive elements and
unleashing even more energy without any waste except for water vapor. You
might call this a dream, but in physics we call it “fusion”.

II. Fusion:

i. Definition:

Fusion is a process by which nuclear reactions between light elements form

heavier ones (up to iron). Substantial amounts of energy are released in
cases where the interacting nuclei belong to elements with low atomic
numbers. In simple words, fusion is a nuclear technology that involves
combining two atoms, instead of breaking them down, to unleash massive
amount of energy.

ii. Process:

ii.1. The Principles and Prerequisites :

All matter is comprised of small units called atoms. Atoms themselves are
made up of three kinds of smaller particles: Protons (with a positive charge),
Neutrons (with no charge), and Electrons (with a negative charge). The
protons and neutrons are concentrated in a very small and dense region of
the atom known as the nucleus. This is the region we will be focusing on from
here on in, hence the word nuclear. The number of protons in the nucleus is
called the "atomic number" or "Z" and it determines what element the atom
belongs to. Any given element will always have the same number of protons,
but the number of neutrons can vary. Two atoms with the same atomic
number (i.e. of the same element), but with a different number of neutrons
are called isotopes. The sum of the number of protons and neutrons in any
given isotope is known as the atomic mass.
When it comes to fusion, we are only concerned with the first few elements
on the periodic table, mainly Hydrogen (H) and Helium (He). Furthermore, we
are interested in two specific isotopes of hydrogen, called Deuterium and
Tritium.
Deuterium and Tritium are chemically identical to normal Hydrogen
(Protium); the only difference is that they have atomic masses of 2 and 3,
respectively (protium has an atomic mass of 1).
Deuterium occurs naturally in the form of "heavy water," a substance almost
identical to normal water, except that it has a formula of D2O, instead of H2O.
It can be easily extracted from the oceans using common chemical
processes.
Tritium is radioactive and does not occur in nature due to its short half life of
12 years. It must be made in nuclear reactors by bombarding lithium with
neutrons. As you will see below, however, Tritium produces very energetic
fusion reactions when it reacts with Deuterium. It is also the easiest isotope
of hydrogen to undergo fusion.
As mentioned before, fusion is the process of "fusing" two light nuclei
together to form a heaver atom. As an example, we will use the fusion of two
Deuterium atoms.
Alone, by themselves, two Deuterium atoms have more mass than a single
Helium atom. So, when we fuse two of them together to make Helium, some
of that mass gets lost. More specifically, it gets converted into energy. This is
where Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2 comes into play. The tiny amount
of mass that is lost in the reaction
gets converted into a huge amount
of energy, which is released in the
form of fast moving particles.
ii.2. Fusion Formulas:
1. D + D → T(1.01 MeV) + p(3.02
MeV)
2. D + D → He3(0.82 MeV) + n(2.45
MeV)
3. D + T → He4(3.5 MeV) + n (14.1
MeV)
4. D + He3 → He4(3.6MeV) + p(14.7
MeV)
5. T + T → He4 + 2 n + (11.3 MeV)
6. p + B11 → 3 He4 + (8.7 MeV)
Key:
D: Deuterium
p: Proton, normal hydrogen
He: Helium
T: Tritium
n: neutron
Energies are measured in units known as "electron volts" or "eV." This is
equal to the kinetic energy possessed by an electron moving through a
potential of 1 volt. To convert eV to Kelvin, multiply by 11,800. So 20,000 eV
(20 KeV) is equal to over 200 million degrees! For all practical purposes,
Kelvin and Celsius temperatures are equal here, since the difference between
the two is only 273 degrees.

ii.3. Fusion Reactions:

The energy released in a fusion reaction is quite large, a million times greater
than what you would get out of the best chemical reactions. However, a
certain amount of seed energy is required in order to make the reaction take
place. This seed energy is often on the order of 20 KeV or greater. As
mentioned in the brief note above, you multiply the energy in eV by 11,800
to get the temperature in degrees Kelvin. This is why people say that fusion
requires temperatures of 200 million degrees to take place. In order to get
the fusion reaction to "ignite" and burn like a fire, the energy released in the
reaction must go back into creating that "seed energy." If too much of the
fusion energy is lost, then the reaction will cease once the seed energy
disappears.
Once you can ignite a self-sustaining reaction, then it is simply a matter of
supplying fuel and extracting the energy. In the reactions where neutrons are
produced, you surround the reaction with a blanket of water or liquid Lithium.
This will slow down the neutrons and produce heat, which would then be used
to boil water, make steam and drive turbines. In the case of Lithium, this will
also produce more Tritium for use as fusion fuel. Unfortunately, this process
of heating and boiling water is only about 30% efficient. Steam technology is
over 100 years old, and it seems a bit strange to be using such antiquated
techniques with such an advanced power source.
The best way around this problem is to pick a reaction in which the reaction
products are charged particles (like protons and Helium nuclei). These
particles can be collected on a grid and converted directly into electricity with
90% efficiency or better. Reactions 4 and 6 are examples of this.(1)

iii. Uses of Fusion:

iii.1. In Space:
The ultimate technology of fusion has occurred since this world existed. An
example of that is our shiny sun, the twinkling stars in the sky, and most of
the lighting planets all over the universe.
iii.2. On Earth:
iii.2.1. Peaceful Uses
Although scientists haven’t yet been able to achieve nuclear fusion in a way it
could be used by humans for things other than war, they assure that if they
succeeded to do so, there would be enough cheap and ultimate source of
energy for all humans for the next billion year. They refer this to the reaction
of fusion using deuterium, the isotope of hydrogen, since our planet full of
water that we could extract hydrogen from. They give an example of this: you
could fill a cup of water in your car and fusion would give it enough energy
for the next 40 years, and without even polluting the earth since the only
waste left behind is water vapor.
iii.2.2. Uses In Modern Warfare:
In November-1-1952, Edward Teller and other American scientists developed
the first hydrogen bomb, these bombs also known as
thermonuclear bombs can be hundreds or even thousands of
times more powerful than atomic bombs. The explosive yield of atomic
bombs is measured in kilotons, each unit of which equals the explosive force
of 1,000 tons of TNT. The explosive power of hydrogen bombs, by contrast, is
frequently expressed in megatons, each unit of which equals the explosive
force of 1,000,000 tons of TNT.
III. Cold Fusion:
After years from losing hope of achieving nuclear-fusion for things other than
bombs (due to the 1 million ºC heat needed to achieve it), Martin
Fleischmann and Stanley Pons returned technology back on the track of
immense discoveries by achieving Cold Fusion.
i. Definition:
Cold Fusion is a process on which nuclear fusion is achieved chemically in a
test tube.
ii. The Story And Destiny Of Cold Fusion:
Nuclear fusion is often thought to be the ultimate, unlimited form of energy.
To produce it, deuterium (a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen) is used
as fuel in fusion plants which duplicate reactions occurring within the sun, at
a temperature of millions of degrees. For
nearly forty years, high-temperature
experiments have been carried out in
experimental plants to bring about
nuclear fusion, with the ultimate aim of
producing cheap and abundant energy.
These experiments have cost millions of
pounds, and by the late 1980s,
governments throughout the world were
cutting the funding offered to such work,
since it did not appear to be producing
successful results.
Alongside these high-temperature, high-
cost experiments, several small groups of
scientists were working on a different way
of producing nuclear fusion altogether.
One such group was headed by
Fleischmann and Pons. Fleischmann was a British electrochemist, forced to
take early retirement from Southampton University during cuts to university
funding in the Thatcher years. He became a freelance researcher, and took a
post at the University of Utah, working with Pons, one of his former PhD
students. Funding experiments with $100,000 of their own money,
Fleischmann and Pons were investigating their theory that reactions with
palladium in heavy water could produce nuclear fusion. This was not a new
idea; chemists as long ago as the 1920s had carried out similar experiments
in attempts to produce the helium which would result from such an
experiment. More recently another group of scientists at Brigham Young
University (also in Utah) had been experimenting in a similar way, although
until 1988 they were unaware of Fleischmann and Pons work.
By 1989, after much adjustment and fine-tuning of their equipment,
Fleischmann and Pons observed results which seemed to suggest that fusion
was occurring: excess heat, free neutrons and the presence of tritium. The
group at Brigham Young University had also observed unexpected neutrons,
but not tritium or excess heat, a result which need not have suggested
atomic fusion. Nonetheless, the Brigham Young group were about to publish
their results and released an abstract publicly about their work. This jolted
Fleischmann and Pons into action. Fearing that the Brigham Young group
would usurp their ideas, they wrote a joint submission to the journal Nature,
claiming that they had achieved cold fusion - a paper which was leaked to the
Financial Times. A press release followed, before the full scientific paper was
published.
Because of the energy generating potential of nuclear fusion, this generated
a huge controversy. The idea of energy too cheap to meter (once said about
traditional nuclear power) was raised; and the effects (in particular the
environmental effects) of switching to energy sources based on nuclear
fusion rather than fossil fuels were widely discussed. But within the scientific
world, there was much skepticism. Most nuclear physicists argued that cold
fusion was impossible in principle, or that if it were possible it would be too
slow to produce observable results - or that Fleischmann and Pons should be
dead from radiation sickness! A few physicists did attempt to speculate as to
how such results might be possible - but such speculations were unpopular in
physics departments, and the tenured position of at least one physicist was
jeopardized by his persistence in such speculation. Fleischmann and Pons
work was generally rejected by physicists as being the result either of faulty
observations or equipment; or of being explained by a chemical rather than a
nuclear reaction.
Amongst chemists, the reaction was more mixed. The Brigham Young group
were furious that Fleischmann and Pons had gone public. In part this was
because their own, more modest results were overshadowed; but also
because the strength of reaction against Fleischmann and Pons results from
nuclear physicists was extended to include their own. Other groups of
electrochemists, however, were keen to begin their own experiments to test
Fleischmann and Pons results, to see whether they were repeatable or
whether further tests would show that Fleischmann and Pons claims could not
be substantiated. The experiment was (in theory at least) easy to conduct
and relatively cheap, and was repeated by chemists across the world.
Initially, several universities reported positive results - enough for the US
Government to consider switching its fusion research funding from traditional
high-temperature nuclear fusion projects to cold fusion research. However as
weeks passed more and more research groups - most importantly an
influential group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology - could detect none
of the results (neutrons, tritium and excess heat) which would indicate that
nuclear fusion was happening. Various accusations were made about errors
in Fleischmann and Pons methodology and equipment; the New Scientist in
1990 even suggested that fraud was involved in the reported results of some
experiments which claimed to replicate Fleischmann and Pons success.
Fleischmann and Pons withdrew their paper from Nature and a substantially
revised form did not appear until July 1990.
By July the furors over cold fusion had died down and the idea was widely
thought to have been discredited along with those who had proposed it. The
careers of Fleischmann and Pons were permanently blighted. It was widely
believed that the scientists involved claimed too much, based it on too little,
and publicized it too widely. Those few scientists who continued to work on
the question played down their relationship to the controversy and its
possible implication for other scientists by publishing papers with titles like
Anomalous phenomena in the Palladium-Deuterium lattice. Currently, some
experiments are still being carried out in this area, but even though some
positive results have been reported, little funding is available for cold fusion
research.(2)
IV. Conclusion:
Fusion us the best energy source discovered till these days, and although
there are too many obstacles on the way of using it as an energy source, but
we should never lose hope since this tech would help our world be a better
place and it would the wars initiated to control energy sources, so never lose
hope and as our ancestors always repeated: “No Pain No Gain”.

Outline:
I. Introduction: Today, nuclear energy is one of the top energy sources
worldwide. This technology depends these days, on a complex method that
involves breaking down a specific atom, such as Uranium, to unleash huge
quantity of energy. But this method is dangerous, since the atoms used in it
are radioactive which leaves behind extremely toxic wastes. But what if we
can mime this technology, using a cup of water instead of radioactive
elements and unleashing even more energy without any waste except for
water vapor. You might call this a dream, but in physics we call it “fusion”.

II. Fusion:

i. Definition.

ii. Process:

a. The Principles and Prerequisites.

b. Fusion Formulas.
c. Fusion Reactions.
iii. Uses of Fusion:
A. In Space.
B. On Earth.
a. Peaceful Uses
b. Uses In Modern Warfare.
III. Cold Fusion: After years from losing hope of achieving nuclear-fusion for
things other than bombs (due to the 1 million ºC heat needed to achieve it),
Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons returned technology back on the track
of immense discoveries by achieving Cold Fusion.
A. Definition.
B. The Story And Destiny Of Cold Fusion.

References:
(1): “The Fusion Process.” What exactly is fusion. Internet Resource.