General

What type of fuel could be used in a nuclear fusion reactor?

What type of fuel could be used in a nuclear fusion reactor?

The current best bet for fusion reactors is deuterium-tritium fuel. This fuel reaches fusion conditions at lower temperatures compared to other elements and releases more energy than other fusion reactions. Deuterium and tritium are isotopes of hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe.

Can water be used in nuclear fusion?

Water is a common coolant used in existing fission reactors throughout the world. A large base of operating experience has been accumulated for heat exchangers, steam generators, chemistry control and other large-scale water systems.

Does nuclear fusion need hydrogen?

Fusion technology. Fusion fuel – different isotopes of hydrogen – must be heated to extreme temperatures of the order of 50 million degrees Celsius, and must be kept stable under intense pressure, hence dense enough and confined for long enough to allow the nuclei to fuse.

What are the three main fuel needed for nuclear fusion?

Fuels. The fuels considered for fusion power have all been light elements like the isotopes of hydrogen—protium, deuterium, and tritium. The deuterium and helium-3 reaction requires helium-3, an isotope of helium so scarce on Earth that it would have to be mined extraterrestrially or produced by other nuclear reactions …

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Does fusion boil water?

General Fusion’s power plant design overcomes this challenge, because it enables the use of existing steam turbine technology to produce electricity from fusion. That hot liquid metal can then be pumped out and used to boil water, create steam, and spin a turbine to generate electricity.

What is used in nuclear fusion?

The main fuels used in nuclear fusion are deuterium and tritium, both heavy isotopes of hydrogen.

How can we sustain nuclear fusion?

The reactor should heat and confine a plasma of deuterium and tritium such that the fusion of the isotopes into helium produces enough heat to sustain further fusion reactions.