The two largest inertial projects are the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the USA and the Laser MégaJoule in France, whose applications are mainly military and funded by defence programmes. Inertial fusion also requires much higher gains to compensate for the energy consumed by the lasers. Historically, magnetic fusion has been favoured because the technology needed for inertial fusion, particularly the lasers, was not available.

There are two possible ways of achieving nuclear fusion: magnetic confinement, which uses powerful magnets to confine the plasma for very long periods of time, and inertial confinement, which uses very powerful and brief laser pulses to compress the fuel and start the fusion reaction. China’s Artificial Sun: The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) device designed by China replicates the nuclear fusion process carried out by the sun.Inside the fusion chamber of the DIII-D tokamak, San Diego, USA.The ITER members include China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States. International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Assembly: It aims to build the world's largest tokamak to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy.What are Other International Initiatives on Nuclear Fusion Energy? No risk of meltdown: It is difficult enough to reach and maintain the precise conditions necessary for fusion-if any disturbance occurs, the plasma cools within seconds and the reaction stops.Limited risk of proliferation: Fusion doesn't employ fissile materials like uranium and plutonium (Radioactive tritium is neither a fissile nor a fissionable material).No long-lived radioactive waste: Nuclear fusion reactors produce no high activity, long-lived nuclear waste.Its major by-product is helium: an inert, non-toxic gas. No CO₂: Fusion doesn't emit harmful toxins like carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.Deuterium can be distilled from all forms of water, while tritium will be produced during the fusion reaction as fusion neutrons interact with lithium. Sustainability: Fusion fuels are widely available and nearly inexhaustible.Fusion has the potential to provide the kind of baseload energy needed to provide electricity to the cities and the industries.Abundant energy: Fusing atoms together in a controlled way releases nearly four million times more energy than a chemical reaction such as the burning of coal, oil or gas and four times as much as nuclear fission reactions (at equal mass).Plasma is also known as the fourth state of matter.

At high temperatures, electrons are ripped from atom’s nuclei and become a plasma or an ionised state of matter.Plasma is a hot, charged gas made of positive ions and free-moving electrons that has unique properties distinct from solids, liquids and gases. Fusion reactions take place in a state of matter called plasma.In the sun, the extreme pressure produced by its immense gravity creates the conditions for fusion to happen.Harnessing fusion, the process that powers the Sun, could provide a limitless, clean energy source.It is the opposite reaction of fission, where heavy isotopes are split apart.Nuclear fusion is defined as the combining of several small nuclei into one large nucleus with the subsequent release of huge amounts of energy.The record and scientific data from these crucial experiments are a major boost for ITER, the larger and more advanced version of the JET.

This was held in place using superconductor electromagnets as it spins around, fuses and releases tremendous energy as heat.Deuterium and tritium, which are isotopes of hydrogen, were heated to temperatures 10 times hotter than the centre of the sun to create plasma.A tokamak is a machine that confines a plasma using magnetic fields in a donut shape that scientists call a torus.The energy was produced in a machine called a tokamak, a doughnut-shaped apparatus.The JET (Joint European Torus facility) site is the largest operational one of its kind in the world.One kilogram(kg) of fusion fuel contains about 10 million times as much energy as a kg of coal, oil or gas.Energy by nuclear fusion is one of mankind’s long standing quests as it promises to be low carbon, safer than how nuclear energy is now produced and, with an efficiency that can technically exceed a 100%.Recently, the Scientists in the United Kingdom said they have achieved a new milestone in producing nuclear fusion energy, or imitating the way energy is produced in the Sun. For Prelims: Tokamak, Nuclear fusion, Difference between Nuclear Fusion & Nuclear Fission.įor Mains: Advantages of Nuclear Fusion, Clean Energy.

Nuclear fission vs fusion