![]() You wouldn’t know it, though, looking at popular media where anything so much as resembling a nuclear reactor, fission or fusion, is just moments away from disaster and with a single mis-pressed button Homer Simpson can turn a nuclear power plant into an atomic bomb.įusion is even safer, in fact, than fission. Today, a nuclear meltdown practically requires an act of god as an inciting factor. However, fission is still dogged by this dark past, and to an extent, this negative reputation enshrined in history and pop culture has carried over to nuclear fusion as well. Safety has become the primary concern of matters involving the use, transportation, and storage of radioactive material. But these very disasters have helped the nuclear industry make nuclear power even safer. We have historical events such as Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima to look to, as well as a plethora of nuclear disaster tropes in fiction that have followed in their wake. Everybody knows what happens when fission reactors go bad. The last half of the twentieth century ingrained the dangers of nuclear power in our collective minds. The sun, for example, is a giant natural fusion reactor that is constantly shoving hydrogen atoms together to form helium, producing massive amounts of heat and light and solar radiation in the fusion process.įusion Myth No. The fusion process produces energy that can be harnessed to produce electricity. Instead of breaking atoms apart into smaller atoms, a fusion reaction involves light atoms like hydrogen being smashed into each other at such high speeds that they stick to each other and form newer, heavier elements such as helium. Nuclear fusion is the opposite of nuclear fission. That’s right-nuclear fission is basically steam power with extra steps! Most forms of power, in fact, are steam power with extra steps-which is why it’s more feasible than you might expect to convert a coal power plant into a nuclear plant. The fission process also expels extra radiation and energy that can be used to boil water, drive steam turbines, and produce electricity. As a result, they become unstable and break apart into smaller elements such as barium, krypton, and a smorgasbord of other assorted isotopes. In nuclear fission, heavy elements such as uranium and plutonium are bombarded with high-energy neutron radiation. It’s long past time to set the record straight by correcting some of these most pernicious myths about nuclear fusion. Many misconceptions about nuclear fusion have been perpetuated by pop culture, those who don’t want it to fulfill its promise, and a lack of understanding of the differences between nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. ![]() ![]() Fortunately, fusion energy is closer to becoming a reality than ever before thanks to the hard work of innovators in the nuclear industry.īut fusion continues to be plagued by misunderstandings regarding its benefits and feasibility. ![]() With our current climate crisis and the increasing negative effects of our reliance on fossil fuels, human civilization needs fusion now more than ever. It’s a safe source of energy with a bountiful fuel source that produces no greenhouse gas pollutants. Nuclear fusion, the same physical process that powers our sun, is the ultimate way to generate electricity. The whole world receives energy from nuclear fusion every day from our sun, and we’re closer to bringing it down to Earth than ever before. ![]() But you might not have known that-you might have been told that it’s dangerous, it’s wasteful, it’s unnecessary, and worst of all, it’s an impossible pipe dream. Nuclear fusion energy is a clean, efficient, powerful, and bountiful source of electricity that will revolutionize the world. ![]()
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