Thread: nuclear energy
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Old 05-29-2008, 04:02 AM   #15
Rikard T'Aranaxz
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Join Date: July 17, 2004
Location: amsterdam
Age: 40
Posts: 4,772
Default Re: nuclear energy

Quote:
Originally Posted by wellard View Post
Secretmaster also mentioned fusion

Can anybody link me to a good (understandable) explanation as to it's process and it's benefits / problems?
the process is simple. You fuse 4 hydrogen atoms into 1 helium atom. The benefits are that hydrogen is plenty available, the waste product is helium, which is non-toxic and non-radioactive. It is the most efficient way of extracting energy, except prehaps for accretion which we cant do on earth.

The problems are technology, for now the power we need to get fusion to start (which requires a temperature of over 1million K) is more then we get out of it.

The wikipedia page on fusion power is quite usefull for the layman.
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