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| From animated fusion |
To achieve nuclear fusion, two light atoms must come within a distance of 10-15 m. The strong force becomes effective at this distance, and the two nuclei unite into one nucleus.
Since atomic nuclei have positive charges, they must overcome the Coulomb potential in order to approach each other within 10-15 m. Thus, the light nuclei must be moving at high speed in their collision. Thus, nuclei are either accelerated or heated to a high temperature.
Particle accelerators invented for the study of nuclear reactions are
also wonderful machines for the study of fusion. Accelerated H, D, T,
3He, 4He particles are used to bombard targets
of these same nuclides. These experiments provide data about fusion.
In particular, the following four reactions receive the most attention.
Probabilities of fusion reactions are quantitatively defined as the cross sections. Effective cross sections for various fusion reactions as functions of temperature are given here. For all four fusion reactions given above, the cross section for the reaction,
ABSTRACT
Observations have been made of deuteron-deuteron fusion at room temperature
during low-voltage electrolytic infusion of deuterons into metallic titanium
or palladium electrodes. Neutrons with energy of approximately 2.45 meV
have been clearly detected with a sensitive neutron spectrometer at a rate
of 0.002 n/s, which cannot be accounted for by ambient neutron background
variations. The reaction has been known to yield excess (or "latent") heat,
where D + D yields 4He + 23.8 MeV. This paper examines the latest
experimental results from several international researchers and summarizes
several new theories of nuclear model interactions that have been put
forth to explain these intriguing results.
Cold Fusion Times A magazine for cold fusion science.
Website of the the U.S. Fusion Energy Sciences Program Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory What's Up With Fusion?
