Abstract
This chapter describes some basic nuclear physics underlying fusion (the merging of light elements) and fission (the splitting of heavy elements), in addition to the connection with fusion processes in the Sun and other stars and with quantum mechanics (the tunnelling effect). The chapter’s final section discusses possible fusion processes, with emphasis on deuterium-deuterium and deuterium-tritium fusion.
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Notes
- 1.
An isotope is a variant of a particular element that has the same chemical properties as that element but differs in the composition of its nucleus. This and other definitions can be found in the Glossary in the back.
- 2.
The word pile or atomic pile was then in use for designating such a reactor, which was not much more than a pile of blocks of uranium and graphite. Fermi described the apparatus as “a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers."
- 3.
Executive Summary to Japan’s Policy to promote R&D for a fusion DEMO reactor (December 18, 2017), https://www.mext.go.jp/component/b_menu/shingi/toushin/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2019/02/18/1400137_02.pdf, accessed 25 April 2020.
- 4.
The force is also inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the nuclei. The Coulomb force is F = ke q1q2/r2, with ke a constant called Coulomb’s constant. If the charges q1 and q2 have the same sign, the force is repulsive. If they are of opposite sign, the force is attractive. The force also increases rather sharply when the distance decreases. All this was first formulated in 1785 by the French military engineer and physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736–1806).
- 5.
The third decay process, γ-decay, involves the emission of penetrating electromagnetic radiation.
- 6.
Provided it isn’t a Citroën 2CV.
- 7.
Roughly equal to (MA-MB-me)c2, with MA the mass of the original nucleus, MB the mass of the product nucleus and me the mass of the electron.
- 8.
We now know that it is actually around 75%.
- 9.
Bethe also discovered the CNO cycle as a possible fusion process that would be equally probable at solar temperatures of 16 million degrees as the p-p chain, but the p-p chain is more prominent in stars with a mass equal to the Sun’s or less. In the CNO (carbon-nitrogen-oxygen) cycle four protons fuse, using carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes as catalysts, to produce one alpha particle, two positrons (positively charged electrons) and two electron neutrinos.
- 10.
It was detected in 1931, one year earlier than the neutron, and at its discovery it was not yet known that it was an isotope of hydrogen; hence its name deuterium, which derives from deuteros, the Greek word for two.
- 11.
Lithium is a comparatively rare element, although it is found in many rocks and some brines, but always in very low concentrations. There are a fairly large number of both lithium mineral and brine deposits but only comparatively few of them are of actual or potential commercial value. Many are very small, others are too low in grade (Handbook of Lithium and Natural Calcium). Although it is widely distributed on Earth, it is no foregone conclusion that there is enough lithium to meet all demands, see Chap. 19.
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Reinders, L.J. (2021). Introduction and Basic Science. In: The Fairy Tale of Nuclear Fusion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64344-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64344-7_1
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