Nuclear Fusion As an Energy Source with Recent Trends

In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple like-charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus. It is accompanied by the release or absorption of energy. Iron and nickel nuclei have the largest binding energies per nucleon of all nuclei. The fusion of two nuclei with lower mass than iron generally releases energy while the fusion of nuclei heavier than iron absorbs energy; vice-versa for the reverse process, nuclear fission.

• New Insights On Fusion Power: Research carried out at MIT's Alcator C-Mod fusion reactor may have brought the promise of fusion as a future power source a bit closer to reality, though scientists caution that a practical fusion powerplant is still decades away. Fusion, the reaction that produces the sun's energy, is thought to have enormous potential for future power generation because fusion plant operation produces no emissions, fuel sources are potentially abundant, and it produces relatively little (and short-lived) radioactive waste. But it still faces great hurdles.[1]
• Simple Sandpile Model Helps Solve Problems Of Fusion Power: A team of physicists from the University of Warwick, and the EURATOM/UKAEA fusion research programme at the Culham Science Centre, have found a new simple and elegant way of using the science of;sandpiles; to achieve a clear model of how a fusion plasma ;self organises; itself into a superstable state - a crucial key to power generation from fusion plasma.[2]
• Fusion In Our Future: Nuclear fusion, the same reaction that fuels the sun, holds the potential for providing humankind with a clean and limitless supply of energy. To reign in the awesome power of this reaction, numerous research teams throughout the world seek to produce fusion in a controlled manner.[3]
• A Step Toward Fusion Energy: A new project has come one step closer to making fusion energy possible. Plasma is very hot, ionized gas that can conduct electricity - essentially, it's what stars are made of. If heated to the point of ignition, hydrogen ions could fuse into helium, the same reaction that powers the sun. This fusion could be a clean, sustainable and limitless energy source.[4]
• Reactor Upgrades Help Researchers Study Nuclear Fusion As Energy Source: For about six months of the year, bursts of a hot, electrically charged gas, or plasma, swirl around a donut-shaped tube in a special MIT reactor, helping scientists learn more about a potential future energy source: nuclear fusion. During downtimes when the reactor is offline, as it is right now, engineers make upgrades that will help them achieve their goal of making fusion a viable energy source--a long-standing mission that will likely continue for decades.[5]