There is some great news for all environment lovers. The nuclear fusion project has been given the go ahead, and hopefully, it will not be long before the team of physicists led by Mike Dunne of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxford, UK, will be able to successfully reproduce the power of the sun on earth.
Amazing is it not? To think how far science has progressed, and that now we will be able to replicate the sun’s energy! Nuclear fusion is the answer for the energy crisis which is looming ahead of us.
What is nuclear fusion? It is a nuclear reaction, in which, two light nuclei (like hydrogen) combine to form heavier nuclei (such as helium). Excess binding energy is released during this process, and it is this energy which scientists hope to harness fruitfully.
Nuclear fusion is not as easy as it seems, because, a considerable energy barrier must be overcome before fusion can occur. The energy barrier is produced because two naked nuclei always repel each other due to the presence of electrostatic force between their positively charged protons.
Do you know it is for the last 50 years that research is undergoing for the production of fusion power? It has definitely not been easy. Hydrogen bombs have been the most successful fusion reactions produced till date.
Well, one fervently hopes that scientists will soon be able to produce fusion power, and thus lessen our dependence on the fossil fuels.
