- two small atoms collide and
fuse together to form a new, larger element and release a lot of
energy by the conversion of mass into energy.
- used in hydrogen bombs and the sun.
- You can bring two smaller atoms,
usually hydrogen or hydrogen isotopes (deuterium, tritium),
together to form a larger one (helium or helium isotopes); this
is how the
sun produces energy.
Tokamak Fusion
Test Reactor
The most well-known of the nuclear fusion test reactors
is the TFTR at Princeton. It is a magnetic confinement
reactor using the toroidal geometry of the tokamak, a device
first developed in the USSR. It uses a combination of two
magnetic fields to confine and control the plasma. One is
provided by the doughnut-shaped set of external coils which
provides a magnetic field along the axis of the the toroid
(called the toroidal field). The other is generated by the large
heating current along the
toroid which heats the plasma; it is called a poloidal field.
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