Duke Energy Nuclear Information Center Inside the sun, fusion reactions take place at very high temperatures and enormous gravitational pressures The foundation of nuclear energy is harnessing the power of atoms. Both fission and fusion are nuclear processes by which atoms are altered to create energy, but what is the difference between the two? Simply … Read more
By Barrie Lawson, UK The Holy Grail of nuclear energy, nuclear fusion is the process by which the Sun generates its prodigious energy providing us with the warmth and light we receive. It is the process by which the nuclei two light atoms combine to form a single, bigger nucleus of a new atom releasing … Read more
By Barrie Lawson, UK Solar Fusion The Sun’s immense energy is due to ongoing nuclear fusion occurring in its core where the temperature is around 15 Million degrees Celsius. It’s not a simple reaction, but a series reactions starting with the fusion of the two simplest atomic nuclei, the Hydrogen nuclei (protons), followed by fusion … Read more
Reactors and Atom Bombs A nuclear reactor is a power plant, that uses nuclear fission to eventually generate electricity. An atom bomb also uses nuclear fission to generate energy causing an explosion. However, due to fundamental differences between the two a nuclear reactor cannot explode like an atom bomb. To understand these differences, it is … Read more