Building on the early experiments in artificial nuclear transmutation by Patrick Blackett, laboratory fusion of hydrogen isotopes was accomplished by Mark Oliphant in 1932.

Quantum tunneling was discovered by Friedrich Hund in 1927, and shortly afterwards Robert Atkinson and Fritz Houtermans used the measured masses of light elements to demonstrate that large amounts of energy could be released by fusing small nuclei. Then in 1921, Arthur Eddington suggested hydrogen–helium fusion could be the primary source of stellar energy. The extreme astrophysical event of a supernova can produce enough energy to fuse nuclei into elements heavier than iron.Īmerican chemist William Draper Harkins was the first to propose the concept of nuclear fusion in 1915. Nuclear fusion uses lighter elements, such as hydrogen and helium, which are in general more fusible while the heavier elements, such as uranium, thorium and plutonium, are more fissionable. The opposite is true for the reverse process, called nuclear fission. Fusion of nuclei lighter than these releases energy (an exothermic process), while the fusion of heavier nuclei results in energy retained by the product nucleons, and the resulting reaction is endothermic. These elements have a relatively small mass and a relatively large binding energy per nucleon. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers active or main-sequence stars and other high-magnitude stars, where large amounts of energy are released.Ī nuclear fusion process that produces atomic nuclei lighter than iron-56 or nickel-62 will generally release energy. This difference in mass arises due to the difference in nuclear binding energy between the atomic nuclei before and after the reaction. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of energy. Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei, usually deuterium and tritium (hydrogen variants), combine to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons).

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