Fusion FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about Fusion.
This FAQ about Fusion was compiled and written by Robert F. Heeter heeter1@llnl.gov with numerous contributions by others.
01 What is fusion?- Fusion means many things when discussed on the newsgroup. ...
- 02 How does fusion release energy?
- If you add up the masses of the particles which go into a ...
- 03 Where does fusion occur in nature?
- The conditions needed to induce fusion reactions are extreme; ...
- 04 Why doesn't fusion occur anywhere else in nature?
- Current scientific knowledge indicates that very little ...
- 05 What are the basic fusion reactions?
- While it is possible to take any two nuclei and get them to fuse,...
- 06 Could you tell me more about these different elements? (Fusion)
- (Note: there's more information in the glossary too.)...
- 07 Why is the deuterium-tritium (D-T) reaction the easiest? (Fusion)
- Basically speaking, the extra neutrons on the D and T nuclei ...
- 08 What is aneutronic fusion?
- Some researchers feel the advantages of neutron-free ...
- 09 What sort of fusion reactor is the sun?
- Fortunately for life on earth, the sun is an aneutronic ...
- 10 Why is it so hard to create controlled man-made fusion reactions?
- In order to get two nuclei to fuse, you basically have to ...
- 11 What is plasma physics, and how is it related to fusion?
- Plasma physics is the area of physics which studies ionized ...
- 12 Just how hot and confined do these plasmas need to be? (Fusion)
- (Or, what conditions are needed for controlled fusion?)...
- 13 What are the basic approaches used to heat and confine the plasma? (Fusion)
- (Or, what is magnetic confinement? Inertial confinement?)...
- 14 What would a fusion energy plant look like?
- In the most basic picture, you need a fusion reactor to create ...
- 15 What fuels can a fusion reactor burn?
- The different fusion reactions were discussed in Section 1. It ...
- 16 What are the different methods for converting fusion energy to useful energy?
- Generally it is expected that fusion energy will be converted ...
- 17 What would a D-T fusion reactor look like?
- [[ The following paraphrases answers written by Arthur Carlson. ]]...
- 18 How do you get the plasma hot enough for fusion to occur?
- Much of the answer given below is taken from the PPPL World-Wide ...
- 19 What are the materials requirements for fusion? Are any of these materials scarce?
- First we need some definitions: ...
- 20 How large would a fusion reactor be? Why?
- Fusion reactors are generally expected to have ...
- 21 What are fusion's major potential environmental advantages?
- Fusion, like fission, creates no greenhouse gases, no smog,...
- 22 But isn't fusion nuclear? What about radioactive waste?
- Fusion *is* a nuclear technology, but there are ...
- 23 What key technologies are needed to achieve these advantages? (Fusion)
- *Any* working fusion reactor would have minimal ...
- 24 What about renewable energy sources? Why do we need fusion at all?
- (After all, renewables will be ready much sooner than fusion.)...
- 25 Recent Results on TFTR: D-T Experiments (Fusion)
- * (a) What was done?...
- 26 Recent Results on JET (Fusion)
- JET ran some experiments in 1991 using a 10% tritium mix, and ...
- 27 Recent Results in Muon-Catalyzed Fusion (Fusion)
- (Based on information provided by Steven Jones of BYU.)...
- 28 Recent Political News (Fusion)
- * (a) U.S. Magnetic Fusion News:...
- 29 Appendix on TFTR and JET results (Fusion)
- TFTR results vs JET results from 1991:...
- 30 What opportunities are there for interested students? (Fusion)
- * Undergraduate Opportunities: Academic-year ...
- 32 What sorts of experiments are there for high-school students? How can I get the equipment? Has anyone else done this? (Fusion)
- While there are few fusion experiments that would be ...
- 33 What about those summer programs you mentioned above? (Fusion)
- I am currently aware of two major plasma/fusion summer programs....
- 34 When/where are the major fusion conferences?
- ** Major Annual Conferences:...
- 35 Newsgroups (Fusion)
- sci.physics.fusion (unmoderated)...
- 36 WAIS (Wide-Area Information Server) Databases (Fusion)
- [ Information on the sunsite.unc.edu WAIS database ...
- 37 World-Wide Web (Fusion)
- * Much of the public-domain fusion info is now available ...
- 38 Gopher (Fusion)
- * Garching (Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics): ...
- 39 Anonymous FTP Sites (Fusion)
- sunsite.unc....
- 40 LISTSERV ("FTP by email") (Fusion)
- vm1.nodak.edu also works as a listserver:...
- 41 Electronic Bulletins (Fusion)
- * TFTR Updates - published occasionally by Rich Hawryluk,...
- 42 Individuals Willing to Provide Additional Information (Fusion)
- Many of the participants on sci.physics.fusion are conventional/...
- 43 Recent articles in the popular literature (Fusion)
- * Conn, et al, The International Thermonuclear ...
- 44 General References and Histories (Fusion)
- (suitable for those with minimal background in physics or fusion)....
- 45 Fusion Research Review Articles & Texts
- * Breunlich, W. H., and Kammel, P., Muon-Catalyzed Fusion,...
- 46 Plasma Physics - General Texts
- (focus is on the science of plasmas, rather than engineering of ...
- 47 Plasma Physics - Device-Specific (Publications)
- * Wesson, John. _Tokamaks_ [309 p.] Oxford Science Publications, ...
- 48 Fusion Reactor Engineering References
- * Kammash, Terry. _Fusion reactor physics: principles and ...
- 49 List of Relevant Scientific Journals (Fusion)
- (Anyone care to write short blurbs about some of these journals?)...
- 50 Unclassified / Unsummarized works (Fusion)
- (Please help me move ...
- 51 Citations and Acknowledgements (fusion-faq)
- ****** Blanket Acknowledgement ******...
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