They release energy in two forms: heat and light. Heat is the kinetic energy of the atoms moving faster and faster.
Light is the electromagnetic radiation that comes from the electric charges of the atoms changing.
See, nuclear fusion is when two light nuclei, like hydrogen or helium, merge to form a single heavier nucleus, like helium or carbon.
This process releases energy because the new nucleus has less mass than the two original ones.
The missing mass becomes energy, according to Einstein's famous equation E=mc^2.
We are talking about an enormous amount of energy.
One gram of fusion fuel can produce as much energy as 11 tons of coal.
That's why we are trying to harness nuclear fusion for clean and abundant power. Imagine if we could create our own mini-suns on Earth.
But there's a catch.
Nuclear fusion only happens at very high temperatures and pressures, like in the core of the Sun, where it's about 10 million degrees Celsius.
That's hard to recreate on Earth, but not impossible.
Recently, some researchers achieved a major breakthrough by creating a fusion reaction that produced more energy than it consumed.
A huge step towards making fusion power a reality.
Nuclear fusion; the ultimate source of power in the universe, and maybe someday, on our planet too.
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