{"id":18538,"date":"2025-02-20T04:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T23:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=18538"},"modified":"2025-04-05T11:32:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T06:02:31","slug":"nuclear-fusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/nuclear-fusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Fusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Nuclear Fusion Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>A world record for nuclear fusion has been smashed after the WEST Tokamak reactor, in southern France, was able to maintain a plasma for more than 22 minutes.<\/p>\n<h2>About Nuclear Fusion<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Nuclear fusion is the process by which <strong>two light atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier one<\/strong> while <strong>releasing massive amounts of energy.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The process releases energy because the total mass of the resulting single nucleus is less than the mass of the two original nuclei. The leftover mass becomes energy.<\/li>\n<li>Fusion reactions <strong>take place in a state of matter called plasma<\/strong> \u2014 a hot, charged gas made of positive ions and free-moving electrons with unique properties distinct from solids, liquids or gases.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>sun<\/strong>, along with all <strong>other stars, is powered by this reaction.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What are Tokamaks?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The devices designated for the task of doing this here on Earth\u2014n<strong>uclear fusion reactors\u200a\u2014 are called tokamaks.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Tokamaks are often also <strong>called &#8216;artificial suns&#8217;<\/strong> due to the fact that these doughnut-shaped machines replicate processes that occur in the sun.<\/li>\n<li>There are <strong>currently over 200 tokamaks in operation across the globe, <\/strong>with the scientific milestones achieved in these devices developing a roadmap for the operation of the <strong>International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER,<\/strong> the<strong> world&#8217;s largest fusion experiment<\/strong> under construction in the <strong>south of France.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>A commercial tokamak will <strong>aim to use the thermal energy of plasma heated by fusion to heat water, <\/strong>create steam, and, in turn, spin a turbine that generates electricity.<\/li>\n<li>Fusion can involve many different elements in the periodic table. However, <strong>researchers <\/strong>working on fusion energy applications <strong>are especially interested in deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>DT fusion produces a neutron and a helium nucleus. In the process, it also releases much more energy than most fusion.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Advantages of Nuclear Fusion<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Nuclear Fusion <strong>produces more energy than fission<\/strong> does. Fusion could generate four times more energy per kilogram of fuel than fission (used in nuclear power plants) and nearly four million times more energy than burning oil or coal.<\/li>\n<li>It also <strong>doesn\u2019t produce radioactive byproducts<\/strong> that need to be stored or harmful carbon emissions; it simply produces inert helium and a neutron.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unlimited Fuel Supply:<\/strong> The <strong>fuel <\/strong>to make fusion happen <strong>is simply heavy hydrogen atoms, <\/strong>which can be found in something that Earth has in abundance: seawater. No mining of uranium is required.<\/li>\n<li>It is much safer than nuclear fission, since fusion <strong>can\u2019t create runaway reactions.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Nuclear Fusion FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1<\/strong>. What is the best example of nuclear fusion?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans<\/strong>. The Sun is the best example of nuclear fusion, where hydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium, releasing immense energy that powers the solar system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2<\/strong>. Which is powerful, fusion or fission?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans<\/strong>. Nuclear fusion is more powerful than nuclear fission because it releases 4 times more energy per reaction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3<\/strong>. Is the atomic bomb fission or fusion?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans<\/strong>. Nuclear fission produces the atomic bomb, a weapon of mass destruction that uses power released by the splitting of atomic nuclei.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-xl\/news\/other\/artificial-sun-nuclear-fusion-reactor-sets-a-new-world-record\/ar-AA1zniEp?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MSN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nuclear Fusion is the process by which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier one while releasing massive amounts of energy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}