Part 1 of 3 Parts
     The first laboratory demonstration of nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes took place in the early 1930s. Of course, nuclear fusion is the process that powers our own sun. The sun and all the stars in the sky could be thought of as huge self-sustaining nuclear fusion reactors.
     The way that fusion operates in our sun and the rest of the stars is though the compression of matter by intense gravitational forces which forces atoms of lighter elements to fuse into heavier elements. While nuclear fusion in stars in a universal process, duplicating it on earth with human technology has proven to be very difficult and is fraught with many technical challenges.
     Some writers have pointed out that nuclear fusion is similar to the ancient idea of alchemy. One thread of alchemy is the attempt to turn base metals into gold. The nuclear fusion process does actually form heavier elements from lighter elements.
     The alchemists believed that since gold obviously existed, it must have been created in some way. What they did not know was that heavy elements including gold were, in reality, created by fusion. Fusion in stars forms all the elements from hydrogen to iron and releases great quantities of energy. After fusion to iron, the process absorbs more energy that it generates. Elements heavier than iron are formed when giant stars collapse and explode, providing the energy needed to fuse elements beyond iron. Unfortunately for any modern-day alchemists, it is unlikely that we will be making gold any time soon. Currently, we are not even able to trigger a self-sustaining fusion process in the lightest of elements, let alone provide the much greater energy needed to fuse heavy elements such as gold.
    On Earth, nuclear fusion reactors operate by superheating hydrogen isotopes and other light elements such as helium, lithium or boron to over twenty seven million degrees Fahrenheit which is as hot as the core of the sun. Some recipes for fusion reactor fuel require even higher temperatures. In one approach to fusion, a plasma of charged hydrogen isotopes is compressed using super powerful magnets to force the hydrogen to fuse to helium and generate high-speed neutrons. This reaction releases seventeen and one half megaelectron volts which is over ten million times greater than the energy released by chemical combustion.
     Nuclear fusion compresses light atoms together. This means that fusion produces less toxic and radioactive waste than nuclear fission which breaks down heavy elements such as uranium. Neutron bombardment can cause a fusion plant to become slightly radioactive, but the radioactive products have a short half-life and quickly decay to stable non-radioactive isotopes. Fusion is said to offer the potential for almost limitless, climate friendly energy production that does not produce a lot of radioactive waste.
     Experimental fusion reactors such as the Joint European Torus (JET) at Culham in England have proven that it is possible to achieve fusion for brief periods of time. The remaining challenge is to convert these experimental reactors into continuous fusion in a way that is commercial feasible. The key is to be able to generate more energy from the fusion than the energy necessary to maintain it.
Please read Part 2