Fusion, fission, you can't lose in terms of energy?

Question

Fusion, combining atoms to create bigger nucleus, You gain energy out of the process.

Fission, splitting nucleus into different atoms, you gain energy out of the process.

Sounds like you can't lose in terms of energy when you mess with the nucleus of a atom, don't you feel that ?

So, if you fusion atoms then split it again, doesn't it sound like you can continue to milk it in a loop ?

Answer 1

making fusion of atoms lighter than iron creates energy.
making fusion of atoms heavier than iron consumes energy...

making fission of atoms heavier than iron creates energy.
making fission of atoms lighter than iron consumes energy...

Answer 2

Fusion of hydrogen to helium makes energy, but that only works for the light elements, up to iron. You cannot fuse iron into any heavier element to make energy.

Fission, where uranium splits to become lead, releases energy too, but only for very heavy elements. Lead and lighter elements does not produce energy when it splits.

So the loop is not closed since the heaviest fusion product is lighter than the lightest fission fuel.

Answer 3

Fission and fusion do not always generate energy. Fission of very large nuclei (plutonion in an atom bomb or nuclear power plant) and fusion of very small nuclei (hydrogen into helium inside a star) yields energy, but fusion of large nuclei and fission of small ones consumes it. So, at best, you could oscillate between fusion and fission indefinitely. But the process would simply produce and consume its own energy; you wouldn't be able to harness unlimited energy at every stage of the process.

Answer 4

Essentially it comes down to how efficiently it produces energy.

The process of fusion would, in theory, if we could do it like the sun, be far more efficient than how we use nuclear fission (we break atoms to heat water to make steam to turn a turbine).

Energy is not created or destoryed, so you gain energy perportionally to how efficient it is at converting it.

Answer 5

no, you use different atoms in the fusion and fission processes. IE, to use uranium, iran has to enrich it with energy until it can be reacted. the various reactive capabilities of the atom determine if energy can be gained by fusion or fission, but it is not both.