power plants?

Question

what is fusion power plant and how does it work

Answer 1

As of now there are no fusion power plants. At least, that is my understanding. But, in theory, you could use nuclear fusion reactions to run a power plant just like you can use nuclear fission reactions to power nuclear power plants that are in operation today. Huge amounts of energy are released during nuclear fusion...maybe too much. Part of the problem is that it takes so much energy to trigger the fusion reaction and so much energy is released that nobody has found a way to do it in a controlled way . . . cold fusion.

Answer 2

Fusion is the act of joining (or fusing) 2 atoms together, not as a molecular bond, but at the nucleus level -- fusing 2 nucleuses together to form a new atom. The 2 initial atoms are generally the lightest atoms (H, H2, H3, He, Li). In the process of fusing 2 atoms together, a new heavier atom is created, and lots of energy is released.

This released energy can be captured and used to heat water for steam. The steam can be used to turn a turbine, which turns an electric generator to make electricity.

There are no fusion power plants in existence.

There are experimental fusion reactors in existence, but none of them is large enough to produce enough power to run a commercial power plant. Most of those reactors don't even achieve more power "out" than the power "in" required to get atoms to fuse together in the first place. So, we have a long ways to go before a viable commercial fusion power plant is put on the power grid.

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