Fission Vs Fusion?

Question

Which is more cost effective?

Which is produces the most energy?

Answer 1

firs off, there has never been a successful, power generating, fusion reaction, so the money it would take to research it would make it less cost effective. so the first answer is fission

the second answer is fusion thats why they are researching it so hevily

Answer 2

No fusion power reactor has been built that makes more power than it uses. The Farnsworth Fusor actually achieves fusion of deuterium gas on a continuous basis, but requires more power to run that it produces. For more information, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor

Other fusion reactor designs (tokomak, laser implosion) don't work at all.

Fission reactors are cost competitive with fossil fuel power plants, and produce the only power created from nuclear reactions.


In nuclear weapons, the comparison becomes more interesting.

A half kilo of uranium fissioned with 100% efficiency would yield energy equivalent to 9.9 kilotons of dynamite. A half kilo of hydrogen fuel isotopes would yield energy equivalent to 29 kilotons of dynamite.

For more information, see:

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570062_2/Nuclear_Weapons.html


The largest nuclear explosion by the United States (Castle Bravo) obtained 10 megatons from fission, and 5 megatons from fusion for a 15 megaton total yield. It was a fission/fusion/fission bomb design that utilized a fission primary, lithium deuteride as the fusion secondary, and a U-238 tamper for the final fission stage.

In this case, the fission stages produced the most energy, but the fusion stage was the more cost effective.

The cost of the uranium 238 tamper and lithium deuteride is insignificant compared to the cost of the fission primary.

Some atomic fission devices have a small amount of tritium that greatly increases the efficiency of the fission bomb. This is called "boosting".

Answer 3

Fusion (If achieved) is most cost effective and produces more energy than fission reaction gram per gram of material

Answer 4

fusion produces more energy. but it is expensive.
fission produces lesser energy but is less expensive.
hence fission.....