First, fusion research failed to progress as quickly as expected, so there were no power stations producing streams of surplus plasma to fuel fusion-torch recyclers.
When nuclear fusion uses up a star's fuel, in the central high-pressure stellar core where fusion occurs, the star will collapse fairly violently.
The moon contains large concentrations of helium-3, a nonradioactive isotope that's rare on Earth but could be an incredibly valuable fuel for nuclear fusion.
But the Moon is a source of rare earth elements, as well as Helium-3, a possible future fuel for nuclear fusion reactors (if we ever actually invent them).
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The energy released by the fusion reactions then heats the surrounding fuel, within which atomic nuclei may further begin to fuse.
Mining the moon for fuel used in nuclear fusion reactors is among NASA's 200-plus set of mission goals and could precipitate another reason for other countries and private investors to join future lunar exploration.
One of the challenges of aneutronic fusion is the fact that it uses a Hydrogen-Boron reaction for fuel, rather than the more traditional deuterium-tritium fusion reaction.
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The U.K. company AWE and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have joined-forces with the National Ignition Facility in the U.S. to help provide energy using Inertial Confinement Fusion, in which a pellet of fuel is heated using powerful lasers.
The newspapers were full of articles on solar power, fusion and converting the economy to run on fuel cells and hydrogen.
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It would work by using the neutrons from fusion to help turn nuclear waste into nuclear fuel and then burn it until almost none is left.
Climate change can be addressed without recourse to generating power from fusion since there are already many alternatives to fossil-fuel power plants.
An alternative is Inertial confinement fusion (ICF), in which fusion of nuclei is initiated by heating and compressing a fuel target, typically in the form of a pellet containing deuterium and tritium contained in a device called a hohlraum (hollow space or cavity) using an extremely powerful laser.
The company launched the Escape Hybrid in 2004 and Fusion Hybrid in 2010, with both delivering strong customer satisfaction and industry-leading fuel economy, driving dynamics and durability.
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The upshot is that nuclear fusion can happen using rough-and-ready lasers and rough-and-ready fuel.
This calls for the lasers to be very finely tuned and the fuel pellet to be perfectly smooth, so that the implosion is symmetrical and fusion occurs.
The marquee green car for the show was the Fusion Energi, a production-intent plug-in hybrid with, Ford says, a combined fuel economy of over 100 MPGe (a measure of gasoline-gallon energy equivalence).
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