Unlike the sort of fusion done in big machines, which squeeze heavy hydrogen nuclei together, no neutrons are released in this reaction.

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The reason is that the boron and hydrogen nuclei do, indeed, fuse.

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Since the late 1950s, U.K. scientists have been attempting to achieve the fusion of hydrogen nuclei (tritum and deuterium) using magnetic confinement (MCF).

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If proven, the technology could rival the current favoured technique for initiating fusion which uses superconducting magnets to contain and fuse the hydrogen nuclei.

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Neutrons ejected from a watery surface move much more slowly than those from a rocky one, because the hydrogen nuclei in water are light enough for an exiting neutron to knock around much like one billiard ball hitting another a process that slows the neutron down.

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The reaction Mr Lerner proposes would break up boron atoms by hitting them with protons (the nuclei of normal hydrogen atoms).

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Acting alone, gravity would cause stars to collapse completely, but as long as energy is produced at their centers by nuclear fusion (the joining of atomic nuclei to form new elements, as in a hydrogen bomb), the star is heated and puffed up.

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