Fusion energy is the same energy that is created by the stars and the sun. For years scientists have tried to recreate the production of this energy on earth. It’s only been over the past century that it has been discovered that fusion energy is produced when light atoms, such as hydrogen particles, are fused or joined together at high velocities. Once they are joined together, they will be broken apart and form a neutron that will contain energy. The greatest benefit of fusion energy is that there are no harmful gas emissions from its production. This is because the only waste product produced by a fusion reaction is helium (He) which is a chemically harmless type of gas found abundantly in the earth’s atmosphere. Because of this, this makes fusion energy a renewable energy source as well as an environmentally friendly type of energy resource.
Fusion energy can be difficult to produce as there are two different tests that must be done before any production is made. The first must be that the right temperature must be found. In some tests for producing fusion energy, the temperature has reached 510 million degrees, which is more than twenty-five times hotter than the center of the sun. The second test is observing and recording that substantial amounts of energy are being produced. Because the production of fusion energy is very involved, large amounts of energy need to be produced in order for the production to be worthwhile.
However, although fusion energy is difficult to produce, there are many advantages of using this type of energy. The first is that there is a vast supply of deuterium, the fuel needed to create fusion energy. This fuel can be found in water, which is readily available to every nation in the world. This not only makes it a preferable energy in comparison with petroleum, of which there are limited supplies, but it can also give great peace to the world as nation’s would no longer argue over the limited reserves of petroleum.
There is also no risk of an accident, such as oil spillage because fusion energy is created in vessels. This means that should any spill, the fuel would simply remain in its vessel until it had proper time to cool. There are also very small amounts of deuterium used when making fusion energy and so a large spill would be nearly impossible. Additional advantages to fusion energy are that handling and disposing of fusion energy is much safer than that of other energies, such as nuclear, because the materials that are chosen to handle the fuel are far safer than those of comparable fuels. There is also no chance that nuclear weapons can be built with fusion energy simply because fusion energy will not work in these types of weapons. Perhaps though, the biggest advantage with fusion energy is that there are no fossil fuel emissions. Combine this with the fact that it is a renewable energy source, the advantages of fusion energy far outweigh its disadvantages.
