American scientists have announced what they have called a major breakthrough in a long-elusive goal of creating energy from nuclear fusion.
Fusion is a nuclear reaction that combines two atoms to create one or more new atoms with slightly less total mass. The difference in mass is released as energy, as described by's famous equation, E=mc^2 , where energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. Since the speed of light is enormous, converting just a tiny amount of mass into energy — like what happens in fusion — produces a similarly enormous amount of energy.
The fuel is held in a tiny canister designed to keep the reaction as free from contaminants as possible.0.04 inch pellet of fuel made of deuterium and tritium — two versions of the element hydrogen with extra neutrons — placed in a gold canister. When the lasers hit the canister, they produce X-rays that heat and compress the fuel pellet to about 20 times the density of lead and to more than 5 million degrees Fahrenheit — about 100 times hotter than the surface of the
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