• Question: Is nuclear fission ever going to be a reality and if so will it provide cheap and clean energy?

    Asked by mollharris00 to Deborah, Euan, Maheen, Rob, Stu on 16 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Deborah Prunty

      Deborah Prunty answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      It is a reality, it happens in the heart of stars. We just haven’t figured out how to do it on Earth yet. Or how to control it when we can.

    • Photo: Euan Allen

      Euan Allen answered on 19 Jun 2016:

      Nuclear FISSION is the process of splitting up atoms to generate some energy. This is already something we can do, and it is the way that all nuclear power stations work currently.

      Nuclear FUSION is the process of combining atoms together to generate some energy. Like Deborah said, this is not yet possible on Earth, as we haven’t quite worked out how to do it just yet, but this is the process that occurs in the centre of stars. When we do manage to find away of doing fusion on Earth, it will open up a fantastic way of generating clean energy. The fuel required for the fusion can be extracted from sea water (which we have loads of), it is much safer than nuclear fission, produces no greenhouse gases, the only by-product is helium (which we are short of anyway), it produces no long-lived nuclear waste products, is reliable etc etc….

      There are SO many benefits to using fusion energy. I really hope I will be able to see it happen in my lifetime.

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