Why is hydrogen used in fusion instead of other elements?
Answers
Answered by
0
Yes, carbon is used in fusion reactions right now in our universe. While I'm not privy to which types of stars undergo this fusion and what occurs in the reaction, I can tell you that some stars both make and use carbon in fusion reactions. If they didn’t, we would have many of our other elements that stars synthesize.
Now, on to man-made fusion, in things like tokamaks and stellarators:
Well, no, at least not practically. Let me use an example. The smallest element that could even THEORETICALLY undergo nuclear fission is iron. Of course, this would be VERY hard, and thus that is one reason why uranium is used in fission(it’s has vastly larger, more unstable atoms). Now, back to fusion. The rule with fusion is the opposite of fission. Rather, the smaller the atoms used, the less energy and pressure are required. This of course makes infinitesimal hydrogen perfect for the job.(a job we still haven’t sustainably accomplished!). Just imagining the amount of energy needed to fuse carbon makes me shiver in my shoes!
Now, on to man-made fusion, in things like tokamaks and stellarators:
Well, no, at least not practically. Let me use an example. The smallest element that could even THEORETICALLY undergo nuclear fission is iron. Of course, this would be VERY hard, and thus that is one reason why uranium is used in fission(it’s has vastly larger, more unstable atoms). Now, back to fusion. The rule with fusion is the opposite of fission. Rather, the smaller the atoms used, the less energy and pressure are required. This of course makes infinitesimal hydrogen perfect for the job.(a job we still haven’t sustainably accomplished!). Just imagining the amount of energy needed to fuse carbon makes me shiver in my shoes!
Similar questions