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This site is listed in the
BBC Education Web Guide.
Begin your journey on the internet with The Rail. This is junction 1360
on "The Science Expedition".
Nuclear fusion
Fusion energy, the awesome power behind the sun and stars, has long been the "holy grail" of
nuclear researchers world wide. Its proponents argue the vast potential for cheap, clean energy from
hydrogen isotopes extracted from sea water, without the long term radioactive waste associated with
nuclear fission. In simple terms, the fusion process works by combining light atoms, such as isotopes of hydrogen,
under very high temperatures and pressures to make heavier ones, such as helium. Fission is the
opposite: it starts with very heavy atoms, such as uranium, and splits them into two or more
pieces called "fission fragments" or "fission products". Both fission and fusion
release large quantities of energy, which can be converted into heat and electricity.
Nuclear fusion does produce radioactive waste. However, in contrast to
fission produced wastes, they are short lived and decay to background levels in a very short time.
While great strides have been made over the past few decades,
the high cost of research, and very expensive hardware, limits most of the work to multi-national
consortia. Current research efforts are focused in two main areas: inertial confinement and magnetic
confinement. A third method, so called "cold fusion", had the research community all a-buzz in the early
1990's with the prospect of a much cheaper alternative. Although cold fusion still has its supporters,
most of the mainstream scientific community has dismissed it "poor science" (or worse).
Note: Links identified with are in Adobe
Acrobat PDF format. You may need a
special plugin
to access these pages. Some web sites may not be in English. See index here for language codes, such as JP / EN .
General
Boeing High Energy Systems Group (US) EN
Controlled Fusion Atomic Data Center (US) EN
DOE Office of Fusion Energy Science (US) EN
DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Education Program (US) EN
DOE Office of Inertial Fusion (US) EN
EFDA - European Fusion Development Agreement (EU) EN
EFET - European Fusion Engineering & Technology (Germany) EN
Energie und Umwelt (Germany) DE
Energy Production in the Sun by Nuclear Fusion (US) EN
EU Fusion Program EN
The FIRE Place (US) EN
Fizica Sistemelor Atomice (Romania) RO
FusEdWeb: Fusion Energy Educational Web Site (US) EN
Fusion BFR International Working Group (International) FR / EN
Fusión Expo - Dominar la energía de las estrellas (Spain) ES
Fusion Power Associates (US) EN
FZK - Programm Kernfusion (Germany) DE / EN
General Atomics Fusion Group (US) EN
General Atomics Fusion Teacher Resources Page (US) EN
IFMIF - International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility Cost Report (Italy) EN
IFMIF - International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility Final Report (Italy) EN
INE - Institute for New Energy (US) EN
Inertial Fusion Energy: A Tutorial on the Technology & Economics (US) EN
IPPEX - Internet Plasma Physics Education Site (US) EN
ITER Community Council (Canada) EN
ITER Institute (Canada) EN
Kernfusion (Germany) DE
Kernfusion in Theorie und Praxis (Germany) DE
LLNL Laser Programs (US) DE
National Fusion Energy Science Web Site (US) EN
Nuclear Fusion Basics (UK) EN
Nuclear Fusion Power (International) EN
Plasma Dictionary (US) EN
Plasma Science & Technology (US) EN
The Quest for Fusion Energy (Canada) EN
Science Museum Fusion Exhibition (UK) EN
The Tokamak Page (US) EN
20th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference 2004 Proceedings (IAEA) EN
The Virtual Tokamak (US) EN
World Survey of Activities in Nuclear Fusion (IAEA) EN
Zur gesteuerten Kernfusion (Germany) DE / EN
Fusion research centres
AFRG - Australian Fusion Research Group (Australia) EN
Alfvén Laboratory (Sweden) SE / EN
ANL Fusion Program (US) EN
Asociación EURATOM-CIEMAT para Fusión (Spain) ES / EN
Auburn Univ Fusion Research Laboratory (US) EN
CASTOR Tokamak (Czech Republic) EN
CEA Cadarache (France) FR / EN
Centro de Fusão Nuclear (Portugal) PT / EN
CRPP - Plasma Physics Research Center (Switzerland) EN
FEEL - Fusion Energy Engineering Laboratory / Lab. d'Invest. en Fusió Termonuclear (Spain) EN
FTI - Fusion Technology Institute (US) EN
FTU - Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (Italy) EN
GRIF - Groupe de Recherche de l' INRS en Fusion (Canada) FR / EN
IAEP - Institut für experimentelle und angewandte physik (Germany) DE
IKET - Institut für Kern- und Energietechnik (Germany) DE / EN
Institute for Plasma Research (India) EN / HI
IPF - Institut für Plasmaforschung (Germany) DE / EN
JET - Joint European Torus (UK) EN
JT-60 (Japan) EN / JP
KNFP - Korean National Fusion Program (South Korea) KR / EN
LBNL Accelerator & Fusion Research Division (US) EN
Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik (Germany) DE / EN
MIT Plasma Science & Fusion Center (US) EN
NIFS - National Institute for Fusion Science (Japan) Jp / EN
PPPL - Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (US) EN
Proceedings of 19th Fusion Energy Conf 2002 (IAEA) EN
UCLA Fusion Science & Technology Center (US) EN
UCSD Fusion Energy Research Program (US) EN
UKAEA Culham Fusion Lab (UK) EN
Univ of Texas Fusion Research Center (US) EN
Univ of Wisconsin Fusion Technology (US) EN
Univ Carlos III de Madrid - Grupo de Fisica de Plasmas (Spain) ES / EN
Prototype fusion reactor designs
Consorzio RFX (Italy) EN
Elements of Power Plant Design for Inertial Fusion Energy (IAEA) EN
ITER - International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (International) EN
ITER (Canada) EN
ITER (France) FR / E
ITER (Japan) EN
ITER (Spain) ES / EN
ITER (US) EN
KSTAR - Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (South Korea) KR / EN
LHD - Large Helical Device (Japan) EN / JP
NCSX - National Compact Stellarator Experiment (US) EN
NIF - National Ignition Facility (US) EN
NSTX - National Spherical Torus Experiment (US) EN
ORNL Stellarator (US) EN
SingTech SKYBOLT Fusion Reactor (US) EN
TFTR - Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (US) EN
Wendelstein 7-X (Germany) DE
Cold fusion
Britz's Cold Nuclear Fusion Bibliography (Denmark) EN
CERG - Collaborative Energy Research Group (US) EN
CFRL - Cold Fusion Research Laboratory (US) EN / JP
CFT - Cold Fusion Times (US) EN
Cold Fusion (US) EN
Cold Fusion Folder (US) EN
Cold Fusion Links (US) EN
Cold Fusion Research (US) EN
Cold Nuclear Fusion Files (US) EN
Frascati Cold Fusion Research Center (Italy) EN / IT
Infinite Energy Online (US) EN
Japan Cold Fusion Research Socieety (Japan) EN / JP
Kalte Kernfusion (Germany) DE
LENR-CANR - Low Energy Nuclear Reactions - Chemically Assisted Nuclear Reactions (US) EN
Plasma Discharges on Palladium (US) EN
Thermal and Nuclear Aspects of the Pd/D2O System (US) EN
Other resources
Fusion Business Newsletter (UK) EN
Fusion Power Associates Fusion Links (US) EN
Fusor Forums (US) EN
Fusor.us (US) EN
Max-Planck-Institut Fusion Links (Germany) EN
NuclearFusion.com (US) EN
UCSD Fusion Links (US) EN
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