Thermonuclear fusion

Nuclear fusion is a process where two or more nuclei fuse together and forms a new single nucleus. Resultant nucleus mass will be less than the sum of the masses of initial nuclei. The difference in mass is converted into energy in accordance with Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence relation. Nuclear fusion can yield a power of 1000 MW for 25 hours with a difference of mass 1 gram. Main source of solar energy is nuclear fusion of hydrogen. Plasma state can be generated by heating matter to very high temperature. A laser system which can generate very high temperature and pressure can be used for the initiation of fusion process. When a fusion fuel having size a fraction of millimeter is irradiated with a laser beam, can produce fusion. This is thermonuclear fusion and there exist two categories. They are inertial fusion and magnetic fusion. Inertial fusion allows fuel compression to higher densities but in magnetic fusion, fuel compression is limited.