The Sun Runs on Fusion Energy

Like all stars, the sun is a huge fusion reactor, pumping out 100 million times as much energy in a single second as the entire population of Earth uses in a year!

Visit Layers of the Sun page to learn more.

To learn more about stars and the fusion reactions which power them, try the IPPEX, CPEP, and/or Slide Show links here (or from the FusEdWeb menu).

Galaxies Run on Fusion Energy

This image shows hundreds of stars on the sides, with a barred spiral galaxy in the center. Each star is a huge fusion reactor, pumping out 100 million times as much energy in a single second as the entire population of Earth uses in a year! And each galaxy contains roughly 100 billion stars!

To learn more about stars and the fusion reactions which power them, select the CPEP Online Fusion Course here or from the main FusEdWeb menu.

Magnetic Fusion Energy

The image above is an artistic rendering of a tokamak, a donut-shaped magnetic vacuum chamber in which wispy vapors of fusion fuel are electrified and heated to hundreds of millions of degrees - hotter than the center of the sun! The magnetic fields are configured to trap the superheated fusion fuel in the center of the loop, so that it can't touch the walls and cool off. At the high temperatures and pressures in the center, megawatts of fusion power can be produced. While not currently economically viable, magnetic confinement fusion shows promise as a future energy source.

To learn more about fusion reactions and the magnetic confinement process, select the CPEP Online Fusion Course here or from the FusEdWeb menu.

Inertial Confinement Fusion Energy

The image above shows the laser-driven implosion of a small pellet of fusion fuel at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. Many invisible infra-red laser beams simultaneously converge on a tiny target, intensely heating the outside and squeezing the fuel into the center of the pellet. The inertia of the implosion traps the fuel for a billionth of a second at ten-million-degree temperatures and densities far greater than solid matter. The intense heat and pressure force the fuel to fuse, much like inside a star. These experiments are currently used to simulate conditions inside stars (and hydrogen bombs), but scientists also hope to develop the inertial confinement approach in creating an economically and environmentally viable energy source here on earth.

To learn more about fusion reactions and the inertial confinement approach, browse the CPEP Online Fusion Course from here or from the FusEdWeb Menu.