I recently wrote a research paper on how nuclear power can help guide us toward a greener future. Through researching, I also learned that most every nuclear power plant works through fission of uranium atoms in order to create electricity. However, yesterday I read a small passage in the Popular Mechanics magazine which stated that scientists are trying to make nuclear fusion a reality. According to the passage, "MIT is using a tokamak, which magnetically confines plasma to create nuclear fusion energy, but researchers still need to figure out how it can handle extreme heat."
This idea seemed very interesting and I thought to research it some more. For those who are not aware, the difference between fission and fusion is that fission is the breaking apart of atoms while fusion is the combining of two small atoms in order to create a larger one. What I found is that fusion actually creates and releases far more energy than that released by fission, in fact, several times as much. This could be the future of nuclear energy as we know it, seeing as this is the most powerful process yet!
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