Earth Science: Geology, the Environment, and the Universe

Chapter 3: Matter and Atomic Structure

Problem of the Week

In What State Do You Exist?

In this problem students should be encouraged to examine carefully, with some investigation on their own, the conditions required for fusion to occur. The high temperature, density, and containment requirement are ALL problems on Earth.

Research is occurring, advances are being made, but we are not there yet.

Key:

1. Find out the temperatures required in order for fusion to occur by checking the activity out at the at this website: (Shockwave plugin is required)

Students should discover that the temperature required for fusion to occur in the simulation is about 100 million degrees Celsius.

2. Now that you know the temperatures required for fusion to occur, make some educated guesses as to why, if fusion is such an efficient way of producing energy, we aren’t using it now?

These temperatures do not exist on Earth in any sustained manner, and if they did, the melting point of any material known to humans is far less than these temperatures.

3. Think again of the conditions that must be present to maintain or sustain a fusion reaction, besides the problems with temperature are the other two conditions reproducible on Earth? What do you think? Why or why not?

Intense gravity would solve the density and containment problems, but again, the development of a sustainable "gravity machine" cannot or has not been possible.

Encourage students to investigate the process of fusion, the role of plasmas, and the related research. What they will, or should find, is that each of the conditions can be created or replicated in research lab conditions, but all three together, have not been sustained. They should find out that, in much of the fusion research, magnetism is being used as the containment field for the fusion process. It takes the place of a material that could resist the high temperatures, produces a confined area in which the density of the plasma might be controlled, allowing fusion process to be contained and sustained.

The fusion process could be THE energy answer if we can get it to work. This can be a great springboard for discussions in which students consider the advantages of producing energy through nuclear fusion as compared to other processes now in use. In these discussions consider; fuel types and availability; production cost, energy input versus output; environmental impact; etc…

POW Resource Websites:

1. - About Plasma: Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory
   
   
2. - Researchers fire up fusion research device Thursday, September 9, 1999 By John Roach
   
   
3. - About Fusion
   
   
4. -Fusion Energy