Nuclear fusion

Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two atomic nuclei, usually deuterium and tritium, combine to form a different atomic nucleus.

History

The American chemist William Draper Harkins (1873 – 1951) was the first to propose the concept of nuclear fusion in 1915. In 1921, the American scientist Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882 – 1944) suggested hydrogen–helium fusion could be the primary source of stellar energy.

A self-sustaining nuclear fusion was first carried out in November 1952, in the Ivy Mike hydrogen bomb test on the Enewetak Atoll in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean.

Related concepts

• abundance
• alpha decay
• auger effect
• beta decay
• electron capture
• gamma decay
• internal conversion
• mass defect
• nuclear decay
• nuclear fission