Physics-Nuclear Fusion

In physics, nuclear fusion (a thermonuclear reaction) is a process in which two nuclei join to form a larger nucleus, thereby giving off energy. Nuclear fusion is the energy source which causes stars to "shine", and hydrogen bombs to explode.
Any two nuclei can be forced to fuse with enough energy. When lighter nuclei fuse, the resulting nucleon has too many neutrons to be stable, and the neutron is ejected with high energy. Most lighter nuclei will return more energy that it requires to cause them to fuse, making the reaction exothermic, generating net power.

The opposite case, heavy nuclei with too few neutrons, is also unstable and leads to nuclear fission. Unlike fusion however, fission reactions require so little extra energy for very heavy nuclei that they occur all the time on their own. This is not the case with fusion, where the lowest mass nucleon, hydrogen, still requires considerable energy to fuse.

The total energy contained in a nucleus, the so-called binding en...