Nuclear Fusion
Sarah Gallagher May 4, 2016
Who Am I?
What's The Big Deal?
Nuclear Fusion is sometimes confused with Nuclear Fission, but there is a difference. The first difference between the two is that nuclear fusion is the fusing of two or more lighter atoms into a larger one, nuclear fission is the exact opposite. In nuclear fission is the splitting of one large atom into two or more smaller atoms. Another difference is that nuclear fission produces many extremely radioactive particles as a byproduct, but nuclear fusion does not. On the other hand, nuclear fission requires a lot less energy than nuclear fusion does. Nuclear fusion and nuclear fission both release lots of energy, but nuclear fusion produces up to four times more energy than nuclear fission does.
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Nuclear_Fission_vs_Nuclear_Fusion
Is It Safe?
Nuclear fusion is a very safe source of clean energy, especially when compared to other sources of energy. The only safety concerns with nuclear fusion is that is may give off a few radioactive particles when the fusion it self takes place, but not enough to pose a huge risk.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/euratom/index_en.cfm?pg=fusion§ion=safety-and-environment
Economic Impact
Overall Nuclear Fusion is an incredibly great source of clean energy, and has a great economic effect. Nuclear energy itself is not very expensive. It can be costly to build nuclear power plants, but running them after they are built is not expensive at all. The numerous pros here definitely outweigh the couple of cons, making this a very viable source of energy, that may, in the future, replace current energy sources like fossil fuels and coal.