Does Fusion Produce Energy?
By: Miles Pelton, Feb. 2014
Another
article posted on Facebook renews attention to the continuing effort to use
fusion reaction to produce energy as a “generator” of energy in the manner of
nuclear reactors. These efforts have been ongoing since the first hydrogen bomb
produced a more powerful explosion than did atomic (fission) bombs. The current
belief, supported by the success of the hydrogen bomb, is that fusion reactions
produce energy. In fact, the current belief is that it is a continuing fusion
reaction that powers the sun. Calculations based upon data published as the
Periodic Table of the Elements have been used to explain the “mechanics”
involved. That conclusion defies “common sense” logic.
The data
documented in the Periodic Table of the Elements, recognized as of questionable
accuracy, shows that the energy involved in forming the elements increases in
proportion to the number of components bonded to form the element’s atom.
Clearly, the energy contribution to the formation of atoms increases as the size
(number of protons and neutrons) increases because there are more bonds
involved as the number of components bonded increases. Therefore, it takes an input
of energy to transform hydrogen atoms (one or no low energy bonds) to helium
atoms (four high energy bonds) yet the current belief is that energy is
“generated” by that reaction. There
are two misconceptions driving that belief that are driven by the belief that
mathematics is a better instrument for proving matters of science than is
logic.
Look first
at why the hydrogen bomb and the sun’s theorized processes are “successful”. With
a hydrogen bomb, a fission bomb is used to subject hydrogen to extreme pressure
and temperature producing the fusion of hydrogen atoms (each one proton, some
forms with a neutron) into helium atoms that are made of two protons and two
neutrons. The helium is then destroyed releasing through fission reaction the
energy it took to produce their fusion plus the energy in the bonds of the
hydrogen part of the bomb. Logical reasoning leads to the conclusion that the
combined action produced a more powerful explosion but not because the fusion
reaction released energy.
The sun’s
process is similar. Fission is the principle reaction in the sun with the end
product a plasma which is rich in disassociated protons, which as happened in
the hydrogen bomb (heated hydrogen is disassociated protons), some are fused
into helium. But the helium is then destroyed by fission adding to the energy
release. Theoretically, that process could go on forever as long as the
required pressure and temperature were maintained within limits.
Those who
subscribe to the belief that fusion “generates” energy use mathematics to
manipulate the Periodic Table of the Elements comprising data of questionable
accuracy to develop proof. Using the periodic table data, the atomic weight of
a helium atom is less than the atomic weight derived by adding the weight of
the individual components. Because of the inaccuracies inherent in the claimed
atomic weights their claim appears to be supported when the difference in
atomic weights is converted to energy units using the E=Mc^ squared equation whose accuracy is also unproven. It
is important to recognize that it is the energy involved in creating atomic
bonding that is involved not any conversion of matter (protons and neutrons) to
energy.
In fission
as in combustion it is the energy that bonded the components of atoms that is
released, not the conversion of protons and neutrons to energy. That is another
misconception driven by the distorted definition of mass. Mass by current
definition does not equated to matter.
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