Fusion reactor | Description, History, Uses, & Facts | Britannica
4 days ago · Since the 1930s, scientists have known that the Sun and other stars generate their energy by nuclear fusion. They realized that if fusion energy generation could be replicated in a controlled …
Nuclear fusion - Stars, Reactions, Energy | Britannica
Feb 16, 2026 · Practical efforts to harness fusion energy involve two basic approaches to containing a high-temperature plasma of elements that undergo nuclear fusion reactions: magnetic confinement …
How the Sun uses nuclear fusion | Britannica
The sun is like a big nuclear submarine in the sky. That's right, it's fueled by nuclear reactions that fuse hydrogen atoms together into helium and other heavier elements, releasing huge amounts of energy …
Nuclear energy | Definition, Sources, Uses, & Facts | Britannica
Jan 23, 2026 · One method of releasing nuclear energy is by controlled nuclear fission, used in nuclear power plants around the world. Another method, controlled nuclear fusion, has not yet been perfected.
Nuclear weapon - Fission, Fusion, Yield | Britannica
Feb 18, 2026 · Two atoms of deuterium, each with one proton and one neutron, or tritium, with one proton and two neutrons, combine during the fusion process to form a heavier helium nucleus, which …
How does a nuclear power plant generate electricity? - Britannica
Transcript Nuclear power is one of the ways humans produce electricity. The term nuclear power refers to the source of this energy--the nucleus of atoms! Here's how it works. Inside a nuclear power plant …
Nuclear fission - Atomic Reactions, Energy Release, Chain Reactions ...
Jan 2, 2026 · It is the fusion of the lightest nuclei that provides the energy released by the Sun and constitutes the basis of the hydrogen, or fusion, bomb. Efforts to harness fusion reaction for power …
Fusion reactor - Magnetic Confinement, Plasma, Fusion | Britannica
Jan 16, 2026 · Magnetic confinement of plasmas is the most highly developed approach to controlled fusion. A large part of the problem of fusion has been the attainment of magnetic field configurations …
Nuclear weapon - Fission, Fusion, Delivery | Britannica
Feb 18, 2026 · Nuclear weapons are fundamentally different from conventional weapons because of the vast amounts of explosive energy they can release and the kinds of effects they produce, such as …
Nuclear fusion | Development, Processes, Equations, & Facts | Britannica
Feb 16, 2026 · Nuclear fusion, process by which nuclear reactions between light elements form heavier elements. In cases where interacting nuclei belong to elements with low atomic numbers, substantial …