BRAINDUMP

Could we make elements in a human-made fusion reactor?

Alan Mora

Today’s fusion test reactors do generate energy by making an element. That element is helium. The test reactors take in a lot of energy to fuse together different types of hydrogen atoms, making helium and ideally releasing much more energy. But most test reactors don’t often produce more energy than they use. These reactors just focus on making this hydrogen-to-helium process happen. That’s not like stars, which can carry on fusing to make different elements. Scientists do try to make entirely new elements, but by smashing beams of atoms of different elements together rather than using a fusion reactor. AE

DOES THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN STILL HAVE ANY POWER?

Alice Mayes