Nuclear Physics-II

PHY-451
Lecture-20
“Nuclear Fusion”

By: Dr. Sajid Khan

Asst. Professor, Department of Physics
KUST
Topic: Nuclear Fusion

Outline

Nuclear Fusion
 Energy Release in Fusion
Potential Barrier
Thermonuclear Fusion
Feasible Energy Region
 Fusion in Gas of Protons

Course: Nuclear Physics-II, PHY-451, Instructor: Dr. Sajid Khan, Asst. Prof. Department of Physics, KUST, Email: sajidkhan@kust.edu.pk 2
Topic: Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear Fusion
 Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two nuclei are combined, or
fused, to form a larger nucleus.
 All nuclei have less mass than the sum of the masses of the
protons and neutrons that form them.
 The missing mass times c2 equals the binding energy of the
nucleus.
 The greater the binding energy, the greater the missing mass.
 We also know that BE/A is greater for medium-mass nuclei and
has a maximum at Fe (iron).
 This means that if two low-mass nuclei can be fused together to
form a larger nucleus, energy can be released.
Course: Nuclear Physics-II, PHY-451, Instructor: Dr. Sajid Khan, Asst. Prof. Department of Physics, KUST, Email: sajidkhan@kust.edu.pk 3
Topic: Nuclear Fusion

Energy release in Fusion

 Fusion of light nuclei to form
medium-mass nuclei destroys
mass.
 The mass destruction is due to
greater B.E/A for the product
nuclei.
 The larger BE/A is, the less
mass per nucleon, and so mass
is converted to energy and
released in these fusion
reactions.

Source: College Physics, OpenStax College

Course: Nuclear Physics-II, PHY-451, Instructor: Dr. Sajid Khan, Asst. Prof. Department of Physics, KUST, Email: sajidkhan@kust.edu.pk 4
Topic: Nuclear Fusion

Potential Barrier
 Potential energy between two light
nuclei graphed as a function of
distance between them.
 If the nuclei have enough kinetic
energy to get over the Coulomb
repulsion hump, they combine,
release energy, and drop into a deep
attractive well.
 The greater the kinetic energy, the
higher the particles get up the
barrier.

Source: College Physics, OpenStax College

Course: Nuclear Physics-II, PHY-451, Instructor: Dr. Sajid Khan, Asst. Prof. Department of Physics, KUST, Email: sajidkhan@kust.edu.pk 5
Topic: Nuclear Fusion

Thermonuclear Fusion
 Useful amount of energy is released if nuclear fusion occur in bulk
matter.
 It can be achieved by raising the temperature of the material until
the particles have enough energy—due to their thermal motions
alone—to penetrate the Coulomb barrier.
 We call this process thermonuclear fusion.
 Temperatures can be expressed in terms of the kinetic energy K as
𝑲 = 𝒌𝑻
 K is the kinetic energy corresponding to the most probable speed
of the interacting particles, k is the Boltzmann constant, and the
temperature T is in kelvins.
Course: Nuclear Physics-II, PHY-451, Instructor: Dr. Sajid Khan, Asst. Prof. Department of Physics, KUST, Email: sajidkhan@kust.edu.pk 6
Topic: Nuclear Fusion

Thermonuclear Fusion
 Room temperature corresponds to K ≈0.03 eV; very small and for particle
with only this energy to overcome a barrier as high as, say, 400 keV.
 At the center of the Sun, where kT=1.3 keV, the thermonuclear fusion does
not seem possible at first glance.
 Yet we know that it occurs in the core of the Sun.
 The puzzle is solved realizing two facts:

(1) The energy calculated with K = kt is that of the particles with the most
probable speed, but there is a long tail of particles with much higher speeds and,

(2) The barrier heights represent the peaks of the barriers. Barrier tunneling
can occur at energies considerably below those peaks, as for α-decay.

Course: Nuclear Physics-II, PHY-451, Instructor: Dr. Sajid Khan, Asst. Prof. Department of Physics, KUST, Email: sajidkhan@kust.edu.pk 7
Topic: Nuclear Fusion

Feasible Energy Region  The curve n(K) is a Maxwell distribution

curve for the protons in the Sun’s core,
corresponding to the Sun’s central
temperature.
 For any kinetic energy K, the expression
n(K) dK gives the probability that a proton
will have a kinetic energy lying between the
values K and K+dK.
 Many of the Sun’s core protons have
energies greater than this value.
 The curve marked p(K) is the probability of
barrier penetration by two colliding
protons.
Fundamentals of Physics, Halliday, Resnick, Walker, 10th Ed
 The two curves suggest that there is a
particular proton energy at which proton–
proton fusion events occur.
Course: Nuclear Physics-II, PHY-451, Instructor: Dr. Sajid Khan, Asst. Prof. Department of Physics, KUST, Email: sajidkhan@kust.edu.pk 8
Topic: Nuclear Fusion

Fusion in gas of protons

 Consider a proton as a sphere of radius R 1 fm. Two protons are fired at
each other with the same kinetic energy K.
 (a) What must K be if the particles are brought to rest by their mutual
Coulomb repulsion when they are just “touching” each other?
 The value of K can be taken as a measure of the height of the Coulomb
barrier.
Solution: We can write the conservation of energy Ei = Ef as
𝟏 𝒆𝟐
𝟐𝑲 =
𝟒𝝅𝜺𝟎 𝟐𝑹
𝒆𝟐
𝑲=
𝟏𝟔𝝅𝜺𝟎 𝑹
= 𝟓. 𝟕𝟓 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟒 𝑱 = 𝟑𝟔𝟎 𝒌𝒆𝑽

Course: Nuclear Physics-II, PHY-451, Instructor: Dr. Sajid Khan, Asst. Prof. Department of Physics, KUST, Email: sajidkhan@kust.edu.pk 9
Topic: Nuclear Fusion

Fusion in gas of protons

 At what temperature would a proton in a gas of protons have the average
kinetic energy equal to the height of the Coulomb barrier?
Solution: If we treat the proton gas as an ideal gas, then the average energy of
the protons is
𝟑
𝑲𝒂𝒗𝒆 = 𝒌𝑻
𝟐 • The temperature of the core of the
Sun is only about 1.5×107 K.
𝟐𝑲𝒂𝒗𝒆 • Thus fusion in the Sun’s core must
𝑻=
𝟑𝒌 involve protons whose energies are
𝟐 × 𝟓. 𝟕𝟓 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟒 𝑱 far above the average energy.
=
𝟑 × 𝟏. 𝟑𝟖 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟑𝟖 𝑱/𝑲

= 𝟑 × 𝟏𝟎𝟗 𝑲
Course: Nuclear Physics-II, PHY-451, Instructor: Dr. Sajid Khan, Asst. Prof. Department of Physics, KUST, Email: sajidkhan@kust.edu.pk 10
Topic: Nuclear Fission

END OF LECTURE

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Course: Nuclear Physics-II, PHY-451, Instructor: Dr. Sajid Khan, Asst. Prof. Department of Physics, KUST, Email: sajidkhan@kust.edu.pk 11