Question

In a nuclear power plant, heat created by _______ is used to generate steam, which drives a turbine that produces electricity.

Which of the following chemical reactions is an example of nuclear fusion?

Answer 1

In a nuclear-fueled power plant – much like a fossil-fueled power plant – water is turned into steam, which in turn drives turbine generators to produce electricity. The difference is the source of heat. At nuclear power plants, the heat to make the steam is created when uranium atoms split – called fission. There is no combustion in a nuclear reactor

Hence it is a nuclear fission

Nuclear fusion, in which two light nuclei combine to produce a heavier, more stable nucleus, is the opposite of nuclear fission. As in the nuclear transmutation reactions discussed in Section 20.2, the positive charge on both nuclei results in a large electrostatic energy barrier to fusion. This barrier can be overcome if one or both particles have sufficient kinetic energy to overcome the electrostatic repulsions, allowing the two nuclei to approach close enough for a fusion reaction to occur. The principle is similar to adding heat to increase the rate of a chemical reaction. As shown in the plot of nuclear binding energy per nucleon versus atomic number , fusion reactions are most exothermic for the lightest element

In another reaction, a deuterium atom and a tritium atom fuse to produce helium-4 (Figure 21.6.4), a process known as deuterium–tritium fusion (D–T fusion):

²₁H+³₁H→²4He+¹₀n

hence option A for second part