Reply To: Military Effects
The Focus Fusion Society › Forums › Focus Fusion Cafe › p-11B: is it Fusion or Fission? › Reply To: Military Effects
asymmetric_implosionmchargue wrote: So far as I know, fusion is defined by: (the mass of the reaction products) < (the mass of the mass of the reactants) The difference is released as energy.
Total mass is always lost in an exothermic nuclear reaction. Fission meets the same conditions. Fission and fusion are subclasses of exothermic reactions. My opinion is the names came about to satisfy someone with the desire to classify things until only a few were in each category. The holy grail of nuclear energy is an exothermic nuclear reaction that does not produce neutrons but can produce a controllable chain reaction. p+11B meets the neutron condition. We shall see if it can meet the chain reaction condition.
When I was referring to mass, I should have said atomic number (Z). In my experience, fusion usually means one product has a higher Z than either one of the reactants. Fission leads to products that are both lighter (smaller Z) than the heaviest reactant.