3 ms·
But even that is pretty vague, since a single Uranium atom fission event releases about 200 MeV of energy, whereas most of the Hydrogen/Deuterium/Tritium/Helium
by grkvlt 7y ago
But even that is pretty vague, since a single Uranium atom fission event releases about 200 MeV of energy, whereas most of the Hydrogen/Deuterium/Tritium/Helium/etc. fusion pathways release around 10% of this per fusion event: D + T -> He fusion gives 17 MeV, 4 p -> He gives 27 MeV, D + D -> He is 12 MeV and so on. Now, the energy released per nucleon greater for fusion, but I'm not convinced that's a useful or intuitive metric?
- mikeash 7y agoHow about energy per kilogram?
- grkvlt 7y agoOK, so 235 kg of U_235 has the same number of fissile units (N atoms = 1000 x N_a) as 5 kg of D-T has of fusible units (2N atoms of combined weight 5 amu, or 1000 x N_a pairs) so (ignoring the N_a for now) one kg of U_235 gives 200 MeV / 235 = 0.85 MeV and the D-T fusion gives 17 MeV / 5 = 3.40 MeV So, yeah, that's exactly four times the energy per kilogram. Now, why couldn't they just say THAT on the web page instead of the confusing and meaningless "this energy is 3-4 times more powerful than that energy" nonsense? But, thanks 'mikeash for clearing that up for me!