I got confused when I was researching about “neutron’s discovery in Chadwick’s experiment”. There wa

hetriamhageh6k20

hetriamhageh6k20

Answered question

2022-05-19

I got confused when I was researching about “neutron’s discovery in Chadwick’s experiment”. There was a nuclear equation said that when we bombard the alpha particles into beryllium, it will emits neutron particles as shown in this equation
9 B e + α ( 4 H e ) 12 C + 1 n
What I am confused about is, isn’t the equation above a nuclear fusion reaction? As far as I know, nuclear fusion reactions require really high energy like on the Sun, but this experiment happens in a laboratory. So I wonder if nuclear fusion reactions can happen in laboratory, why can’t we use it to produce clean energy?

Answer & Explanation

Carleigh Shaffer

Carleigh Shaffer

Beginner2022-05-20Added 10 answers

It is not difficult to achieve fusion reactions in a laboratory. To this end, one can use, for example, accelerators or fusors. What is extremely difficult is achieving net energy gain.
kazue72949lard

kazue72949lard

Beginner2022-05-21Added 1 answers

α particles, as emitted by radioactive nuclei, actually do have a quite high kinetic energy, typically around 5 MeV. This energy corresponds to a temperature of 6 10 10 K, if you would want to produce such α particles just by heating helium gas.

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