What are fission and fusion?
Holtkamp: Fission is getting energy from breaking up heavy atomic nuclei. Fission is a process that is controlled in a nuclear reactor and uncontrolled in a nuclear bomb. Fusion is fusing two light nuclei together. In the case of ITER, two hydrogen nuclei are basically melded together. When that happens, energy is freed up and comes out. Q. Why is fusion better for this project than fission? Holtkamp: Lots of nuclear fission reactors are operational and used to make energy right now, so fission has the advantage that it works today. Fusion is not something that works yet, its a research project. Both — fission and fusion — are nuclear processes, but they are fundamentally different. The advantage of fusion is that one waste product from the reaction, helium, is not radioactive, and the other, a neutron, is used to make the hydrogen isotope tritium from lithium-bearing materials surrounding the plasma [ionized gas]. In a fission reactor, when you break up these nuclei, the two pieces
