Energy from fusion is an area that has hardly been tapped. the united states has not built a new reactor since somewhere in the 70's because of an environmental act. The radioactive decay of various materials gives rise to the rate at which the atoms will chaotically breakdown in a fission reaction. when this occurs a neutrons are released which collide with other unstable atoms to create a 'chain reaction'. If one atom breaks down and releases 2 or 3 neutrons to break another 2 or 3 atoms the exponential rate will eventually consume all the mass of the reactants. Most of the reactants are not actually used though, only around 2 or 3 % of the fuel in a nuclear bomb is actually converted to energy.

The idea of harnessing this energy was simple, heat water to drive a steam engine. There are a few safety steps involved though, i think its cobalt that is used to suck up the neutrons to stop a meltdown in a nuclear core. they will absorb the neutron and prevent another uranium or plutonium atom from splitting. there is also a 'barns theory' which is what it was called when i was introduced which stated that when you slow the neutrons down they have a greater chance of hitting another atom. i think carbon or some other additive can be used to create a critical mass below the 14 kg for plutonium and 25 or 26 for uranium.

Rods are an extremely inefficient means of going critical though they present a better surface for low rate reactions. With many rods piled together in a tightly controlled matrix, heat can be generated in a very uniform manner. This is how the nuclear reaction is controlled. many rods are sealed in a matrix of cobalt and are pulled out to react with each other but can be dropped back in to prevent a melt down. Water is the heating medium to cool the rods though i think there has been research into various oils and composites with higher heat capacities, the problem is the radiation.

When a water molecule absorbs a neutron, normally the hydrogen, we get deuterium and tritium. these are the fuels for fusion. deuterium is a hydrogen atom with a neutron. when we fuse two together we get a helium atom and massive amounts of energy are released. this was the idea for a fusion bomb, pack deuterium around the core of a fission bomb and the deuterium will fuse causing a hydrogen bomb.

Well there is another use for this deuterium, there is another element called palladium which has a specific crystal lattice which packs hydrogen atoms very

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