In fission, U-235 or Pu-239, two fissionable nuclei, are already on the verge of repelling themselves apart. All that is required is for a neutron to hit them, and then the split into two sizable pieces. Then these two pieces repel each other away, each acquiring a lot of kinetic energy. This is where the energy comes from in fission processes, electrical repulsion by the electric field. In fusion, two protons can get close enough together for their strong fields to kick in and pull them together despite their mutual electric repulsion. The strong force is about 100 times stronger than the electric repulsive force. It wins, a gamma photon is created, carrying away energy so that the two protons can no longer escape. The loss of strong field energy as the protons "fall" together ends up producing this gamma photon, which carries the energy to the surroundings. The surroundings thereby warm up. This happens in the hot cores of stars. And so stars are hot. The energy that goes to the surroundings due to nuclear fusion comes from the strong field ultimately.
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Physics IIMr. Swackhamer Archives
May 2019
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