Reactor Potential
The arc reactor is a miniature “cold fusion” reactor with a core made of palladium. The materials needed are fairly rudimentary and can be scavenged readily, so the technology would theoretically be fairly easy to mass produce if it were available to the public. Additionally, the ITER project is currently underway and being funded by a variety of European and Asian countries as well as the United States. The aim of this project is to develop a safe and functioning fusion plant to serve as a reliable and relatively clean source of energy. However, the efficiency of these reactors is not yet up to par, as they can only produce up to seventy percent of the amount of energy needed to run the reactors. The ITER reactor is expected to produce more than the amount of input energy once its development is complete, but it is still undergoing some development as of today. As well as the current attempts at a fusion reactor, in the 80s, scientists tried to create a cold fusion reactor with a palladium core, very similar to the one in Iron Man, except on a larger scale.  |
| Tony Stark's arc reactor |
What is fusion?
The process used in nuclear power plants today is called fission. This is the process of splitting nuclei, and has been used for decades. What scientists are having difficulty carrying out is fusion, the combining of atomic nuclei. Fusion is the energy source of the sun and other stars and produces very little nuclear waste, unlike fission which creates many radioactive byproducts. The electricity produced by fusion comes from an abundant fuel called deuterium that can be extracted from seawater.
Group Work
Concluding Thoughts
For a rather long time, fusion reactors have been a goal in science and clean energy. With the current deteriorating state of our world, energy that produces little to no waste is a very attractive prospect. The fictional arc reactor from the Iron Man movies is a surprisingly feasible technology in the real world, as it utilizes the fusion technology that we have been experimenting with for years. With a little more development, fusion reactors can be created make clean energy for the whole world.
Our group worked well together. We were able to decide on a topic (the arc reactor) that interested us quickly. We collaborated on each blog post in a Google document, so that we each contributed part of each post in the project. We found great sources that were very informative yet easy to understand. Then, we found images that went along with our research and helped support what we had learned. All in all, it was a positive experience in which we learned a lot about both the science behind the arc reactor as well as how to best post to a blog.
Works Cited
Carlyle, Ryan. "What Is the Theory/Concept Behind the "Miniature Arc Reactor" Built By Tony Stark?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 June 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.
Choi, Charles Q. "‘Iron Man’ Is Fiction, but Tech behind Him Is Not." Nbcnews.com. MSN, 6 May 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.
"ITER - the Way to New Energy." ITER - the Way to New Energy. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.
"ITER - the Way to New Energy." ITER - the Way to New Energy. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.
"New Hope for Controversial 'Cold Fusion' Power Source." LiveScience.com. N.p., 23 Mar. 2009. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.
Tate, Karl. "Graphic: The Technology of Iron Man 2." TechNewsDaily.com. TND, 5 May 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.
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