Fusion - Ryan and Winston

"With this machine," began Ponyets, as his hand dropped softly onto the central chamber andcaressed its hard, round flanks, "I can turn the iron you discard into gold of the finest quality. Itis the only device known to man that will take iron – the ugly iron, your Veneration, that props

up the chair you sit in and the walls of this building – and change it to shining, heavy, yellow

gold” (Asimov 156).

There are two reasons as to why people would want nuclear fusion to be a possibility: to be able to turn invaluable elements into different rare/valuable elements or to produce massive quantities of energy.  Ponyets in Isaac Asimov’s book, Foundation, uses fusion for the former purpose while Steven Cowley and many modern scientists are turning towards converting nuclear fusion into usable energy.

Ponyets’ machine turns iron into gold through fusion, whereas Cowley proposes that fusion could be used to produce energy by combining atoms of less massive elements, such as hydrogen isotopes.  The feasibility of fusion is very possible because people have caused a fusion reaction once in the past.  However, iron has the most stable nucleus out of all the elements, so turning iron into gold is by far less possible than combining elements with smaller nuclei. Those with smaller nuclei would combine into a singular more stable nucleus.  Conversely, changing iron into gold is less likely a possibility.  The process would involve turning a stable nucleus into a less stable one, and thus the process would requiring more energy for the reaction to occur.  Even if the reaction were a possibility scientifically, it may cost more to make the reaction occur than the value of the gold produced.  In general, producing large quantities of energy is much more likely than altering larger elements as Ponyets proposes.

In chemistry class last year, the teachers spent time explaining how nuclear fission works to produce a significant portion of the energy used by people.  (Fission is the reverse process of fusion which involves the breaking down of nuclei.)  Fission actually produces less energy than a fusion reaction would produce which is why our group found this topic interesting.  If fusion does become a reality for energy purposes, then pollution and other hazards to the environment that are caused by humans’ need for energy would be reduced.  The reason for fusion that Ponyets uses would also be beneficial if the cost of generating the products was not more than the products themselves.  Maybe the devaluation of metals would entirely shift the economy.

Fusion, like fission, involves immense heat and radiation.  Fusion actually has greater temperatures and more instability involved with the process.  Malfunctions in the past with nuclear fission have caused devastation within miles of the incident.  For example, the meltdown at Chernobyl and the radiation leaks in Japan caused multiple detrimental health effects such as cancer worldwide.  The major drawback and ethical question behind nuclear fusion is whether or not it is worth taking the risk of a highly destructive malfunction--even more so than the fission accidents in the past--for the sole purpose of reaping tons of energy.