Fusion Reaction D+T

The most likely hydrogen fusion reaction is the fusion of deuterium and tritium, which releases 17.6 MeV of energy. This reaction requires a temperature of approximately 40 million Kelvins to overcome the electrostatic forces that naturally repel these positively charged nuclei. Deuterium is abundant in nature, while tritium is typically produced from lithium. The Sun, as a main-sequence star, generates its energy by nuclear fusion, where hydrogen nuclei are fused into helium in its core. In this process, the Sun fuses around 620 million metric tons of hydrogen every second. In the context of thermonuclear weapons, nuclear fission is used as a trigger to initiate the fusion reaction. This combination significantly increases the explosive power compared to single-stage fission weapons. These fusion-based weapons are commonly referred to as hydrogen bombs (H-bombs) because they rely on the fusion of hydrogen isotopes to release massive amounts of energy.