Nuclear Fission and Nuclear Fusion

Given that we currently depend entirely on the gift of radiant energy from a star, there is no better way to extract energy on Earth than plant photosynthesis¹. As alternatives to this best of methods, we humans have discovered two methods through physics, and we are testing them in practice even now.

The Enormous Energy of Nuclear Fission

One of them is nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is a method of breaking apart atomic nuclei and converting the radiant energy released for our use. It uses the energy released when a heavy nucleus is broken and converted into lighter nuclei. Because it uses the power hidden within the atom, it is called “atomic power.”

The problem with using nuclear fission reactions is that they are hard to control. Because the universe has the law of increasing entropy, breaking apart an atomic nucleus, an ordered arrangement of quarks, is “easy” from a cosmic point of view. It was in December 1938² that a seemingly magical method was found for extracting the immense energy hidden in atoms by breaking apart their nuclei, much like messing up a tidy room.

Like children messing up a room, particle physicists have flocked to mess up atomic nuclei in high-energy accelerators. Then, in August 1945, the method was applied in the form of the atomic bomb, to “bring order to the world”³. Since then, an arms race to develop nuclear weapons as tools to “bring order to the world” has continued among countries around the globe⁴.

Atoms Are the Parts of the Parts That Make Us Up

Just as a messy room will not return to its original state if left alone, a split nucleus does not go back together. The “parts” that made up the broken nucleus scatter and keep drifting until they become part of another nucleus. Then they collide with other nuclei and break them apart. A chain of breakdowns occurs.

Like billiard balls, they strike other balls and set them moving. Those balls are the “parts” of the “parts” used in both nonliving and living things, so, for example, the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus that make up the nucleotides that make up DNA can be damaged. Nature builds molecular structures so that they can tolerate some damage to their parts, but everything has its limits: once the damage exceeds a certain level, atoms change their function, and molecules change their function too.

That change in function cascades toward higher levels, and like a disc so scratched it can no longer be read, DNA loses information. Like a film that stops at the scratched spot, the life processes of organisms, the machines that play back the information in DNA, go wrong and stop. Then the parts that made up the living being are broken down and wander the universe again, to become part of something else.

Supplying energy through nuclear fission, in a biosphere that is built entirely from atoms and depends on them, is like burning our own houses and our own bodies to keep warm in the dead of winter. Atoms whose nuclei have been split lose their function as atoms. That means a decrease in the stock of atoms that is indispensable for creating new life. The universe does not adopt such a high-risk, ruinous, inefficient and irrational method for running its energy system.

The Enormous Energy of Nuclear Fusion

The other method of extracting energy that we humans have found is nuclear fusion. This is the method the universe uses to run its star systems.

In the Sun, a star that is a fusion energy generator, gravity synthesizes heavier elements from lighter ones. High temperature and pressure produce heavier nuclei from lighter nuclei. When four atoms of hydrogen, the lightest element in the universe, form one atom of helium, the second lightest, high-density energy is released; it radiates out entropically, and the planets of the star system receive and use it. Star systems run on the proton-proton chain reaction, which fuses protons (hydrogen nuclei).

The method that today’s Earth civilization is experimenting with uses hydrogen obtained from seawater (deuterium and tritium). Fusion reactions also emit radiation, from the neutrons released during fusion, but since they are not as chaotic as fission, they are considered relatively easy to control.

The Mechanism for Extracting Energy from Differences in Nuclear Mass

In any case, Einstein’s discovery of E=mc^2 guarantees that the mechanism for extracting energy from differences in nuclear mass holds forever. In both fission and fusion, the difference in mass before and after the reaction is converted into energy. But the two point in different directions. The anti-entropic method, which moves from separation toward joining, is more efficient than the entropic method, which moves from joining toward separation.

In the universe, fission reactions occur only in events such as supernova explosions and neutron star mergers, or when triggered by cosmic rays. In other words, unlike fusion, fission does not proceed naturally. And unlike fusion, which uses hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, and helium, the second most abundant, the fuels for fission (heavy elements such as uranium and plutonium) exist in the universe only in relatively small amounts. Generating energy by fission is anti-cosmic.

Understanding the Universe’s Principle of Cooperation

A star is a device that converts four hydrogen atoms into one helium atom, and three helium atoms into one carbon atom. As it converts lighter elements into heavier ones in this way, a star stores the heavy elements at its center. The planets of the star system receive the energy released in the process as light and heat. Deflecting byproducts such as solar flares with its geomagnetic shield, Earth sustains life.

The heavy elements that accumulate inside a star are the “source of stars,” eventually to be scattered into the universe by a supernova explosion. The heavy elements inside Earth are precious crystals, condensed over eons in the universe. By any measure, the cost of destroying them to extract energy is not remotely reasonable⁵.

Surely no one wants to set off an artificial supernova explosion on Earth. Technology that uses nuclear fission ultimately brings nothing but ruin. The universe has adopted a principle of cooperation.

Understanding the roles of “fission” and “fusion” as cosmic mechanisms behind everything that exists, our own lives included, is essential. Through understanding nuclear physics, the children of Polymath Research’s Elementary can feel with their hearts the mystery of life and how to bring about peace. In Cosmic Study (cosmic exploration), they deepen their understanding of the universe’s principle of cooperation while making discoveries like these.

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Footnotes

1. The energy conversion efficiency of plant photosynthesis is about 0.5–2% for C3 plants (many grains and leafy vegetables) and about 1–3% for C4 plants (corn, sugarcane and others). The energy conversion efficiency of solar power is about 15–22% for monocrystalline silicon solar cells (and efficiency is still improving as research and development advance), so it may seem superior to plant photosynthesis. But since the products of plant photosynthesis, such as oxygen and food, are what life needs to sustain itself, taken as a whole there is no better method than photosynthesis. ↩

2. In 1938, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann and colleagues irradiated natural uranium with slow neutrons and discovered an isotope of barium among the reaction products. Lise Meitner, Otto Robert Frisch and colleagues interpreted this result as a fission reaction of uranium and applied the term “fission.” ↩

3. Used on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Their harmful effects continue to this day. ↩

4. As of 2024, the total number of nuclear weapons in the world is estimated at about 12,121. Of these, about 9,585 are held in military stockpiles and are potentially usable. The remaining weapons have been retired and are awaiting dismantlement.
   Below is an overview of the estimated number of nuclear weapons held by each country:
   Russia: 5,580 in total, 4,380 in the military stockpile.
   United States: 5,044 in total, 3,708 in the military stockpile.
   France: 290 in total, all in the military stockpile.
   China: 500 in total, all in the military stockpile.
   United Kingdom: 225 in total, all in the military stockpile.
   Pakistan: 170 in total, all in the military stockpile.
   India: 172 in total, all in the military stockpile.
   Israel: 90 in total, all in the military stockpile.
   North Korea: 50 in total, all in the military stockpile.
   These figures are estimates; the exact numbers have not been confirmed because of each country’s secrecy. ↩

5. In theory, the energy consumed by Earth’s civilization can be fully covered by natural energy such as hydropower, tidal power, wave power, wind power, geothermal power, and bioethanol and methane gas produced from plants. Through the light and heat arriving from our star, the Sun, and the gravitational dance of the planet Earth and its satellite, the Moon, more than enough cosmic energy is already available on Earth’s surface. ↩