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Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction in which two atomic nuclei come together to form a heavier nucleus.

This reaction is at work in a natural way in the Sun and most of the stars of the Universe in which are created all the chemical elements other than hydrogen and the major part of helium.

Fusion and nuclear fission are the two main types of applied nuclear reactions.

Nuclear fusion releases a colossal amount of energy per unit mass from the attraction between nucleons due to the strong interaction.

Since the mass of the product or products of a fusion reaction is less than the sum of the masses of the fused nuclei, the difference is transformed into kinetic energy according to Einstein's formula E = mc².

Nuclear fusion is used in H-bombs and neutron generators.

It could be used for the production of electricity for which it has two major interests:

1 the availability of its fuel:

- Deuterium, naturally present in large quantities in the oceans.

- Tritium for the deuterium + tritium fusion reaction which can be produced by neutron bombardment of lithium. The world's reserves of lithium ore would theoretically be sufficient to guarantee more than a million years of operation.

2 Its essentially unique character:

- The fusion products themselves, which are mainly helium 4, are not radioactive.

- Potential waste is limited when the reaction used emits fast neutrons to the surrounding materials which can capture these neutrons and in turn become radioactive isotopes.

Despite research carried out around the world since the 1950s, no industrial application of fusion to energy production has yet been successful because engineers are faced with the difficulty of creating and maintaining a temperature of several millions of degrees in a confined space.

Deuterium is a stable isotope of hydrogen consisting of a proton and a neutron.

Unlike tritium, it is not radioactive.

Its abundance in water represents one atom for every 6500 hydrogen atoms.

This means that in seawater there is a concentration of 34 grams in every cubic meter of water.

The energy content of deuterium is so great that the deuterium energy in a liter of seawater is colossal.

Therefore, since three quarters of the planet is covered in water, nuclear fusion is considered a theoretically inexhaustible source of energy.