Caption: Deuteron-triton nuclear fusion cartoon. The protons are orange and the neutrons are grey.
Down here on Earth, we would like to have STABLE hydrogen burning (with nuclear burning being meant by burning) or, as it is called, controlled fusion for fusion power (i.e., commercial energy from controlled fusion).
To explicate:
Note the D-T (deuterium-tritium) fuel cycle is a one-step nuclear burning process. The multi-step nuclear burning processes that happen in stars (i.e., the proton-proton chain reaction and the CNO cycle) are much too complicated to implement in fusion reactors. Note also the first step of the proton-proton chain reaction (the nuclear burning of 2 hydrogens (H) to 1 deuteron (D,H-2)) is much too slow to implement just by itself in fusion reactors.
As noted above, the PP chain reaction is much too complex and too slow for feasible fusion reactors (see HRW-1109; nuclear_burning_pp.html).
Except for the heat energy source, everything is the same in principle as for conventional nuclear-fission nuclear power or fossil-fuel power.
In practice, one often uses the terminology loosely: e.g., deuterium for deuterons and vice versa.
1 in every 6700 hydrogens on Earth is a deuterium (HRW-1109) and we have a lot water (H2O).
Collecting the deuterium is expensive, but NOT that expensive.
Tritium is a radioactive isotope with half-life of 12.32 Julian years, and so large amounts to NOT exist in nature, but it can be bred in fission reactors (see Wikipedia: Tritium: Production) and fusion reactors themselves (see Daniel Clery, 2022, Jun23, Science, "Out of Gas: A shortage of tritium fuel may leave fusion energy with an empty tank").
But circa 2022, it has become uncertain that fusion reactors can breed adequate tritium, and so a lot fission reactors for breeding may be needed for controlled fusion (see Daniel Clery, 2022, Jun23, Science, "Out of Gas: A shortage of tritium fuel may leave fusion energy with an empty tank"). Some wonder if this tritium problem will stop controlled fusion even if D-T (deuterium-tritium) fuel cycle is technically feasible.
By the by, a half-life is a sort of mean lifetime of a atomic nucleus before radioactive decay. More exactly, half a sample of a radioactive isotope will decay on average after one half-life.
The main solution to the control problem has always been to contain the plasma with magnetic fields rather than solid containers.
But magnetic containment and extraction of heat energy there from has its own difficulties.
But there is the tritium problem (see above).
This is unlike conventional fission reactors which are always on the verge of nuclear meltdown.
Fission reactors are always related to nuclear weapons since their fuel (uranium-235 (half-life 0.7038 Gyr) or plutonium-239 (half-life 24110 years)) can be used to make fission bombs. The breeder fission reactors for tritium can be kept in safe countries which just export tritium for fusion reactors in other countries.
Note fusion bombs must always be ignited by fission bombs and are NOT related technologically to fusion reactors.
By the by, if anyone knows how to ignite fusion bombs from a chemical-reaction explosion, they are keeping very quiet about it.
Experimentally, controlled fusion has been done, of course. But whether commercial energy generation is possible is still uncertain. It may be technologically out of reach.
Can it work? Maybe, but yours truly is losing faith.
And there's an old saying: "fusion power is the energy of the future---and it always will be."
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