Question

How do the temperature requirements of nuclear fusion and nuclear fission compare?

Options

• Fission requires very high temperature, while fusion does not require high temperature

• Fusion requires very high temperature, while fission does not necessarily require extremely high temperature

• Neither fusion nor fission depends on temperature in any way

• Both fusion and fission require extremely high temperatures above \[10^{8}\] K

Answer 1

Nuclear fusion requires very high temperature so nuclei have enough kinetic energy to overcome the Coulomb barrier. Nuclear fission does not necessarily require extremely high temperature, since heavy nuclei can be split by neutron capture in reactors.