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mfb- t1_iyvbd9b wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Why not use hydrogen and deuterium in fusion reaction rather than tritium and deuterium? by Curious_user4445

It's not about multiples of 4, it's about producing Helium-4 which is a very tightly bound nucleus.

If a reaction only produces a single nucleus then the released energy has to be released as photon, which means we need the electromagnetic interaction. That's weaker than the strong interaction, so these processes are rare. D-D fusion can produce He-4 + photon, but T + p and He-3 + n are much more common.

H + B-11 produces 3 He-4

D + T produces He-4 + n

D + He-3 produces He-4 + p.

H + D can only produce He-3 + photon, so we get a pretty bad reaction plus we need the electromagnetic interaction.

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