University of Wisconsin-Madison

The question should by now cross your mind as to "How hot do I have to make the plasma to cause a sufficient fusion to take place?" One way to understand this area is to measure the reaction rate ( the cross section for the reaction, e.g., in m², times the velocity of the particles, e. g., m/s). The higher the resulting reaction rate, measured in units of m³/s, the more power that can be produced by that fuel cycle at a given temperature. Here is shown how the DT reaction rate compares to 4 other fuel cycles: D³He, DD, p¹¹B, and ³He³He. It is clear from this figure that the DT cycle requires the least amount of energy to initiate and gives the highest rate of reactions at a given temperature.