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ELI5 level question.

Please correct me if I'm saying something stupid.

If you toss a solar mass of water into the sun it just becomes fuel.

So, could a fusion reactor, when efficiency is improved, use water as fuel?



Yes, that's generally correct. If you were to toss a solar mass of water into the sun, it would become fuel for the sun's fusion reactions. Fusion reactors work in a similar way, but on a much smaller scale. They use fuel, typically hydrogen or a mixture of hydrogen and helium, and use intense heat and pressure to fuse the atoms together, releasing a large amount of energy in the process.




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