This is done using particle accelerators or complicated reactors in which extremely high temperatures and densities are achieved. Nuclear fusion is not a practical energy source given current technologies.
For decades, scientists have wondered whether it was possible for nuclear fusion to occur at or near room temperature. Such "cold fusion" research has concentrated on dissolving deuterium, a form of hydrogen with an extra neutron, in a solid such as palladium metal. The theory is that the structure of the solid would confine the deuterium nuclei, and the negatively charged electrons in the metal would help to counteract the electrostatic repulsion. The deuterium can in fact dissolve to high concentrations under such conditions, with the nuclei getting even closer together than they would in a pure solid form. However, most scientists point to theoretical calculations indicating that the nuclei would not be anywhere near close enough for detectable fusion to result.
In the late 1980s University of Utah electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons were working on a cold fusion experiment involving an electrolytic cell, in which current was passed between a palladium cathode and a platinum anode, immersed in a solution containing deuterium.
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