In a prospective nuclear fusion reactor, two helium-3 nuclei (23He^3_2\text{He}23He) must be brought to within a distance of 3.6 × 10-15 m of each other for the strong nuclear force to overcome electrostatic repulsion and initiate fusion.
Calculate the minimum total kinetic energy, in MeV\text{MeV}MeV, that these two nuclei must possess to overcome this electrostatic potential barrier.
Permittivity of free space, ε0=8.85×10−12 F m−1\varepsilon_0 = 8.85 \times 10^{-12}\text{ F m}^{-1}ε0=8.85×10−12 F m−1 Elementary charge, e=1.60×10−19 Ce = 1.60 \times 10^{-19}\text{ C}e=1.60×10−19 C
0.40 MeV0.40\text{ MeV}0.40 MeV
0.80 MeV0.80\text{ MeV}0.80 MeV
1.60 MeV1.60\text{ MeV}1.60 MeV
3.20 MeV3.20\text{ MeV}3.20 MeV