01-27-2016, 04:15 PM
(01-27-2016, 03:44 PM)Jim_Clonk Wrote:(01-27-2016, 02:37 PM)OdinYggd Wrote: Oh yeah, fusion isn't so flawlessly clean either. A core breach would go off like a dirty nuke, scattering radioactive isotopes over a wide area.Also a fusion reactor stops producing high levels of radiation once shut down, unlike fission reactors, in which the fission fuel continues to radiate regardless.
The common D-D fusion reaction that is being aggressively pursued by most researchers spews a steady stream of neutrons when in operation. Although these neutrons do not participate in the reaction like their fission counterparts do, they cause the reactor body to be transmuted into unstable isotopes that decay again over time.
Fortunately, fusion is nicer than fission because all you have to do to turn it off is release the pressure or lower the temperature, both of which can be done quite quickly at the pressures and temperatures involved.
No, actually. While turning the reactor off does result in a drastic reduction in how much radiation leaks from it, the entire core assembly has become radioactive itself by neutron bombardment. Thus it will continue to emit potentially dangerous amounts of radiation for several weeks after being shut down as the shorter half-life neutron capture isotopes break down. Long term though it still produces only a fraction of the radiation that a fission core does, and because the reaction stops immediately the cooling system only needs to deal with the thermal mass- there is no long-term decay heat.
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