6 ms·

indeed but D-T is not at all "clean" fusion "like the sun", as is being claimed for terrestrial fusion.

• DennisP 7y ago
  It's not all that bad though. The troublesome waste from fission is the end products of the nuclear reactions. With D-T fusion that's just helium. You do have high-energy neutron radiation, but most of that you're capturing to breed tritium fuel from lithium. Some of it makes reactor parts radioactive, but that's not a major waste problem; according to presentations I've seen from MIT fusion scientists, they'd stop being significantly radioactive after a few decades.
  • jacknews 7y ago
    in practice it will not be so neat. I suspect it will be as polluting as fission, perhaps worse, as the contamination will be in the superstructure, not the waste. And less efficient, and even more expensive.
    • DennisP 7y ago
      Whether it will be neat depends on the reactor design. MIT's for example 3D-prints the inner core and replaces it annually; it's surrounded by molten salt with a lot of lithium, and everything around that hinges so it can be opened up easily. Regardless, the waste won't need long-term containment. The economics of fusion reactors will also depend on the design. Some look economically feasible, others not so much. But it's clear that fusion is possible, contrary to the comment above.
      • jacknews 7y ago
        possible, absolutely. but for sure no panacea.