4 ms·
Also, the accident scenarios are not as bad -- there's less total radioactivity in the device, and there's no meltdown risk.
by lambdatronics 6y ago
Also, the accident scenarios are not as bad -- there's less total radioactivity in the device, and there's no meltdown risk.
- pfdietz 6y agoIf you had a fission reactor with a power density as low as a fusion reactor, it would be incredibly safe also. All that thermal inertia, accidents would go in extreme slow motion. You might ask why fission reactors aren't designed that way.
- lambdatronics 6y agoInteresting question. NuScale (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuScale_Power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuScale_Power) reactor appears to have a very low power density around 1.5 MW/m^3, by my estimate (2.7m dia, 20m tall, 60MWe -> 180MWth). They still rely on having coolant (water) present in the reactor to avoid a meltdown, although it should circulate automatically by boiling & condensing. The trick is that something like 10% of a fission reactor's thermal output continues for many hours due to decay heat, whereas with a fusion reactor that can be orders of magnitude less, with appropriate material choices.