5 ms·
> Can fusion reactors be used to produce weapons? > No. That is a deeply misleading answer. While this would likely be easy to detect by international observe
by simiones 5y ago
> Can fusion reactors be used to produce weapons?
> No.
That is a deeply misleading answer. While this would likely be easy to detect by international observers, it is not hard to enrich uranium in a fusion plant [0]. So fusion reactors, like fission reactors (though with less chance of clandestine operation) are still a nuclear weapon proliferation risk.
[0] https://web.mit.edu/fusion-fission/HybridsPubli/Fusion_Proliferation_Risks.pdf https://web.mit.edu/fusion-fission/HybridsPubli/Fusion_Proli...
- sterlind 5y agoCouldn't you use regular fusor to generate neutrons to enrich uranium? Do you specifically need neutrons with the 14.1Mev energy produced by D-T fusion (which you can make in a regular fusor, if you have the tritium for it) or is there a path starting from lower energy levels? Or do fusors just not make enough neutrons for enrichment to be practical?
- simiones 5y agoYou probably could. However, the question wasn't whether fusion power plants are a bigger risk for nuclear weapons proliferation than other technologies, it was simply if they can be used for nuclear weapon development, to which the answer is yes, but not as easily as you can with fission power plants.