New nuclear reactor designs promise safe, clean electricity

Re:New nuclear reactor designs promise safe, clean electricity by hamburglar on Sunday April 12, 2020 @09:48PM (#22852386)

> but really if we are not willing to switch to Fission, a technology we already have, why would be do it for Fusion.

I thought the extremely compelling rationale for Fusion was (assuming it can be done) not just orders of magnitude more energy, but also extremely little safety risk and on top of that, your "waste" is pure helium. Am I misinformed? This seems like of course we'd be willing to put the effort into that.

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Re:New nuclear reactor designs promise safe, clean electricity by pauljurczak on Sunday April 12, 2020 @10:17PM (#22852541)

> your "waste" is pure helium

No. The cladding of fusion chamber is bombarded with neutrons and has to be replaced frequently, producing radioactive waste. This a drawback of all experimental designs today, AFAIK.

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Re:New nuclear reactor designs promise safe, clean electricity by p_l on Monday April 13, 2020 @02:52AM (#22853708)

The reason we don't have fusion is partially that the focus is on aneutronic fusion that doesn't have that problem.

JET could run above break-even in neutronic fuel cycle.

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Re:New nuclear reactor designs promise safe, clean electricity by pfdietz on Sunday April 12, 2020 @11:25PM (#22852927)

That rationale ignores that the power/volume of fusion reactors will be hideously bad, making them much more expensive than fission reactors.

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