Related anecdote: I visited the National Ignition Facility [1] last year, where everything was pretty much up and running but they still hadn't finished putting in all the shielding that needs to surround the target chamber before they start actually doing fusion shots. We were assured that if they had done a fusion shot before installing the shielding then everyone in the (extremely large) building would have been dead due to (if I recall correctly) neutron absorption.

Side note: the National Ignition Facility is freaking awesome.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Ignition_Facility

It's worth mentioning here that coal-fired power plants also spew radioactivity into the atmosphere.

Especially old coal power plants which have not upgraded with filters...

Actually, a large part of the radioactivity is in the form of C-14 in carbon dioxide which is unaffected by filters.

'Large part'? Numbers, please.

C-14 is not much contained in old fossil fuels due to radioactive decay. The literature also discusses the Suess effect, which shows that coal power plant reduced the effect of C-14.

True but the other difference is that fission reactors have to be kept cool. With fusion reactors, the challenge is getting it hot enough. There's never a concern about loss of cooling, meltdown, all that mess.

Also of course, several projects are attempting boron fusion, which doesn't produce neutrons other than from a small portion of side reactions.

Right, I agree that fusion reactors are inherently much safer than fission reactors -- I just wanted to make the point that they're still not completely harmless.