Nuclear Safety 38
Nuclear Safety 38 : Fusion Power: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2011): Main articles: Fusion power and Fusion power#Safety and the environment. Fusion power is a developing technology still under research. It relies on fusing rather than fissioning (splitting) atomic nuclei, using very different processes compared to current nuclear power plants. Commercial plants and prototype generators are not anticipated before 2030 - 2050. Fusion has significant safety advantages over current fission methods. Nuclear fusion uses only tiny amounts of fuel at any time, and requires precisely controlled conditions to generate any net energy. Fusion reaction processes are so delicate that this level of safety is inherent; no elaborate failsafe mechanism is required. The fuel itself is extremely safe at any temperature outside that of a working fusion reactor and only tiny amounts are used. If the reactor were damaged or control impaired, or the fuel supply stops, reactions and heat generation would cease almost immediately. For the same reason, there is also no risk of a thermal runaway or nuclear meltdown, since any significant change will render the reactions unable to produce excess heat. In comparison, a fission reactor is typically loaded with enough fuel for one or several years, enough fuel in a sufficiently small space will always produce thermal runaway or "meltdown", and no additional fuel is necessary to keep the reaction going. In the event of fire, calculations suggest that the total amount of radioactive gases from a typical fusion plant would be so small, about 1 kg, that they would have diluted to legally acceptable limits by the time they blew as far as the plant's perimeter fence
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