This obviates the need for external sources. > The idea for future designs is to breed Tritium in the blanket surrounding the vessel. This may be a nitpick as it's currently far and away the most promising for energy production, and the alternatives are much further from any sort of workable prototype, but I have heard of them undergoing active research: tri-alpha (aneutronic reaction, meaning no activation or embrittlement of reactor components), liquid metal for the walls and divertor (in effect, continuously replacing neutron-bombarded material), etc. To be clear these are limitations of a specific kinds of fusion reaction and/or reactor design, primarily that of Deuterium-Tritium in a solid-walled tokamak. > These are all intrinsic limitations of fusion that fission reactors just don't have I'm no expert on solid state physics, but that seems a little short? JET is more than ten times as old, and as we speak it's in its second run of D-T experiments. > everything close to the reactor becomes brittle in 2-4 years The idea for future designs is to breed Tritium in the blanket surrounding the vessel. > you will always need at least a small fission reactor to breed some tritium These are all intrinsic limitations of fusion that fission reactors just don't have. Even worse, they become medium level radioactive waste, which needs to be stored. This means that things like support beams and the magnets themselves need to be constantly replaced. Not to mention, you will always need at least a small fission reactor to breed some tritium, since the fusion reactor will always have some losses.įinally, the much much higher neutron flux that fusion expels (32x or more neutrons, and much higher energy per neutron as well) means that everything close to the reactor becomes brittle in 2-4 years. Note that making the magnets stronger to keep the vessel lower (so that everything is more easily cooled) will not get you much more, since we are already nearing the limits of material resistance for the supporting steel structures in the presence of the extreme magnetic forces trying to crush the reactor together - especially given embrittlement. You need some extra power to produce hydrogen through electrolysis as well, though that is probably lower.
#Fission uranium wikipedia plus#
Plus, they have much more parasitic power loss (running the superconducting magnets and cooling them to keep them superconducting, plus keeping the vaccum in the reactor chamber all require massive power, and they scale with the size of the reactor). Fusion reactors are more complex in every possible way than fission reactors because of the sheer temperature differentials (super cool magnets next to hot neutron blanket).
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