Political Issues

SAFETY

When many people hear the words 'nuclear power' images of three-eyed fish, radioactivity and core meltdowns come to mind.

While these concerns may have some basis (Chernobyl for example) they are mostly to do with fission, rather than fusion, and even then are often unfounded. With fusion, some of these problems do arise, while others do not.

Meltdowns

The issue of plant meltdowns or explosions is non-existent. The reactions are restricted by the amount of fuel being fed into the reactor (which is continuous, and used up almost instantaneously). If fuel is no longer added, the reaction stops, so there is no way for the reaction to get out of control.

Radioactivity

When it comes to radioactive wastes, fusion is not quite as bad when compared to fission. Some wastes will inevitably be produced from renegade high-energy neutrons from the reaction, which can fly out and contaminate the reactor walls. The plus side is that the fusion wastes have a much shorter radioactive lifetime than their fission counterparts, so temporary storage of the wastes is possible; they can be stored until they lose their radioactivity and be cleared from regulatory control or recycled after 50 - 100 years.
An Example in the future of ITER: If one takes into account all the possible biological damage of the assorted waste products and radioactivity, ITER is increasingly less dangerous after 100 years than the total ash from a large coal-fired power plant
Another problem with radioactivity is the tritium gas that might be used in these reactions. Yet, since so little fuel is used per reaction, and the radioactivity is Beta rays (which are less harmful than Alpha or Gamma), should an accident occur, exposure should be limited.

Weapons proliferation

With fission, highly enriched Plutonium can be used as weapons grade fuel, there is the fear of weapons proliferation. However, the fuel for fusion is readily available today (D in the oceans) so that if anyone were to want to try and construct another H-bomb or the like, they would not have to go through the trouble of stealing fuel from the fusion sites.

Source

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