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No. The products of nuclear fusion are not radioactive.
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∙ 8y ago
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Why would a fusion reactor produce less radioactive waste than a fission reactor?
In my understanding, this is because a fusion reactor reacts deuterium to produce helium, which is not radioactive, whereas a fission uses uranium or plutonium, for example, which may react to form various radioactive isotopes. A fusion reactor may contain small quantities of tritium, in which case a radioactive isotope of hydrogen may be produced, but given that the majority of reactions occurring involve solely the deuterium, there is less radioactive waste produced.
What are the advantages of a fusion reactor compared to a fission reactor?
You must realise that any claimed advantages are based on scientists predictions, and to some extent wishful thinking, as it is not even determined in engineering terms how a nuclear fusion plant could be built, what materials could be used, and how the heat would be extracted. However ever since fusion was proposed, scientists have been pointing out that it would produce much less radioactivity than fission does, and this is true, there would not be the spent fuel containing very highly active fission products that fission produces. There would be activation of structures in the plant due to the neutron irradiation coming from the plasma undergoing fusion. There are also consequences from needing to produce the tritium fuel, which is a dangerous substance to human health. So it all depends on future progress with ITER and further test rigs, but at the moment it is academic since it is very unlikely to happen within this century.
How do the waste products of a fusion reaction differ from the products of a fission reaction?
Most (but not all) fusion products are non-radioactive. Virtually all fission products are strongly radioactive beta or gamma emitters.
What is the importance of a fusion reactor?
It is believed that it would produce only negligible amounts of radioactive waste and the oceans would be a near unlimited supply of fuel for it, unlike world supplies of Uranium-235.
Why do hydrogen bombs produce radioactive waste?
Although the name suggests that the bomb solely uses nuclear fusion to create mass destruction, a Hydrogen bomb actually contains both fission and fusion fuels. Since fusion requires such a high energy input to initiate, a fission bomb is required to detonate the fusion component of the Hydrogen bomb, thereby releasing nuclear waste and radiation.
What are the main advantage of a fusion reactor compared to a fission reactor?
It doesn't produce radioactive byproducts.
What waste products come from power stations?
Radioactive waste is a waste product containing radioactive material. It is usually the product of a nuclear process such as nuclear fission, though industries not directly connected to the nuclear power industry may also produce radioactive waste.
How nuclear fusion and nuclear fission differ in terms of environmental hazards?
Nuclear fission involves splitting an atom and creates radioactive waste. Nuclear fusion involves bringing an atom together and creates no radiative waste
Does fusion create large amounts of radioactive waste?
True. If fusion can be made to work in manmade equipment, for power production, (and this is not certain), there should be much less radioactive waste than for fission reactors. The product of the fusion, helium, is harmless. The engineering details of such a plant have not been established, but the energy produced will presumably be extracted from materials surrounding the reaction chamber which absorb the neutrons produced, so these materials will become irradiated and radioactive. Whether the structure will remain for the life of the plant or perhaps neutron absorbing materials have to be replenished from time to time is unknown, but obviously there will be some radioactive waste to be dealt with.
What is the purpose for nuclear waste?
Nuclear waste is an unfortunate by-product of the process of nuclear fission for the purpose of energy production. The spent fuel rods are "safely" stored and sequestered, but will remain dangerous for thousands of years. As far as I know, there is no "purpose" for nuclear waste, other than to convince people that they do not want a power plant in their backyard. The theoretically possible process of nuclear fusion (which is how the sun works) would produce less radioactive material and waste.
What advantages would a fusion reactor have over the fission reactors currently being operated?
Plenty of cheap fuel, and no radioactive waste.
What is the Nuclear fusion reactions are referred to as clean nuclear energy because of the fact that they do not produce large amounts of radioactive waste In a nuclear fusion reaction the energy c?
In a proposed fusion power plant the fuels reacted would be a mixture of deuterium and tritium, that is isotopes of hydrogen with either one or two neutrons in the nucleus. These would produce helium as end product, plus energy release. Don't understand your last sentence.
