[qwerty456127]

> If the plasma "escapes" the confinement and contacts anything (ie. the walls of the Tokamak) it rapidly cools down to temperatures below where fusion can happen.

Sounds relieving. I used to think that «if the plasma "escapes" the confinement and contacts anything (ie. the walls of the Tokamak) it rapidly…» disintegrates everything around or, when the power is huge enough, causes an apocalypse…

[jniedrauer]

One of the beautiful things about nuclear fusion reactors is that they are inherently unstable at STP. In the event of a catastrophic failure, they will simply stop working (potentially after some large bangs).

Nuclear fission reactions can continue on their own for quite a while. This is one of the reasons they can be so dangerous.

[sergiosgc]

At those temperatures, it will disintegrate whatever it touches. It's just that, unlike fission, fusion is unstable[1] so it quickly fizzles out, and damage will be local.

[1] Unstable in the sense that it is hard to maintain fusion conditions, not in the Hollywood sense that it blows up if you look at it sideways.

[robin_reala]

It’s not particularly hard to maintain fusion conditions, you just need a stellar mass levels.

[Dylan16807]

That description of destruction is entirely correct, it's just that the amount involved is tiny. Just like a big enough firecracker could destroy anything, but the ones we make just go pop.

[opwieurposiu]

TFA claims the stored energy is 300kj, which is roughly equivalent to the energy you get out of eating one apple.

[ambicapter]

This is not a very useful comparison. You can say that there is less energy in a stick of dynamite than a chocolate chip cookie, and yet, that stick of dynamite should still be handled carefully.