[thehappypm]

It’s potentially just a much better version of fission.

Fusion won’t cause a runaway reaction — in fact it’s brutally difficult to get it to react at all, hence why this is an achievement.

It also doesn’t use materials that can be used for a bomb, again unlike fission.

As a result it has the potential to be cheaper to implement, cheaper to fuel, with no meltdown risk.

[valine]

Also don’t forget the biggest benefit over solar/wind: it keeps on generating power on cold windless nights.

[jszymborski]

No need to worry about Cold Dunkelflaut!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8xsg9iK5yo

[dharmab]

Isn't tritium used in fusion and a potential weapons material?

[devmor]

It's a fission yield booster. It's as much of a weapons material as charcoal is.

[mlyle]

It's not controlled. It does help boost some fission weapons. But it's not the hard part or critical piece of producing a nuclear weapon, and you can get by without it.

To illustrate how little it's controlled-- I have a little bit on my keychain as an alpha source with a phosphor so my keyring always glows.

[dogma1138]

Depending on the scale and reactor design, we have really good examples of run away fusion reactions. Run away reactions are easy, controlled ones are hard.

And whilst I won’t doubt that if fusion ever becomes commercially viable the reactors would be walk away safe it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to account for that in your design.

[willis936]

What is an example of a run away fusion reaction?

[dogma1138]

The US strategic arsenal.

[blamestross]

A Hydrogen Bomb. It is basically using a nuke (fission) to trigger fusion instead of lasers.

[willis936]

That is a run away fission reaction that ignites a short lived fusion reaction. We don't even talk about neutron populations or k factors in fusion because there is no avalanche effect possible.