# Not poll...what about fusion? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-poll-what-about-fusion/831529 "2019-03-25T21:55:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-poll-what-about-fusion/831529/21 "2019-03-26T18:14:20Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Because D-T fusion produces an alpha particle and high energy neutron, the output has to be thermalized to be able to do work, and that may prove to be just as difficult as achieving fusion. The bottle confinement concept could generate a small amount of power directly through leakage at the endcaps, where high pressure plasma is decelerated through coils. Obviously it is not a proven design, though, and has been only minimally studied. > [@](#): > > There is also the issue that energetic neutrons will weaken (embrittle) material … A horribly under-emphasized concern. > [@](#): > > Some proposals actually use a blanket of fissionable or fertile materials to breed fuel for nuclear fission reactors … Most of the designs I see use a lithium blanket to capture the neutrons, generating the heat output (presumably the lithium blanket would contact the steam pipes to transfer the heat to generator turbines), but rather than creating fissionable isotopes, the lithium spallates into tritium which is drawn off to be used as fuel for the fusion reaction. I think a fusion reactor would have to have a vastly different dynamic compared to a fission reactor. With traditional fission, you put the fuel into the core, pull out the control rods and let it happen. Fusion reactors would have to be much more hands-on: you have to put the fuel in, squeeze it hard until the reaction happens, draw some of the plasma off, put more fuel in, reprocess the stuff you have drawn off, do another plasma swap, over and over again. In other words, traditional fission reactors are excellent at handling steady peak loads, while a fusion reactor, theoretical, would be good for highly variable load demand and would probably benefit from power storage/leveling systems like are starting to be used for renewables like wind and solar. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-poll-what-about-fusion/831529.md?page=1)