this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] atcorebcor@sh.itjust.works 1 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

For example when Russia invaded Ukraine and they attacked Chernobyl. Maybe it’s not founded in real risk. But I imagine it could be a security threat for someone to bomb a nuclear facility.

[–] Techlos@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

To alleviate your concerns - unlike fission, in a fusion reactor the only radiation comes from the active fusion process, and chamber lining that's been bombarded by radiation. The worst case is a brief spike of neutron and gamma radiation from where the chamber breaches before the plasma collapses, a small amount of short-lived radioisotopes from the chamber debris, and a bit of tritium.

The radiation from the debris would be at background levels in a year or two, since there's no transuranic decay chains (once decay event, and it's stable again). The tritium would disperse to background levels in minutes, and the radiation burst would only be a hazard in the immediate vicinity.

Not free from issues at all, but compared to a fission reactor the worst-case scenario isn't bad at all.

[–] atcorebcor@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 hours ago

Great, and I also hear that the amount of nuclear waste is tiny in comparison to contemporary nuclear reactors.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

A fusion power plant will not explode in any meaningful way

[–] atcorebcor@sh.itjust.works 1 points 20 hours ago

Alright, the more you know