|
Written by Steuart Campbell
|
|
Monday, 21 May 2007 |
Fission, not fusion
I agree with Sebastien Balibar's condemnation of the international nuclear fusion programme (Opinion, 15 May); it is a colossal dead end for more reasons than he gave, one of which was somewhat understated - the temperature required for a deuterium-tritium reaction is about 300 million degrees, not 100. This is nearly 20 times hotter than the temperature at the centre of the Sun. A device containing plasma at such a temperature has a high potential for catastrophic failure.
The future of generating electricity from nuclear energy lies in good old fission reactors, especially in fast reactors, which can breed their own fuel.
Steuart Campbell
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 25 May 2007 )
|
