In article ,
Pan Ohco wrote:

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:08:18 -0700, Billy Rose
wrote:



About as far as you can get from ideal, IMHO. In 30 - 40 years, fusion
reactors should be viable with lots of safe, clean energy. Why mess up
the planet for a 40 year fix, when it creates more problems than it
solves?

A quick question. Is there a possibility of using waste from nuclear
plants as fuel for fusion plants?

No. Fusion uses deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen). Two deuterium under
extremely high pressure and heat to fuse together to become a molecule
of helium. Two deuterium atoms have more mass than a single helium atom
and according to the famous equation, E=m(CxC), the difference in mass
is converted to energy. If the magnetic containment field for a fusion
reactor were to collapse, the reactants would hit the wall of the
containment building, cool, and become harmless. I believe there is some
issue with tritium (another isotope of hydrogen) but it is of a minor
concern when compared to fission reactions.

- Billy
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)