What is tritium for?

  • And by nuclear-related use, it might mean that we will maybe have the longly denied fusion reactor :D

  • By fusion reactor, I didn't really mean't a fusion reactor that produce energy, but plasma, that could be used for different purposes like for the plasma launcher and, if possible , some kind of energy gen. ^^'

  • i would love a fusion reactor that produces power thats cleaner uses less materials and less risk of a blow up but is insane expensive ( maybe have it default lower power then nukes but not a huge ammount but no blow up risk.. and option to ramp up and go kabloom and somehow blow up ... alot more then a nuke could)

  • Fusion reactors in the current state of research need more energy to keep the thing stable than what is produced by fusion.


    There is not enough material available for any kind of blow up so it wouldn't be logical for such a thing to blow up. it would only get destroyed by failure.

  • a realistic fusion reactor hasn't enough energy available for big destruction because the fusion materials are inserted at runtime as a steady flow unlike in fission reactors where the nuclear material is included in the fuel rods and there all the time.

  • Tokamak-style reactors can surely explode but it'd be the energy contained in the massive electromagnets that causes it, not the fuel/plasma.

  • yeah, but an 'explosion' wouldn't be like a shockwave but more like some parts of it flying around, like a shrapnell grenade. those parts could have huge energy but wouldn't go in all directions.

  • On the ITER page, they say that there are so much parameters needed to actually reach fusion that it is impossible to have a meltdown. I remind you that unlike fission, fusion cannot form chain reactions, so it cannot meltdown, since you can still have a control over all the conditions.
    For example, you would simply have to lower the pressure a bit, and no more fusion *snap*.
    =)
    So I don't think there could be a fusion meltdown (of course, if you built your fusion reactor to make a nuke, then it is possible).

  • On the ITER page, they say that there are so much parameters needed to actually reach fusion that it is impossible to have a meltdown. I remind you that unlike fission, fusion cannot form chain reactions, so it cannot meltdown, since you can still have a control over all the conditions.
    For example, you would simply have to lower the pressure a bit, and no more fusion *snap*.
    =)
    So I don't think there could be a fusion meltdown (of course, if you built your fusion reactor to make a nuke, then it is possible).

    then it would break parts inside and not blow up then.. expensive to replace parts if you tried overdoing it

  • I agree. Since plasma is quite hot, it would for example melt the chamber, but it would not make a meltdown, since there wouldn't be enough energy/pressure.... for the plasma to continue the reaction create a bomb.

  • Actually, in theory, a fusion reactor failure will only result an internal meltdown, because of the high temperature, but will not explode because like you said, there's no chain reaction, meaning that, people working with the reactor will be more or less OK, but I don't think so for the reactor :P


    PS : Met moi en ami sur le forum Martititi.

  • In my understanding of a "real" Fusion Reactor it can not fail in a catastrophic manner as the only thing that could possibly happen is a failure of the magnetic field by a component failure that would result in a more or less catastrophic heat damage to the internal structure. But ther is no chain reaction or something possible that possibly could get out of control.


    More of a problem is the neutron radiation! It's quiet simple to "catch" the neutrons but that is one of two problems with actual real fusion reactors, the internal chamber wall is bombarded with neutrons doing severe damage to the internal structure ...


    actually they are covered with lithium to create new tritium when bombarded with the neutrons for the reaction to keep up but as the lithium is depleted the chamber components have to be replaced.


    And whoever said a fusion reactor would not have produced more energy than used is at fault! There were a almost 5minutes running attempt of a fuision that created waaaayyy more energy than used but there are yet no heat converters installed or used on the real fusion reactors to convert the heat into something usefull.


    And by the way running an Tokamak-Fusion-Reactor for pretty much longer is not possible as you have to induct an current into the plasma through a central placed coil to keep the plasma in a torus shape, requireing a constant linear raising current transient trough the coil which is pretty impossible :P


    a quiet real fusion reactor should only work in a charge pump manner, inputting huge ammount of EU for very limited time, resulting in either a s***load of heat or the equivalent ammount of plasma stored in what way ever :) and maybe some damage when standing close by


    PS: to make it more realtistic add platings that need to be replaced now and then (reactor platings from nuclear reactor) and additionally lithium platings. Using lithium platings will eliminate the need of trithium but yield less plasma ... reduced by at least the amount of energy equivalently used to make the trithium by hand ... and probably the platings can be used inside a nuclear reactor, when placed against a fuel rod it will take damage and somehow the resulting trithium has to be collected ... could be a nice combination .... one or more nuclear reactor producing the EU & trithium needed for a fusion run