Fusion

["Schoenhofer" <schoenho@via.at>]

Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
A-1160 Wien
AUSTRIA
Tel./Fax: +43-1-4955308
Mobiltel.: +43-664-3380333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at

Dear RADSAFERS,

I read an article about fusion in one of our "life style magazines". As far
as I remember there has never been a discussion about fusion and the
possible health physics implications on RADSAFE. Therefore I have a few
questions:

The article mentioned that "in the JET experiment in 1991 1.8 MW were
created during a few seconds". Can anyone tell me, what really happened - I
think to remember that the time the reaction could be held up was by orders
of magnitude lower. 

It was stated in the article, that the TFTR-experiment in 1993 created 6.0
MW. Any information?

In the article it was mentioned that there was a "low risk" associated with
fusion. If "all of the radiating tritium would be liberated the maximum
radius of danger would be 300 m. As a comparison: During the accident at
Chernobyl in 1986 the radioactive particles were distributed almost over
the whole continent". Does anybody have an idea, where the 300 m zone might
come from? I did not know that tritium would decay that fast.........

I quote: "Also fusion creates radioactivity, but far less than the risky
nuclear fission, the technique used in Chernobyl." What I remember is that
the neutrons would give rise to a terrible amount of activation products,
not to talk about the problem of mechanical degradation of the structure
material. Is it possible that the fast neutrons will only produce very
short lived activation products which might not be of concern? 

Please respond either to me, or maybe this would be interesting also for
other RADSAFERS to know your opinion on the relative risks between fission
and fusion. Any reference to specific WWW-sites are welcome.

I will be next week in England. Hope to receive enough information to be
able to write on my return a letter to the editor!

Franz