Fusion Reactor Neutrons

Discussions revolve around neutron production in deuterium-tritium fusion reactions, their challenges for energy capture, material damage, shielding, and comparisons to fission or aneutronic fusion.

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Keywords

RocketStar LENR fusion energy reactor reaction fission nuclear heat reactors star magnetic

Sample Comments

worldsayshi Apr 13, 2022 View on HN

Could this maybe be used as part of a fusion reactor?

TheSpiceIsLife Dec 11, 2015 View on HN

Sorry, I meant to type 'from a fusion reactor', since that's what we're talking about here.

maxglute Jan 30, 2025 View on HN

What happens if fusion reactor meets a bomb?

InclinedPlane Dec 12, 2012 View on HN

Almost all of the energy comes out as kinetic energy of the fusion byproducts, which are mainly atomic nuclei and neutrons. Sadly, a great deal of the energy of the easiest to achieve fusion reactions (D-D and D-T) tends to exist in the neutrons released by the reactions. And those neutrons tend to fly right out of the charged plasma quite readily. This makes creating a self-sustaining magnetically confined fusion reaction more difficult but it also makes building a fusion reactor slightly chall

tsimionescu Sep 9, 2021 View on HN

People often make the mistake of looking at the reaction energy of fusion, and comparing that with fission or burning fossil fuels.But the majority of the reaction energy is carried away by high-speed neutrons, which are pure waste - they can't be captured by magnetic fields, they are heavy and penetrate almost any material, leaving holes behind that make the structure brittle, and when they do get absorbed, they make the atom that absorbed them unstable, turning the material radioactive

njarboe Dec 1, 2020 View on HN

Deuterium/Tritium fusion produces neutrons that will escape the magnetic fields and hit the surrounding machine producing heat but also damage. This shield around the machine absorbing the neutrons will have a circulating fluid that will remove the heat to run a steam or other type of generator.We don't really know how to build this part of the reactor right now, but some metals have the ability to self heal and people think this shield should be possible to build that has a decent

anArbitraryOne Jan 22, 2024 View on HN

Why not just fuse hydrogen nuclei together? The energy produced as a byproduct could be very useful as well

sova Dec 16, 2018 View on HN

My understanding is that neutrons are the primary component for heat generation and therefore steam and therefore energy. At low energy fusion reactions, is this not the desired outcome?

qPM9l3XJrF Jun 1, 2021 View on HN

Why is fusion better than traditional nuclear reactors?

dgudkov Sep 5, 2022 View on HN

Doesn't the same apply to nuclear fusion power generation?