Reply To: Energy Output – MW & GW

[zapkitty]

Tulse wrote: “Aneutronic” refers to the nature of the fusion reaction, namely that it produces no (or, more accurately, very few) neutrons. This characteristic is in principle orthogonal to the method used to get the nuclei to fuse (although aneutronic reactions generally require higher energies to cause fusion).

(This is all my understanding — someone else may be able to correct any errors I’ve made.)

That’s it. Aneutronic fusion is defined as when neutrons carry no more than 1% of the total released energy. Essentially means that if a particular reaction generates any neutrons at all they would be a side-effect of the main fusion process and thus would be an annoyance instead of something required for net power generation.

And as the neutrons are <1% of the total power that means no neutron activation of reactor materials… and thus no nuclear waste.