Coal is more dangurous than Nuclear?

[TheComfyChair]

Oh I did not know that. Fission is the better one right?

Nah, fission is the type of nuclear reaction we harness at the moment. It utilises (relatively) large mass elements such as uranium and the energy released when they decay. Unfortunately fission releases quite a lot of radiation too.

Fusion is where two light atoms (typically hydrogen) are fused into one bigger atom, releasing vast amounts of energy while doing so. It produces far less radiation than fission, produces far more energy and uses a far more plentiful (the universe isn't running out of hydrogen any time soon) source of energy. It's what stars are powered by. However, fusion is harder to stabilise in a reactor (it dies out whenever possible) to get enough energy out to warrant the input energy, which is why there's so much research into it - if lasers improve by ~4x their current efficiency, inertial confinement reactors will be viable.

 

[Gilhelmi]

Oh I did not know that. Fission is the better one right?

Nah, fission is the type of nuclear reaction we harness at the moment. It utilises (relatively) large mass elements such as uranium and the energy released when they decay. Unfortunately fission releases quite a lot of radiation too.

Fusion is where two light atoms (typically hydrogen) are fused into one bigger atom, releasing vast amounts of energy while doing so. It produces far less radiation than fission, produces far more energy and uses a far more plentiful (the universe isn't running out of hydrogen any time soon) source of energy. It's what stars are powered by. However, fusion is harder to stabilise in a reactor (it dies out whenever possible) to get enough energy out to warrant the input energy, which is why there's so much research into it - if lasers improve by ~4x their current efficiency, inertial confinement reactors will be viable.

I do not know why but I am always mixing those two up. Even in school I got the descriptions point on but I mixed up the types. The teacher still gave me half credit.

 

[rutger5000]

Of couse nuclear is safer then coal. Those statistics have been well known for quiet a while. Nuclear is in fact 100% safe as long as no total idiots are in charge who refuse to accept/confess that they screwed up and need to resort to somewhat drastic actions (That may or may not cause the plant to be inorporatable for a while).