such as lithium, which can surround the plasma. The electrically charge alpha particle collides with the deuterons and tritons (by their electrical interaction) and can be magnetically confined within the plasma. It there by transfers its energy to the reacting nuclei. When this redeposition of the fusion energy into the plasma exceeds the power lost from the plasma (by electromagnetic radiation, conduction, and convection), the plasma will be self-sustaining, or “ignited.” With deuterium and tritium as the fuel, the fusion reactor would be an effectively inexhaustible source of energy. Deuterium is obtained from seawater. About one in every 3,000 water molecules contains a deuterium atom. There is enough deuterium in the oceans to provide for the world’s energy needs for billions of years. One gram of fusion fuel can produce as much energy as 9,000 liters of oil. The amount of deuterium found naturally in one liter of water is the energy equivalent of 300 liters of gasoline. Tritium is bred in the fusion reactor. It is generated in the lithium blanket as a product of the reactor in which neutrons are captured by the lithium nuclei. A fusion reactor would have several attractive safety features. First, it is not subject to a runaway, or "meltdown," accident as is a fission reactor. The fusion reaction is not a chain reaction; it requires a hot plasma. Accidental interruption of a plasma control system would extinguish the plasma and terminate fusion. Second, the products of a fusion reaction are not radioactive; hence, no long-term radioactive wastes would be generated. Neutron bombardment would activate the walls of the containment vessel, but such activated material is shorter-lived and less toxic than the waste products of a fission reactor. Moreover, even this activation problem may be eliminated, either by the development of advanced, low-activation materials, such as vanadium-based materials, or by the employmen...
