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joalheagney t1_iyyy54d wrote

Reply to comment by ProneMasturbationMan in Why not use hydrogen and deuterium in fusion reaction rather than tritium and deuterium? by Curious_user4445

Free neutrons penetrate shielding materials like crazy (because they are uncharged) and cause secondary nuclear reactions (because they pack a lot of mass and energy) when they are captured by something. Those reactions leave radioactive decay products. So your entire reactor becomes radioactive.

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financial2k t1_izszje8 wrote

I always wondered how the breeding works then. Don't the free neutrons go anywhere in a Tokamak and are most likely to be captured by the surrounding atoms with the highest coloumb surface?

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