Fusion reactors - safety and environmental impact

The safety and environmental aspects of fusion are reviewed, dealing first with normal reactor operation and then with accident situations. It is concluded, on the basis of present conceptual designs of D-T fuelled reactors, that fusion reactors appear to have an inherently lower hazard potential than fission reactors, although the realization of this potential has yet to be demonstrated. Among the salient, intrinsic advantages of fusion are the absence of actinides and volatile fission products, the relatively short half-lives of the active material and tritium, and the absence of a separately sited reprocessing plant. (author)