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The comparison is not b/w fusion and a hypothetical waste free source of energy. Its b/w fusion and fission. The waste products of fission are much more dangerous, expensive to handle and we still haven't found foolproof, effective ways of disposing them.

OTOH, danger from irradiated materials (whatever that is, this is the first time I'm hearing this TBH) doesn't seem very pressing. I highly doubt any of the irradiated stuff would have a half life of millions of years.




Half life is inversely proportional to radiation intensity. The big issue with fission waste products are the nucleotides radioactive enough to kill and long lived enough to be annoying, not the nasty ones that go away in a few decades or the almost inert ones.


Might as well put a Wikipedia link here about the fission product isotopes and their half lives:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fission_product#Radioa...




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