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Question
What's the difference between fusion and fission?
Fission splits heavy atoms; fusion fuses light ones. The consequences for safety and waste are night and day.
Side by side
Splitting vs fusing.
Fission
Splitting heavy atoms
- Splits uranium/plutonium in a self-sustaining chain reaction
- Can melt down if cooling is lost
- Long-lived high-level radioactive waste
- Proven, deployed today
Kronos
Fusing light atoms
- Fuses hydrogen isotopes — no chain reaction
- Cannot melt down or run away; stops when conditions leave the window
- No long-lived high-level waste; Kronos's burner is low-neutron
- Kronos: prototype targeted 2030
Same word — 'nuclear' — opposite physics. Fusion is the clean, unmeltable one.
Related questions
More answers.
What is the difference between fusion and fission? +
Fission splits heavy atoms (uranium) in a chain reaction and leaves long-lived waste; fusion fuses light atoms (hydrogen isotopes), can't melt down or run away, and produces no long-lived high-level waste.
Is fusion safer than fission? +
Yes. Fusion has no chain reaction to run away and only a tiny amount of fuel in the plasma at any moment, so it stops rather than accelerates when disturbed.
Does fusion make the same waste as fission? +
No. Fusion produces no long-lived high-level waste. Kronos's low-neutron burner keeps activation and scheduled-replacement waste far lower than fission or even D–T fusion.
Verify it yourself
Open by design.
Conceptual design and simulation study; the integrated Kronos machines are not yet built, and certain results are requirement-class. No financial figures are published on this site.