Activation Products

Radioactive isotopes created when neutrons transmute structural materials.

Fusion neutrons can transmute structural atoms into radioactive isotopes. Choosing low-activation materials keeps the resulting waste short-lived and low-hazard — a key materials-selection driver.

Fusion neutrons transmute structural atoms into radioactive isotopes, and the whole low-activation materials strategy exists to ensure those isotopes are short-lived and low-hazard. Choosing steels whose decay chains relax to hands-on levels in decades rather than millennia is what keeps fusion's waste bounded and manageable.