This reactor does not use fission, the process of splitting atoms into smaller elements employed by every commercial power reactor currently operating on earth.

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From the beginning the challenge was coming up with an inexpensive catalyst that could be reused in the reactor, driving the cost of the process below the market price of gas.

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But in Dr Rostoker's reactor, the helium nuclei created by the process of light fission would be speedy enough to escape from the ends of the ellipsoid, where the magnetic field is weakest.

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Some of the hydrogen and carbon monoxide created in the process are fed back into the reactor to keep it going, while GreatPoint recovers most of the catalyst from the char and applies it to more coal.

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During the decommissioning process, remaining fuel from the station's reactor will be removed and reprocessed.

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After a five-year process, regulators have said the European Pressurised Reactor, designed by two French firms, is safe and environmentally sound.

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This process could result in a piecemeal assemblage of potentially incompatible parts of dubious reliability in an untested reactor of questionable technology with no operational track record.

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