The distinction matters more than many in the insurance market appreciate. Both technologies are nuclear in the scientific sense, but their risk profiles diverge sharply. Fusion involves the handling of tritium, a radioactive isotope, but its waste has a maximum longevity of around 12 years, fundamentally different from the legacy contamination produced by fission, which extends well beyond a human lifetime. Fusion also avoids the meltdown risk associated with fission and does not produce long-lived radioactive waste.
