Nuclear Safety

Nuclear power has always been a matter of some contention because of it's close association to weapons of mass destruction, however the last generations of nuclear reactors are quite safe, barring deliberate sabotage.

Fusion reactors handle tremendous quantities of power and energy, but should the containment ever fail the temperature of the fusing gas will drop below fusion temperatures and the reaction will immediately halt. Assuming all containment immediately vanished--which is possible if the superconducting magnets stop being cooled--the reaction will burn out the inside of the reactor, making the reactor itself useless, but seldom causing more damage.

Fission reactors--like the ones in power blocks--are a little more complicated. Because they use Thorium as the workable fuel, rather than more radioactive elements like Uranium, it is physically impossible to create a nuclear explosion. Thorium is incapable of producing enough neutrons to sustain a reaction without the neutron spaller, and even if the spaller is deliberately overloaded the reaction will stop again when the spaller is destroyed, rather than continue on indefinitely as in a nuclear detonation.

Thorium reactors, however, can be used to breed Plutonium for atomic bombs. Terrorism is a secondary concern, however. The Economy of Space has been relatively peaceful.