"Isn't the nature of a nuclear reaction, whether fission or fusion, the release of energy in the form of radiation be it alpha, beta, or gamma."
I don't know about fusion, but the vast majority of energy released from a fission reaction is in the form of kinetic energy of the fission fragments (the two new elements). The rest of the energy is radiation in the form of decay neutrinos, decay gammas, decay betas, prompt gammas and prompt betas.
Well, this seems to imply that there is a way to have a fusion recation without radiation. Wouldn't mean fusion with any mass being converted to energy?
I don't know about fusion, but the vast majority of energy released from a fission reaction is in the form of kinetic energy of the fission fragments (the two new elements). The rest of the energy is radiation in the form of decay neutrinos, decay gammas, decay betas, prompt gammas and prompt betas.
Think about the bomb. Is most of the energy in the blast or in the radiation. Most of the radiation in fusion is neutron radiation. On a reactor scram, the power almost immediately drops to about 3%, that energy being produced by the decay products.
When the atom initially splits, it breaks into two unstable particles and release 2 or 3 neutrons. That releases a tremendous amount of energy. These unstable particles continue their decay until they reach stable states, releasing betas, gammas, etc.