text: In contrast to current commercial fission reactors, hybrid reactors potentially demonstrate what is  considered inherently safe behavior because they remain deeply subcritical under all conditions and decay heat removal is possible via passive mechanisms.  The fission is driven by neutrons provided by fusion ignition events, and is consequently not self-sustaining.  If the fusion process is deliberately shut off or the process is disrupted by a mechanical failure, the fission damps out and stops nearly instantly. This is in contrast to the forced damping in a conventional reactor by means of control rods which absorb neutrons to reduce the neutron flux below the critical, self-sustaining, level.  The inherent danger of a conventional fission reactor is any situation leading to a positive feedback, runaway, chain reaction such as occurred during the Chernobyl disaster.  In a hybrid configuration the fission and fusion reactions are decoupled, i.e. while the fusion neutron output drives the fission, the fission output has no effect whatsoever on the fusion reaction, eliminating any chance of a positive feedback loop.