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DOE announces NEPA exclusion for advanced reactors
The Department of Energy has announced that it is establishing a categorical exclusion for the application of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures to the authorization, siting, construction, operation, reauthorization, and decommissioning of advanced nuclear reactors.
According to the DOE, this significant change, which goes into effect today, “is based on the experience of DOE and other federal agencies, current technologies, regulatory requirements, and accepted industry practice.”
Ralf-Dieter Penzhorn, Uwe Berndt, Erhard Kirste, Jacqueline Chabot
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 32 | Number 2 | September 1997 | Pages 232-245
Technical Paper | Tritium System | doi.org/10.13182/FST97-A19893
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The permeation of protium, deuterium, and an equimolar deuterium-tritium mixture through finger-type Pd-Ag permeators of various configurations operated either in/out or out/in has been compared in parametric studies. The parameters included the permeate pressures; the feed-and-bleed flow rates; and the feed-gas composition, i.e., helium, Q2, and CQ4 (Q-hydrogen, deuterium, tritium). Results on the dependence of the hydrogen isotope breakthrough into the bleed-gas stream and thus on hydrogen isotope decontamination factors were obtained as a function of feed-gas flow. The observed isotopic effects are large, i.e., H2/D2 = 1.72 ± 0.03 and H2/DT = 2.06 ± 0.03. No evidence of permeator deterioration was observed after 1.5 yr of discontinuous operation with hydrogen isotopes—mostly deuterium-tritide. In situ evidence on the integrity of a Pd-Ag permeator was obtained from empirical permeation curves, helium leak measurements, and hydrogen isotope breakthrough curves. Methane poisons Pd-Ag slowly but progressively at 360°C. When the hydrogens in methane are replaced by tritium, the rate of poisoning considerably increases, and after a few days, the overall poisoning becomes severe. The poisoning by hydrocarbons can be completely reversed by heat treatment in laboratory air.