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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.”
Kenneth Evans, Jr., Charles C. Baker, Jeffrey N. Brooks, Robert G. Clemmer, David A. Ehst, Patricia A. Finn, Harold Herman, Jungchung Jung, Richard F. Mattas, Balabhadra Misra, Dale L. Smith, Herbert C. Stevens, Larry R. Turner, Robert B. Wehrle, Kevin M. Barry, Albert E. Bolon, Robert T. McGrath, Lester M. Waganer
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 226-236
Technical Paper | Special Section Content / Fusion Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST4-2P1-226
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
WILDCAT is a conceptual design of a catalyzed deuterium-deuterium tokamak commercial fusion reactor. WILDCAT utilizes the beneficial features of no tritium breeding, while not extrapolating unnecessarily from existing deuterium-tritium (D-T) designs. The reactor is larger and has higher magnetic fields and plasma pressures than typical D-T devices. It is more costly, but eliminates problems associated with tritium breeding and has tritium inventories and throughputs approximately two orders of magnitude less than typical D-T reactors. There are both a steady-state version with Alfvén-wave current drive and a pulsed version. Extensive comparison with D-T devices has been made, and cost and safety analyses have been included. All of the major reactor systems have been worked out to a level of detail appropriate to a complete conceptual design.