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RIC panel discusses pathway to fusion commercialization
Fusion leaders at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual Regulatory Information Conference discussed the path forward for regulating the burgeoning fusion industry. The speakers discussed government and private industry initiatives in the United States and United Kingdom, with a focus on efforts shaping the near-term deployment of commercial fusion machines.
A recurring theme was the need to explain the difference between fission and fusion. Representatives from the Department of Energy and Type One Energy highlighted this as an important distinction for regulators, as it will allow fusion to undergo its own independent maturation process for developing standards and regulations in the same way that fission has. Lea Perlas, Fusion Program director at the Virginia Department of Health, said that confusion between fission and fusion has been a common cause for misplaced concerns among community members surrounding Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ proposed fusion plant site near Richmond, Va.
Balabhadra Misra, Robert G. Clemmer, Dale L. Smith
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 253-262
Technical Paper | Special Section Content / Blanket Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22817
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Steady-state thermal-hydraulic analyses were carried out for the DEMO/STARFIRE fusion reactor based on solid breeder blankets and pressurized water as the coolant. The results of the parametric studies show that a coolant in-tube design, i.e., coolant tubes embedded in solid breeder blanket, with a contact resistance between the coolant tube and the solid breeder tailored to maintain the operating temperature window (i.e., the maximum and the minimum temperature imposed on the solid breeder) is viable. However, design of such a solid breeder blanket will present serious challenges because of uncertainty in the thermophysical properties of breeder materials, the narrow operating temperature window, the close manufacturing tolerances necessary to control the gap conductance, the sensitivity of tritium inventory and tritium extraction to breeder temperature distribution, and the deleterious effect of neutron irradiation on breeder material properties. The study shows that even modest uncertainties in the thermal conductivity of solid breeders, interfacial gap conductances, and operating power levels can have significant impact on blanket design. Therefore, the designer should include the expected variations in these parameters. Experimental programs are needed to quantify the above factors and to develop methods (e.g., insulated coatings) for gap conductance control and in situ recovery of tritium via helium purge gas channels.