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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Latest News
Russia withdraws from 25-year-old weapons-grade plutonium agreement
Russia’s lower house of Parliament, the State Duma, approved a measure to withdraw from a 25-year-old agreement with the United States to cut back on the leftover plutonium from Cold War–era nuclear weapons.
George H. Miley
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 368-394
Technical Paper | Special Section Content / Compact Fusion Concept | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22831
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
If technically feasible, small, low capital cost pilot plants would accelerate fusion development. The ultimate economic issue associated with this approach is whether or not these plants can then be developed into commercial power plants without a significant increase in size, i.e., power level. It is concluded that, to be competitive, small [ 500-MW(electric)] fusion plants would require new techniques (for the power industry) such as modular construction with factorycentered mass production of modules and minimum on-site construction. Otherwise, the economy-of-scale favors as large a power level as possible within limits imposed by constraints associated with institutional structures, siting restrictions, and electrical grid sizes—all of which could undergo radical changes by the time fusion is introduced.