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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.
Richard V. Carlson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 544-549
Environment and Safety | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22920
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One of the primary objectives of the Tritium Systems Test Assembly is to demonstrate that the technologies associated with the DT fuel cycle for a fusion reactor can be operated safely and operated with minimal environmental impact. During the design and construction phase, safety analyses were performed to investigate the effects of normal operations, of component failure, of operational failures, and of failures induced by natural phenomena. The effects on operation personnel, the general public and the environment were determined. Major releases of tritium were found to be highly improbable (<10−6/year) since they require a compound failure of primary and secondary containment, along with either a breach of the building or a failure of the room cleanup system. The effects from normal operations and high probability failures were also determined to be minimal.