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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.
K. C. Lee, R. N. Cherdack
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 603-608
Fusion System Studies | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22928
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A relatively high temperature superheated steam cycle was designed to be compatible with a D-D tokamak blanket to help identify some of the benefits of using the D-D fuel .cycle. Since less tritium leaves the plasma in a D-D reactor than in a D-T reactor and tritium is not produced in the D-D reactor blanket, it may be acceptable for steam generated in the first wall and blanket to be used directly in a turbine generator. Calculations indicated high temperature superheated steam (811K, 12.5MPa) could be generated within the allowable stresses of presently available piping materials. Based on these turbine inlet conditions, a backpressure of 50 mm HgA, 6-feedwater heaters, 1 reheater and a 6-flow cross compound turbine generator, the overall cycle efficiency is estimated to be 40.5%.