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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.
William S. Cooper
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 632-641
Plasma Heating, Impurity Control, and Fueling | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22932
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Negative-ion-based neutral beam systems can perform multiple functions for fusion reactors, such as heating, current drive in tokamak reactors, and establishing and maintaining potential barriers in tandem mirror reactors. Practical systems operating continuously at the 200 keV, 1 MW level can be built using present-day technology. Ion sources have been demonstrated that produce D− beams with <5% electron content, and that operate at linear current densities that are within a factor of 2 of what conservatively designed accelerator/transport structures can handle. Concepts are in hand for transporting the negative ion beam through a neutron maze before neutralization, thus permitting a radiation-hardened beamline. With an advanced laser photoneutralizer, overall system power efficiencies of 70% should be possible. A national program is being planned to achieve the goal of application of 475 keV systems on a mirror ETR in 1994.