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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.
J. R. Easoz, R. Bajaj, R. E. Gold, J. W. H. Chi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 780-784
Blanket and First Wall Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22955
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper reports work performed under Program Element I (PE-I) of the First Wall, Blanket, and Shield Program, the principal objectives of which are the testing of first wall design concepts to support the design of fusion reactor first walls and the verification of analytical techniques and design tools. The test facility, ESURF, consists of a 36 kW continuous duty electron beam, evacuated target chamber, and a 6.9 MPa water loop for active cooling of test pieces. Long pulse “steady state” surface heat loads are simulated by rastering the beam in two dimensions, while disruption heat loads are simulated by imposing a focused, stationary beam for a fixed length of time on the target area. Initial test pieces consisted of stainless steel (Type 316) tubes. Tests to date have included thermal-hydraulic characterization of the specimens, thermal cycling up to 500 cycles, disruption heat load simulations, and combined disruption heat loads with thermal cycling. The test results reported here address the verification of predicted thermomechanical response of the specimens, the effects of disruption heat loads on surface melting and crack formation, and the affect of thermal cycling on crack formation/propagation.