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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.J. O'Brien, G.A. Moses, A.M. White
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 883-888
Inertial Confinement Fusion | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22972
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It has been proposed to surround the target chamber of the Light Ion Fusion Target Development Facility with a water shield. Such a shield would effectively isolate the radioactive chamber from the environment while providing a medium in which to absorb energy imparted to the target chamber walls following the impact of the fireball. Radioactivity calculations will be presented for five different wall materials. If the water surrounding the chamber provides a damping mechanism for the wall vibrations, it also provides a medium through which a pressure pulse can be transmitted to the outer wall of the shield region. It is desirable to minimize the pressure loading upon this structure. An investigation of the effects of a bubble screen upon the propagation of the water pressure wave is presented, along with some possible criteria for the design of a screen.