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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.
L. Bromberg, D. Cohn, J.E.C. Williams, D.L. Jassby, M. Okabayashi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 1013-1018
Next-Generation Devices | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22991
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We describe a design concept for a tokamak that has the capability of sustained ignited operation and utilizes high performance copper plate magnets to minimize size and cost. We refer to this device as LITE for long-pulse ignited test experiment. LITE is designed so that it could be located in the TFTR Test Cell, so that substantial cost savings can be realized. Two design options are considered. Illustrative parameters for the lower beta option (LITE-1) are a major radius of 2.7 m, a maximum magnetic field on axis of 8.1 T, and <β> = 0.05. Steadystate water cooling would be used for nominal DT operation and for very long pulse hydrogen operation. Inertial cooling with liquid nitrogen could be employed for a relatively small number of pulses to provide the highest magnetic fields and ignition margins. The second option (LITE- 2) makes use of a highly shaped plasma to obtain high beta (> 10%) operation. The LITE-2 concept is at a very early stage, so that emphasis in this paper is on the description of LITE-1.