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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.
D. E. Driemeyer
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 1183-1188
Neutronics and Shielding | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A23019
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Neutron activation due to photoneutron production in the lead shields proposed to protect the EBT-P superconducting coils from excessive x-ray heating was investigated. The photoneutron flux distribution in various EBT-P structural components was calcualted for typical upgrade operating conditions using a standard two-dimensional transport model (TWOTRAN). Activity levels were then evaluated for major structural materials using activation cross sections tabulated in the GAMMON library. Activation dose rates in the device enclosure following several days of 8h/day upgrade (90GHz) operation were found to be ∼6 mrem/h, decaying to <0.25 mrem/h in ∼3 days. This requires radition monitoring of all personnel entering the device enclosure during this time, but should not generally restrict “hands on” access to the device. There is thus no strong motivation to replace lead with another shield material; however, it may be desirable to borate the enclosure walls in order to reduce the effect which impurities might have on activity levels.