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DOE announces NEPA exclusion for advanced reactors
The Department of Energy has announced that it is establishing a categorical exclusion for the application of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures to the authorization, siting, construction, operation, reauthorization, and decommissioning of advanced nuclear reactors.
According to the DOE, this significant change, which goes into effect today, “is based on the experience of DOE and other federal agencies, current technologies, regulatory requirements, and accepted industry practice.”
R. B. Campbell, M. A. Hoffman, B. G. Logan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | November 1986 | Pages 881-889
Innovative Concepts for Power Conversion | Proceedings of the Seveth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Reno, Nevada, June 15–19, 1986) | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24848
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An advanced concept, in-situ MHD conversion, is described for converting fusion energy to electricity. Considerable cost savings can be realized because of the conversion of thermal energy to electricity achieved in the blanket by means of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generators. The external disk generator, also described, is another application of the MHD idea, which may have certain advantages over the in-situ scheme for advanced-fuel tokamaks. The feature that makes these schemes fusion-specific is the novel use of the electromagnetic radiation naturally emitted by the plasma. The synchrotron radiation can be used either to heat the nonequilibrium MHD plasma, or possibly improve its stability. A Rankine cycle with cesium-seeded mercury as a working fluid is used in either case. Performance predictions by a quasi-one-dimensional model are presented. An experiment to determine the effect of microwave radiation on channel performance is planned.