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Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Johnnie B. Cannon, Clay E. Easterly, Wallace Davis, Jr., Jack S. Watson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 12 | Number 3 | November 1987 | Pages 341-353
Technical Paper | Safety/Environmental Aspect | doi.org/10.13182/FST87-A25067
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Radioactive and nonradioactive effluents will be released routinely during normal operation of near-term commercial fusion power reactors. Nonradioactive effluents will be essentially the same as those released at conventional steam-electric power plants. Radioactive effluents will consist of activated corrosion products and tritium. Most radioactive releases will originate from liquid-waste processing systems and from ventilation systems of various buildings where radioactivity may become airborne. These effluents will have some potential for environmental impact; however, the significance of the impact will depend in part on the concentration and release rate of the effluent. The type of reactor design (e.g., tokamak, mirror, etc.) has minimal influence on activation product releases. Activation products released are influenced primarily by the materials chosen for structural components, and the quantities released are influenced primarily by the coolant choice. The most likely choices for the coolant are water and helium. Preliminary release estimates for water- and helium-cooled fusion reactors are found to be similar to those of fission reactors with the same coolant and of comparable size and structural materials. Data are insufficient to do more than speculate about normal releases from liquid-metal-cooled reactors.