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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.”
Sanae-Inoue Itoh, Atsushi Fukuyama, Tomonori Takizuka, Kimitaka Itoh
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 16 | Number 3 | November 1989 | Pages 346-364
Technical Paper | Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST89-A29126
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The consistency of physics constraints imposed on a core plasma in a tokamak reactor is investigated. Conditions for the steady-state operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)-grade plasma are listed, i.e., the density limit, the critical beta, feasibility of full current-drive and divertor functions, etc. The parameter regime, in which these guidelines are simultaneously satisfied, is investigated. Based on the available data base, the consistency of the conditions is examined. The L-mode scaling of the energy confinement time is employed for extrapolation to the ITER-grade plasma. The Q value and the size dependence are studied. The consistent operating regime of the steady-state operation is found. If off set-linear scaling is applied, the minimum and necessary input power is ∼130 MW, which enables the full current drive and the steady-state operation of Q = 2.3 with Ip = 20 MA. When the input power is increased to 200 MW, a Q value of 5 is predicted.