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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.”
Massimo Zucchetti
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 2 | March 1991 | Pages 294-303
Technical Paper | Safety Environmental Aspect | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29365
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Waste management problems related to impurity activation in first-wall, shield, and magnet materials for fusion reactors are examined. Definitions of low activity based on hands-on recycling, remote recycling, and shallow land burial waste management criteria are discussed. Estimates of the impurity concentration in low-activation materials (elementally substituted stainless steels and vanadium alloys) are reported. Impurity activation in first-wall materials turns out to be critical after a comparison of impurity concentration limits and estimated levels. Activation of magnet materials is then considered: Long-term activity is not a concern, while short-term activity is. In both cases, impurity activation is negligible. Magnet materials, and all other less flux-exposed materials, have no practical limitation on impurities in terms of induced radioactivity.