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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.”
Jun Feng, Frank A. McClintock, Rui Vieira, Regis M. Pelloux, Richard J. Thome
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1177-1182
Ignition Device | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29502
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The conductor for the central solenoid of the Compact Ignition Tokamak (CIT) operates with a multiaxial stress condition in which the ratios of the principal stresses are not proportional during the operating cycle. The stresses arise from both the self-electromagnetic loads and interactions with the toroidal field coils. The latter primarily provide a radial compressive load which varies during a pulse. This paper presents the status of conductor evaluation and design criteria development. Analysis of the stress conditions during a pulse indicates that the bulk of the fatigue life damage is done during one portion of the total current scenario. This is based on the postulate that the multiaxial stress and lifetime condition can be characterized approximately by examining the worst combination of shear stress range with tensile stress normal to the shear plane at reversal. The latter is found by tracing the history of the principal shear stresses and their associated normal stresses for all three principal shear planes at the worst point in the coil. The analysis thus provides the operating conditions to be simulated in uniaxial and multiaxial tests from which lifetime correlations can be found for the conductor. Evaluation of existing multiaxial fatigue life data on Alloy 718 has led to a postulate for a criterion to be applied to the conductor. Uniaxial and biaxial data are being taken on candidate conductors to verify the postulated lifetime correlations. The primary candidates for the conductor are C15715 (an alumina-dispersion-strengthened copper) and a CuCrZr alloy. The conductor will be required in plate form, nominally 1-inch thick and 70-inches square. Tests have thus far only been conducted on specimens from subscale plates. The status of the test program and of the full-scale plate development program are given.