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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.”
N. A. Uckan, J. T. Hogan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1499-1503
ITER | Proceedings of the Ninth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Oak Brook, Illinois, October 7-11, 1990) | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29553
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The confinement capability of ITER was examined for a number of operational scenarios. The reference ITER physics baseline scenario (I = 22 MA) allows ignited burn under H-mode conditions [τE(H-mode) ∼ 2 × τE(L-mode)]. At higher currents (I = 25–28 MA) at which ITER can operate for limited pulse duration, there is an increased ignition margin if low-q operation proves acceptable. A factor of 2 reduction in helium ash concentration (from the baseline value of 10% to 5%) in the reference ITER scenario has about the same impact on ignition capability as increasing the plasma current by about 15% (from the baseline value of 22 MA to ≥25 MA). It might be possible to further optimize the ignition capability of ITER if some of the limits on operational boundaries can be relaxed by tailoring plasma profiles.