ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2026
Nuclear Technology
January 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.”
Takuro Honda, Takashi Okazaki, Yasushi Seki, Isao Aoki, Tomoaki Kunugi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 1 | September 1996 | Pages 95-103
Technical Paper | Safety and Environmental Aspect | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A30766
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Dust production due to plasma disruptions has been investigated using a safety analysis code, which can calculate the plasma dynamics and thermal characteristics of fusion reactor structures simultaneously. We selected two fusion reactor designs in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), i.e., the Engineering Design Activity (EDA) and the Conceptual Design Activity (CDA). The ITER/EDA will adopt beryllium for the plasma-facing component (PFC), and the ITER/CDA adopted graphite for PFC. The beryllium dust production in the ITER/EDA reactor will range from 7.0 to 10.3 kg/disruption, which strongly depends on vapor shield effects. The carbon dust production in the ITER/CDA reactor will range from 1.9 to 2.4 kg/disruption. However, the carbon dust will increase by as much as a factor of 2 to 5 because the effective latent heat of graphite has a large uncertainty under the extremely high heat flux during disruptions. For both, dust production from the first wall depends on the current quench time during disruptions. If the current quench time can be extended, the beryllium dust from the first wall will be minimized, and the carbon dust from there will be negligible.