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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. Wesley, D. Boucher, J. Galambos, F. Perkins, D. Post, S. Putvinski
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 579-585
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963001
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Physics design guidelines, plasma performance estimates, and sensitivity of performance to changes in physics assumptions are presented for the ITER-EDA Interim Design. The overall ITER device parameters have been derived from the performance goals using physics guidelines based on the physics R&D results. The ITER-EDA design has a single-null divertor configuration (divertor at the bottom) with a nominal plasma current of 21 MA, magnetic field of 5.68 T, major and minor radius of 8.14 m and 2.8 m, and a plasma elongation (at the 95% flux surface) of ~1.6 that produces a nominal fusion power of ~ 1.5 GW for an ignited burn pulse length of ≥1000 s. The assessments have shown that ignition at 1.5 GW of fusion power can be sustained in ITER for 1000 s given present extrapolations of H-mode confinement (τE = 0.85 × τITER93H). helium exhaust (τ*He/τE = 10). representative plasma impurities (nBe/ne = 2%), and beta limit [βN = β(%)/(I/aB) ≤ 2.5]. The provision of 100 MW of auxiliary power, necessary to access to H-mode during the approach to ignition, provides for the possibility of driven burn operations at Q = 15. This enables ITER to fulfill its mission of fusion power (~ 1-1.5 GW) and fluence (~1 MWa/m2) goals if confinement, impurity levels, or operational (density, beta) limits prove to be less favorable than present projections. The power threshold for H-L transition, confinement uncertainties, and operational limits (Greenwald density limit and beta limit) are potential performance limiting issues. Improvement of the helium exhaust (τ*He/τE ≤ 5) and potential operation in reverse-shear mode significantly improve ITER performance.