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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
L. El-Guebaly, D. Henderson, A. Abdou, P. Wilson, ARIES Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 986-990
Safety and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963370
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Over the past 10 years, the ARIES team has been devoting a serious effort to reduce the volume of radwaste generated by fusion power plants. Recently, an initiative was launched in the U.S. and Europe to reduce the radwaste volume further by clearing the outer components from regulatory control. Before proceeding further with the development of a new strategy for the U.S. fusion waste management, it is essential to assess the implication of the clearance option on the waste generated by the U.S. advanced power plants. In this paper, we discuss the results of the analysis, the approach adopted by the ARIES team for handling the cleared components, and the U.S. market for cleared metals. Our results state that, because of the compactness of the design, none of the ARIES-AT fusion power core components has a clearance index below one at the end of the 100 year interim storage period and all components should be either recycled or disposed near surface as low-level waste. At present, the U.S. industry has zero tolerance for metals with very low radiation level, meaning the commercial market for cleared metals does not exist.