Trends in fusion reactor safety research

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:6027946

Herring, J S; Holland, D F; Piet, S J

Fusion has the potential to be an attractive energy source. From the safety and environmental perspective, fusion must avoid concerns about catastrophic accidents and unsolvable waste disposal. In addition, fusion must achieve an acceptable level of risk from operational accidents that result in public exposure and economic loss. Finally, fusion reactors must control routine radioactive effluent, particularly tritium. Major progress in achieving this potential rests on development of low-activation materials or alternative fuels. The safety and performance of various material choices and fuels for commercial fusion reactors can be investigated relatively inexpensively through reactor design studies. These studies bring together experts in a wide range of backgrounds and force the group to either agree on a reactor design or identify areas for further study. Fusion reactors will be complex with distributed radioactive inventories. The next generation of experiments will be critical in demonstrating that acceptable levels of safe operation can be achieved. These machines will use materials which are available today and for which a large database exists (e.g. for 316 stainless steel). Researchers have developed a good understanding of the risks associated with operation of these devices. Specifically, consequences from coolant system failures, loss of vacuum events, tritium releases, and liquid metal reactions have been studied. Recent studies go beyond next step designs and investigate commercial reactor concerns including tritium release and liquid metal reactions. 18 refs.

• Research Organization: EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-76ID01570
• OSTI ID: 6027946
• Report Number(s): EGG-M-91262; CONF-910615-7; ON: DE92003288
• Resource Relation: Conference: Summer annual meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Karlsruhe (Germany), 3-8 Jun 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
REACTOR SAFETY
RADIOACTIVATION
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
RISK ASSESSMENT
THERMONUCLEAR FUELS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTOR MATERIALS
TRITIUM
ACCIDENTS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
FUELS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MATERIALS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
RADIOISOTOPES
SAFETY
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
700400* - Fusion Technology- (1992-)