Environmental and safety aspects of fusion facilities

Conference · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:376166

Petti, D ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Engineering Lab., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Fusion power has the potential to be a safe and environmentally sound energy source. Technological differences in fusion allow more flexibility to incorporate safety in the design than in fission. Fission, by its nature, results in long-lived, highly radioactive fission products. In fusion facilities, however, radionuclide inventories will be dominated by tritium fuel that collects on and within internal structures, and activation products produced in the structures whose hazard depends strongly on material choice. Thus, safety conscious selection of materials can result in minimization of toxic materials, activation product and tritium inventories, and stored energies. For fusion, careful selection of materials can greatly reduce potential hazards and go a long way toward the prevention of accidents which is the first level of the defense in depth principle.

• DOE Contract Number: AC07-94ID13223
• OSTI ID: 376166
• Report Number(s): CONF-960426--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
REACTOR SAFETY
THERMONUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
WASTE MANAGEMENT