Safety and environmental aspects of fusion reactors

Conference · Fri Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 1976

OSTI ID:7236069

Holdren, J P

Fusion is examined against the yardstick of fission technology with respect to inventories of radioactivity (and associated Biological Hazard Potentials), routine emissions, accident pathways and consequences, radioactive-waste management, and misuse of nuclear materials. Based on conceptual designs of Tokamak fusion reactors with stainless steel structure and tritium inventories of 10 kg per thermal gigawatt, the apparent advantage of fusion is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude in most indices of radiological hazards. Fusion's advantage is 2 to 5 orders of magnitude in comparing damage potential of intentional airborne dispersal of tritium and plutonium, and nonexistent in comparing medium-term radwaste hazard potential (1000 to 100,000 years) and intentional waterborne dispersal of tritium and plutonium. Fusion appears to have some qualitative advantages with respect to accident pathways and safeguards considerations. Fusion has the theoretical potential for improvements of 1 to 2 additional orders of magnitude in short-term BHPs and 3 orders of magnitude and more in radwaste BHPs after 10 years if vanadium-titanium alloy can be used in place of stainless steel in the reactor structure. Other important unresolved questions are how much the inventory of tritium can be reduced by ingenious design, and what fraction of a fusion reactor's activation products could be volatilized and released in a severe accident such as a lithium fire. Overall, fusion's potential advantages are appreciable but not automatic--it will require early and sustained attention to environmental characteristics to avoid losing some of the potential advantages in pursuit of other goals.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 7236069
• Report Number(s): UCRL-78759; CONF-761103-8
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700206* -- Fusion Power Plant Technology-- Environmental Aspects
ACCIDENTS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
RADIATION HAZARDS
RADIOISOTOPES
REACTORS
SAFETY
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
TRITIUM
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES