SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF INERTIAL FUSION ENERGY: AN OVERVIEW OF RECENT ACTIVITIES AND DEVELOPMENTS THE UNITED STATES

摘要

During the past 2 yr, significant progress has been made in several areas related to the safety and environmental (S&E) aspects of inertial fusion energy (IFE). An updated methodology has been developed, and accident analyses have been performed for two IFE conceptual power plants and a target fabrication facility. Parallel to the consequence analyses of different accident scenarios, ongoing studies of accident initiating events are being used to support safety assessment and create a basic framework of types of events to consider in future risk characterization of new plant designs. Target designers/ fabrication specialists have been provided with ranking information related to the S&E characteristics of candidate target materials. We have revisited waste management options for IFE, introducing the concept of clearance versus the traditional shallow land burial. A brief summary of results in each of these activities is given, and plans for future work are outlined.