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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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ANS joins others in seeking to discuss SNF/HLW impasse
The American Nuclear Society joined seven other organizations to send a letter to Energy Secretary Christopher Wright on July 8, asking to meet with him to discuss “the restoration of a highly functioning program to meet DOE’s legal responsibility to manage and dispose of the nation’s commercial and legacy defense spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW).”
Jack Hovingh, Victor O. Brady, Andris Faltens, Denis Keefe, Edward P. Lee
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 13 | Number 2 | February 1988 | Pages 255-278
Technical Paper | Heavy-Ion Fusion | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25104
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A linear induction accelerator that produces a beam of energetic heavy ions (T ∼ 10 GeV, A ∼ 200 amu) is a prime candidate as a driver for an inertial fusion power plant. Some early perceptions were that heavy-ion driven fusion would not be cost-competitive with other power sources because of the high cost of the accelerators. However, improved understanding of the physics of heavy-ion transport and acceleration (supported by experimental results), combined with advances in accelerator technology, have resulted in accelerator design costs ∼50% of previous estimates. As a result, heavy-ion driven fusion power plants are now projected to be cost-competitive with other conceptual fusion power plants. A brief formulation of transport and acceleration physics is presented here, along with a description of the induction Linac cost optimization code LIACEP. Cost trends are presented and discussed, along with specific cost estimates for several accelerator designs matched to specific inertial fusion target yields. Finally, a cost-effective strategy using heavy-ion induction Linacs in a development scenario for inertial fusion is presented.