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September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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DOE issues new NEPA rule and procedures—and accelerates DOME reactor testing
Meeting a deadline set in President Trump’s May 23 executive order “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy,” the DOE on June 30 updated information on its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rulemaking and implementation procedures and published on its website an interim final rule that rescinds existing regulations alongside new implementing procedures.
Dennis Mueller, Michael G. Bell, Eric Fredrickson, Alan C. Janos, Forrest C. Jobes, Larry C. Johnson, E. John Lawson, Robert Marsala, David Kingston Owens, Hyeon Park, Alan T. Ramsey, Thomas Senko, Hironori Takahashi, Gary Taylor, King-Lap Wong
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 2 | November 1996 | Pages 251-257
Technical Paper | Special Section: Plasma Control Issues for Tokamaks / Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A30754
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Disruptions on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), especially those occurring at high stored energy, result in lost experimental run time because many discharges are required to regain wall conditions necessary for good plasma performance. A variety of disruption types have been observed on TFTR. These include density-limit disruptions, those caused by a high influx of impurities, those occurring during the current ramp-down, those resulting from locked modes, and those occurring at high normalized β(βN = βTaBT/Ip). A combination of operational experience and limiter development has helped to avoid many potential disruptions. However, the experimental goal of high fusion power production engenders the risk of high-βN disruptions. A system to limit βN by reducing the neutral beam power as a preprogrammed βN limit is reached is now in use to help avoid high-βN disruptions. Operational issues of disruption avoidance, the βN feedback system, the limitations and possible improvements of the system are discussed.