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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Teuntje Tijssen, Barry Butler
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | April-May 2024 | Pages 563-570
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2180243
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The tritium inventory of future fusion power plants needs to be monitored in the fuel cycle for several reasons: to comply with limits imposed by environment and safety regulators, to adhere to practices required by nuclear regulators, and for process control purposes. Fulfilling all these requirements leads to a comprehensive list of locations in the fuel cycle where tritium monitoring needs to take place, each characterized by different measurement conditions and required accuracies. Meanwhile, existing tritium detection technologies all come with specific applicabilities such as accuracy, material phase, and ability to detect tritium in a continuous manner. These do not necessarily correspond to the required measurement conditions. As an example, one tritium detection technology will be matched up with the previously defined measurement conditions, which allows for the identification of gaps in the existing detection capabilities of this technology. This work leads to several recommendations, i.e., developments to expand the applicability of tritium detection technologies, experimental proposals to test detection techniques at more extreme conditions, and expansion of the regulatory framework regarding tritium handling and breeding. These developments are critical for a functioning tritium management and control system, and this paper outlines the first step in that process.