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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Bipartisan Fusion Energy Act pushes for regulatory clarity
Padilla
Sen. Alex Padilla (D., Calif.) introduced the Fusion Energy Act (S. 4151) last month with a bipartisan group of cosponsors—John Cornyn (R., Texas), Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Todd Young (R., Ind.), and Patty Murray (D., Wash.). The legislation would codify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s regulatory authority over commercial fusion energy systems to streamline the creation of clear federal regulations that will support the development of commercial fusion power plants—and would require a report within one year on a study of risk- and performance-based, design-specific licensing frameworks for “mass-manufactured fusion machines.
“Congress must do everything in its power to ensure continued U.S. leadership in developing commercial fusion energy facilities,” said Padilla as he introduced the bill. “The Fusion Energy Act would provide regulatory certainty for investors as the NRC develops and streamlines frameworks for such facilities.”
Hiroyuki Sato, Xing L. Yan, Yukio Tachibana, Kazuhiko Kunitomi, Yukitaka Kato
Nuclear Technology | Volume 185 | Number 3 | March 2014 | Pages 227-238
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-97
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The transient response of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) to depressurized loss of forced circulation combined with failure of all reactor trip systems, a beyond-design-basis accident, is analyzed for an extended period of time during which no active core cooling is resumed. The characteristic behavior of the reactor during the long-term conduction cooldown event is found to be shaped by several parameters that are usually not considered in the safety design of the HTGR. For example, while the Doppler effect is usually relied upon to provide inherent shutdown of the reactor, the reactivity coefficient of temperature of the graphite moderator is found to be a critical parameter for determining the final settling temperature of the fuel following the recriticality. Furthermore, this study finds that the peak fuel temperature reached during this event is correlated strongly even to the initial core operating temperature prior to the initiation of the transient event. These and other results of this study are expected to provide useful input to the development of enhanced safety design guidelines for commercial HTGRs in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident.