29th Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT 2016)

O4C.2 Resolving Safety Issues for a Demonstration Fusion Power Plant

8 Sep 2016, 11:20

20m

Meeting Hall V 2nd floor (Prague Congress Centre)

Board: 2

Oral J. Power Plants Safety and Environment, Socio-Economics and Technology Transfer O4C

Speaker

Neill Taylor (Culham Centre for Fusion Energy)

Description

As part of the conceptual design studies for a European DEMO, a programme of safety studies and analyses is performed, intended to help guide the design process by assessing the safety and environmental impact of design options under consideration. They also begin to prepare for the eventual licensing of DEMO construction and operation by a European nuclear regulator. A safety approach has been adopted that is expected to satisfy a regulator, but at this early stage it is difficult to anticipate the safety concerns that may be raised. The French nuclear safety authorities and their technical advisors are unique in having licensed the construction of a nuclear fusion facility, ITER, and have acquired expertise in examining the safety case for a fusion facility. It was therefore useful that in 2015, the technical advisors IRSN presented the safety issues that they perceive as important in a future nuclear fusion facility such as DEMO[1]. These include the need to remove decay heat following an accidental loss of cooling or during the removal and transportation of blanket modules from the tokamak, the minimization of personnel exposure to ionizing radiation, the comprehensive identification of postulated accident scenarios, including some hazards different or additional to those encountered in ITER, the environmental release of gaseous tritium during normal operation, and the management of radioactive waste, particularly where contaminated with tritium. This paper will explain how these issues are being addressed in the safety programme for a European DEMO, and are taken into account in the design from the beginning of its conception. [1] D. Perrault, “Safety issues to be taken into account in designing future nuclear fusion facilities”, paper presented at the Twelfth International Symposium on Fusion Nuclear Technology (ISFNT-12), Jeju Island, Korea, 14-18 September 2015. To be published, Fusion Engineering and Design.