FUEL-CYCLE DESIGN FOR SEAFP PROJECT

Within the framework of the Safety and environmental assessment of fusion power (SEAFP) project, design features of tokamak power reactors and ancillary systems likely to ensure public acceptance and take into account the operating requirements of utilities have been analyzed. The present paper describes the development of fuel cycle systems with tritium inventories minimized to diminish the tritium release potential under accident conditions. Priority also has been given to designs with inherently low rates of waste production. This favours design options involving flow-through processing techniques (such as mechanical pumps, permeators, catalytic reactors) rather than techniques involving the accumulation of the processed gases (such as cryopumps, molecular sieves, getter-based techniques). In addition, processes which are undergoing validation within technology programmes, or which are already implemented on an industrial scale and where upgrading to achieve tritium compatibility is considered feasible, have been employed to produce a robust, reliable fuel cycle loop design.