Safety and Environmental Aspects of Fusion Energy

This article reviews the state of knowledge about the safety and environmental (S&E) characteristics of fusion energy technologies. Both magnetic-fusion energy (MFE) and inertial-confinement fusion (ICF) are considered, although necessarily with more attention to the former because of the larger body of literature on MFE safety. One of the main incentives for investing in the development of fusion energy is the prospect that the S&E characteristics of fusion will be less troublesome in fact and in public perception than those of fission and fossil fuels have been (1-5). This expectation of S&E advantages for fusion is not a guarantee, however: tritium, neutrons, and neutron-activation products in fusion reactors represent radiological hazards similar in kind if not neccessari­ ly in magnitude to those of fission reactors. Exploiting the potential for minimizing these hazards in fusion technology is a challenge that deserves high priority in fusion development efforts. Nor should the developers of fusion neglect the need to minimize non-nuclear risks--chemical hazards, exposures to magnetic fields and other non-ionizing radiation, thermal im­ pacts, and so on. The article begins with a brief historical overview of work on these issues, followed by summaries of the current knowledge with respect to both nuclear and non-nuclear hazards. Some concluding observations emphasize needs and priorities for future work.

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