Overview of the SEAFP and SEAL Studies

Abstract

The SEAFP (Safety and Environmental Assessment of Fusion Power) and SEAL (Safety and Environmental Assessment of fusion power, Long-term) programs form part of the ongoing effort in the European Fusion Programme to consider the safety and environmental aspects of fusion power. SEAFP was undertaken in the period 1992–1994. The assessment started with the development of two conceptual power plant designs, each of 3000 MW of fusion power, termed Model 1 and Model 2. Model 1 used vanadium alloy, helium cooling, and lithium oxide for tritium generation. Model 2 used a reduced-activation martensitic steel, water cooling, and a lithium–lead alloy for tritium generation. Both Models were designed for passive safety. The SEAFP analyses included detailed consideration of effluents, occupational doses, accidents (concentrating on the worst possible accidents), and waste management. The key results are summarized in this paper. SEAL was launched in 1995, with the aims of broadening the scope of SEAFP, and of elaborating selected aspects of SEAFP in more detail. The SEAL analyses include studies which extend the results of SEAFP to a wider class of blanket designs and material choices, improved assessments of the quantities of activated materials which may be exempted from regulatory control or recycled, improved modeling of occupational doses, and work in many areas to improve relevant data, modeling and analyses, or consider design improvements. Much of this work is ongoing, but key results from completed work are summarized in this paper.