SEAFP and SEAL: safety and environmental aspects

The Safety and Environmental Assessment of Fusion Power (SEAFP) programme u ndertaken in the period 1992-1995 formed part of the ongoing effort in the European Fusion Programme to consider the safety and environmental aspects of fusion power. The assessment started with the development of a tokamak f usion power plant model of 3000 MW of fusion power. The analyses of safety included detailed consideration of effluents from normal operation, occupat ional doses, accidents (concentrating on the worst possible), and waste man agement. SEAFP was also the starting point for the Safety and Environmental Assessment of Fusion Power - Long Term Programme (SEAL) initiated within t he European Fusion Programme in 1995. SEAL aims at broadening the scope and elaborating selected aspects in more detail. SEAFP and SEAL confirmed the favourable safety and environmental characteristics of fusion power. They a lso confirmed the need to support these characteristics by dedicated materi als development and safety-related design decisions. Recently, a new study on fusion safety (SEAFP-2) has been launched, defined for the time period 1 997-1998, using SEAFP and SEAL findings as starting points. (C) 2000 Elsevi er Science B.V. All rights reserved.