Activation and waste disposal of the ARIES-II tokamak fusion power reactor

A detailed activation analysis has been performed for the tokamak fusion power reactor ARIES-II. The reactor uses vanadium alloy as a structural material and liquid lithium as a coolant and tritium breeder. The total activity produced in the reactor at shutdown is 3848 MCi and drops to only 59 MCi during the first year following shutdown. Calculations of the decay heat showed that it is 53 MW at shutdown and it takes a relatively short time (<1 day) to decay by about a factor of 10. One week after shutdown, the values of the integrated decay heat generated in the structure are 548 and 1298 GJ for the reactor inboard and outboard regions, respectively. This heat represents less than 2% of the reactor thermal power and hence does not present a safety hazard. The biological hazard potential was calculated according to the NRC regulations specified in 10CFR20. The total BHP at shutdown is 388 x 10 ⁶m³ air. The radwaste classification of the ARIES-II structure has been evaluated according to both the NRC 10CFR61 and Fetter waste disposal concentration limits. Except for the reactor outboard blanket which would qualify as Class A low level waste, the rest of the reactor structure would only qualify for Class C rating. The outboard blanket has a Class A rating value of 0.95 which is based on allowing it to cool down for about 10 years following the end of the reactor lifetime