Progress in International Radioactive Fusion Waste Studies

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has been promoting the IEA Environment, Safety and Economic Aspects of Fusion Power program for many years. Among the tasks of this program, one task in particular deals with radioactive waste management in order to analyze the issue of the final destination of fusion activated and tritiated materials after their use in a fusion power reactor. A collaborative study on these aspects has been carried out in recent years. An optimized waste management strategy is proposed, with the goals of avoiding underground disposal as much as possible, maximizing recycling of activated materials within the nuclear industry, and/or clearance and release to commercial markets if materials contain only slight traces of radioactivity. Some technological problems and recent research advances in this field are summarized.