Significant progress has happened recently in nuclear fusion facilities development, including hybrid systems and facilities designed for thermonuclear reactions study. Nevertheless, there are specific hazards attendant to those facilities. Due to that specialized approaches for nuclear fusion facilities safety regulation are required. The review of international approaches for safety regulation of nuclear fusion facilities and main hazards corresponding during their operation shows that the approaches for safety regulation of fusion facilities used in international practices (France, Germany, USA, Canada) are based on the similar to nuclear fission facilities principles. Moreover, the requirements and procedures applicable for nuclear fission facilities with classical reactors where the fission of a heavy nuclei is carried out are often applied for the safety regulation and licensing of fusion facilities. Presently the issues of fusion facilities safety ensuring are not implemented both in Russian legal regulatory framework and in international documents. At the same time fusion facilities are characterized by several specific hazards. In particular the problem of the tritium retention in tritium handling equipment and tritium removal out of ventilation systems is significant. The work carried out by national regulatory authorities and scientific and technical support organizations on analyzing the applicability of the current requirements for safety regulation of fusion facilities indicates the need for their modernization or development of new regulatory documents taking into account the specificity and potential hazards of fusion facilities.
The importance and relevance of timely amendments of the current Russian legal and regulatory framework in the field of atomic energy use for effective safety regulation of fusion facilities are presented.
Keywords: nuclear fusion, fusion facility, safety regulation, field of atomic energy use.
Article language: Russian. Pp. 5–15. DOI: 10.26277/SECNRS.2021.101.3.001.
