Socio-economic study of fusion energy at the Japan atomic energy research institute

The socio-economic studies of fusion from various aspects are performed by Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) and its collaborators in Japan, where steady-state tokamaks have been designed as a promising candidate. Energy model analysis estimates the significant contribution of fusion in the latter half of the century under the global environment constraints if it will successfully developed and introduced into the market. Application to fuel production process such as hydrogen by utilizing heat is designed to increase possible contribution for energy supply further. Operation without initial tritium loading liberates fusion from fuel supply constraints, and has an effect to rapidly increase fusion share. Externality of fusion energy is analyzed by CO2 emission, impact pathway of tritium, rad-waste, and some social impacts. These results are expected to answer the questions on significance of fusion development, and improve the plant design and development strategy to maximize the benefit of fusion research. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.