Use of clearance indexes to assess waste disposal issues for the HYLIFE-II inertial fusion energy power plant design

Traditionally, waste management studies for fusion energy have used the waste disposal rating (WDR) to evaluate if radioactive material from irradiated structures could qualify for shallow land burial. However, given the space limitations and the negative public perception of large volumes of waste, there is a growing international motivation to develop a fusion waste management system that maximizes the amount of material that can be cleared or recycled. In this work, we present an updated assessment of the waste management options for the HYLIFE-II inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant, using the concept of clearance index (CI) for radioactive waste disposal. With that purpose, we have performed a detailed neutronics analysis of the HYLIFE-II design, using the tart and acab computer codes for neutron transport and activation, respectively. Whereas the traditional version of acab only provided the user with the γ contact dose rate for recycling assessments and WDR as an index for waste disposal considerations, here we have modified the code to calculate CIs using the current international atomic energy agency (IAEA) clearance limits for radiological waste disposal. The results from the analysis are used to perform an assessment of the waste management options for the HYLIFE-II IFE design.