Today, the German Bundestag held an expert hearing on fusion regulation. The goal was to hear experts' opinions on how a regulatory framework for fusion might look, what needs to be considered, and why it needs to be established as soon as possible. In addition to our COO Heike Freund, Prof. Dr. Constantin Haefner of Fraunhofer ILT, Prof. Dr. Christian Linsmeier of Forschungszentrum Jülich, and Prof. Dr. Robert Wolf of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Sara Castegini of Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Hannes Vogel of Proxima Fusion participated. All experts unanimously agreed that 1) Fusion needs to be regulated separately from fission. 2) Fusion is inherently safer than fission power plants, with no long-lived radioactive waste produced and significantly smaller safety requirements. 3) The industry and investors need the planning security of regulatory certainty. 4) The regulatory frameworks should be aligned internationally, as the G7 Fusion Working Group aims for. This will simplify a global rollout for fusion power plants. That’s why Germany needs to establish a regulatory framework as soon as possible. You can watch the entire hearing in German here: https://lnkd.in/dzQxUMXq
I'd say that regulation of a new technology (be honest, it is nuclear and it it likely to produce +/- huge amounts of radioactive materials to be handled 😁) is important and I see your point to separate it from fission reactors §7 AtG. Nevertheless, it will be be interesting to discuss the future landscape 😉.
A necessary step now to ensure Germany can be among the first to benefit from fusion technologies. (US is ahead with the recent Senate confirmation of the Fusion Energy Act.)
I'm excited to see the German government's growing interest in these cutting-edge technologies. I believe fusion could be a pivotal solution in future energy strategies, especially given the recent breakthrough successes in this field. Congrats!
The Bundestag must have a lot of time on its hands if it can afford to worry about technologies that won't exist for decades.
and it took just about 70 years :)
Finally ...
Almer
1wMost stupid thing I read today! How the f** can people think about regulating things that don't even exist yet! How about trying to make it happen before regulating it to dead??!!