According to Sandri et al., at the end of the (plant) operations it takes several tens of years to reach radioactivity concentrations of less than 1 Bq/g.[1]
However, they add that fusion waste is “very low” or “low” activity, unlike fission which produces medium or high activity waste.
Next wave of innovations:
- Heat and tritium recovery (e.g. LIBRA)
- Conversion to energy products, e.g. ammonia
- Materials prototyping and testing (e.g. Cyclotron proton source, Understanding materials degradation in a deuterium-tritium fusion environment, and magnet
- Education and outreach
References
[1] Sandri, Sandro, Gian Marco Contessa, Marco D’Arienzo, Manuela Guardati, Maurizio Guarracino, Claudio Poggi, and Rosaria Villari. “A Review of Radioactive Wastes Production and Potential Environmental Releases at Experimental Nuclear Fusion Facilities.” Environments 7, no. 1 (January 2020): 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7010006.