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WIPP: Lessons in transportation safety
As part of a future consent-based approach by the federal government to site new deep geologic repositories for nuclear waste, local communities and states that are considering hosting such facilities are sure to have many questions. Currently, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is the only example of such a repository in operation, and it offers the opportunity for state and local officials to visit and judge for themselves the risks and benefits of hosting a similar facility. But its history can also provide lessons for these officials, particularly the political process leading up to the opening of WIPP, the safety of WIPP operations and transportation of waste from generator facilities to the site, and the economic impacts the project has had on the local area of Carlsbad, as well as the rest of the state of New Mexico.
Cyrille De Saint Jean, Gilles Noguere, Benoit Habert, Bertrand Iooss
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 161 | Number 3 | March 2009 | Pages 363-370
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE161-363
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The evaluation of neutron cross sections in the low energy range (electron volt, mega-electron-volt) is based on formal nuclear models having different types of parameters. Some of them may be fitted to reproduce experimental datasets giving rise to an adjusted covariance matrix. In this paper, a Monte Carlo method is presented to properly consider the influence of the remaining parameters, having a priori uncertainties, on the fitted parameters covariances. This method is based on an exact mathematical description using conditional probabilities. To explain the key points of the methodology, an academic example of average parameters evaluation in the unresolved resonance range is presented using Hauser-Feshbach model calculations.