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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.
Graydon L. Yoder, Jr., David G. Morris, Charles B. Mullins, Larry J. Ott
Nuclear Technology | Volume 60 | Number 2 | February 1983 | Pages 304-313
Technical Paper | Radiation Effects and Their Relationship to Geological Repository / Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT83-A33086
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A series of steady-state film boiling experiments have been conducted to show the effect of spacer grids on rod bundle heat transfer. Experiments were performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Thermal-Hydraulic Test Facility, a pressurized water loop containing a 64-rod bundle, of which 60 rods are electrically heated. The bundle is equipped with detailed thermometry around two grids, which allows grid heat transfer effects to be studied. Rod surface temperature data show a 75 to 150 K temperature difference between measurements upstream and downstream of the grids, while heat transfer coefficients increase across the grids by 20%. Twenty to thirty hydraulic diameters are required for these effects to dissipate.