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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.
Klaus Janberg, Harry Spilker
Nuclear Technology | Volume 121 | Number 2 | February 1998 | Pages 136-147
Technical Paper | German Direct Disposal Project | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2826
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In Germany, progress has been made in the development of a cask system for final disposal of spent fuel. The requirements for a final disposal cask and the planning requirements for a final repository are discussed, and a cask system is described that meets these requirements. Besides the description of the cask system and the planned inventory, the results of the shielding, criticality, and thermal calculations are described, as well as the results of the drop tests that have been performed with the cask. As a further development, a consolidated spent-fuel canister is described.
