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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.
Kazuhiro Kobayashi, Takumi Hayashi, Hirofumi Nakamura, Toshihiko Yamanishi, Yasuhisa Oya, Kenji Okuno
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 3 | October 2007 | Pages 696-700
Technical Paper | The Technology of Fusion Energy - Tritium, Safety, and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1571
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a fusion reactor of high safety and acceptability, safe confinement of tritium is one of key issues for the fusion reactor. Tritium should be well-controlled and not excessively released to the environment and to prevent workers from excess exposure. Especially, the hot cell and tritium facilities of ITER will use various construction materials such as the organic materials. The hot cell is maintained in the dry atmosphere very much, and the maintenance of the apparatus contaminated by high concentration tritium is assumed. Therefore, the hot cell may be contaminated by high concentration tritium. Since the epoxy paint which will be used as a paint on the wall of the hot cell was contaminated by tritium compared with metal material, it is very important to study the efficient decontamination of the epoxy paint from a viewpoint of the protection the excess exposure of the workers. For tritium decontamination processes, so-called 'soaking' effect is important. This effect is based on sorption of tritiated water vapor on the materials and subsequent desorption from them. Therefore, in order to develop for the optimal decontamination technique, the decontamination experiment was carried out as a function of water vapor concentration in the purge gas (N2) for epoxy paint, acrylic resin and butyl rubber. As the result, the desorption rate for the organic materials was evaluated by purging gas of N2, and then furthermore, the residual tritium on the organic materials was quickly removed by adding water vapor in purging gas. The effect of adding water vapor was found on the decontamination for the organic materials.