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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.
Peter Song, Joe Holder, Bruce Young, Dan Kalantar, David Eder, Joe Kimbrough
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 1035-1039
Technical Paper | Plasma Engineering and Diagnostics | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1631
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is preparing for the National Ignition Campaign (NIC) scheduled in 2010. The NIC is comprised of several "tuning" physics sub-campaigns leading up to a demonstration of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) ignition. Some of these experiments requires to use the NIF streak x-ray detector (SXD) to measure fuel capsule trajectory (shock timing) or x-ray "bang-time" from time-resolved x-ray imaging of the imploding capsule fuelled with pure tritium (T) instead of a deuterium-tritium (DT) mixture. The resulting prompt neutron fluence at the planned SXD location (~1.7 m from the target) would be ~ 1.4e9/cm2. Previous measurements suggest the onset of significant background at a neutron fluence of ~ 1e8/cm2 and the radiation damage and operational upsets which start at ~ 1e8 rad-Si/sec must be factored into an integrated experimental campaign plan. Monte Carlo analyses were performed to predict the neutron and gamma/x-ray fluences and radiation doses for the proposed diagnostic configuration. A possible shielding configuration is proposed to mitigate radiation effects. The primary component of this shielding is an 80 cm thickness of Polyethylene (PE) between target chamber center (TCC) and the SXD diagnostic. Additionally, 6-8 cm of PE around the detector reduces the large number of neutrons that scatter off the inside of the target chamber. This proposed shielding configuration reduces the high-energy neutron fluence at the SXD by approximately a factor of ~50.