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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.
R. F. Radel, G. L. Kulcinski, R. P. Ashley, J. F. Santarius, G. A. Emmert, G. R. Piefer, J. H. Sorebo, D. R. Boris, B. Egle, S. J. Zenobia, E. Alderson, D. C. Donovan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 1087-1091
Technical Paper | Nonelectric Applications | doi.org/10.13182/FST52-1087
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper overviews the work that has been done to date towards the development of a compact, reliable means to detect Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) and other fissile materials utilizing a pulsed Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) D-D fusion device. To date, the UW IEC device has achieved 115 kV pulses in excess of 2 ampere, with pulsed neutron rates of 1.8 × 109 n/s during a 0.5 ms pulse at 10 Hz. MCNP modeling indicates that detection of samples of U-235 as small as 10 grams is achievable at current neutron production rates, and initial pulsed and steady-state HEU detection experiments have verified these results.