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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.
M. J. Johnson, W. F. Weldon, D. J. Wehrlen, M. D. Werst
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1199-1204
Ignition Device | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29506
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Center for Electromechanics has designed, fabricated, and is now operating a prototype of a full torus, 20 Tesla (T) on-axis, single turn, toroidal field (TF) magnet system powered by the Balcones Homopolar Generators (HPGs). This magnet system is part of the Ignition Technology Demonstration (ITD) program for the fusion ignition experiment (IGNITEX). The six HPGs connected to the prototype magnet in parallel are capable of producing a 9 MA, 150 ms, current pulse required for a 20 T ITD test. The diagnostic system for the prototype magnet is designed to determine strains, temperatures, and magnetic fields at several locations in the TF magnet. These values are used to verify numerical predictions by electromechanical and thermomechanical analyses. Operating conditions for the instrumentation inside the cryogenically cooled magnet are extreme; localized temperatures inside the magnet can rise from - 196°C to 200°C during the current pulse and the magnet field levels near the inner leg surface can rise to 30 T in 30 ms. The specifications, testing, and layout of the diagnostic and data acquisition systems for the ITD prototype are presented in this paper.
