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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.
N. A. Uckan, S. Putvinski, J. Wesley, H-W. Bartels, T. Honda, T. Amano, D. Boucher, N. Fujisawa, D. Post, M. Rosenbluth
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 551-557
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11962996
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Plasma operation conditions and physics requirements to be used as a basis for safety analysis studies are developed and physics results motivated by safety considerations are presented for the ITER design. Physics guidelines and specifications for enveloping plasma dynamic events for Category I (operational event), Category II (likely event), and Category III (unlikely event) are characterized. Safety related physics areas that are considered are: (i) the effect of plasma on machine and safety (runaway electrons) and (ii) plasma response to ex-vessel LOCA from the first wall, providing a potential passive plasma shutdown due to Be evaporation. Physics models and expressions developed are implemented in a safety analysis code (SAFALY, couples 0-D dynamic plasma model to thermal response of the in-vessel components). Results from SAFALY are presented.