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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.
Arthur Nobile, Michael D. Keddy, Richard L. Hemphill
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 916-921
Fuel Cycle and Tritium Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963055
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Capability to fill inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets with DT has recently been established at the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility (WETF) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The target filling system provides DT-filled glass targets for the U.S. National ICF Program. Tritium storage, purification, mixing, analysis, and high pressure capabilities at WETF are used to provide DT at pressures up to 400 atm to a target filling cell that can operate at temperatures to 400 °C. Isotopically pure tritium is obtained from the Tritium Systems Test Assembly at LANL, and typically has purities of 99% tritium or better. At WETF, a palladium-silver diffuser is used for removal of decay 3He from tritium prior to mixing with deuterium. After preparation, DT mixtures are stored in a passivated volume to minimize impurity accumulation from stainless steel. Analysis of tritium and DT mixtures is performed with a quadrupole mass spectrometer/beta scintillation detector system that utilizes an analytical technique previously developed at LANL to provide hydrogen isotope, helium, and impurity analysis. Glass targets are filled in aluminum eggcrates. The target filling cell has been designed to contain two eggcrates while maintaining isothermal conditions across the eggcrates during diffusion filling of targets. Results from a cryogenic condensation technique performed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have confirmed the fill pressures.