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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.
John M. Scott, Per F. Peterson, Alan Burnham
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 459-463
Plasma Facing Components Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963655
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The first wall of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) target chamber will be a source of contamination for the final optics assemblies (FOA) debris shields. The expected x-ray fluence on NIF can be as high as 2 J/cm2 for 20 MJ target yields. This is sufficiently intense to mobilize first wall material and contaminants that have been deposited on the first wall. Since 90% of the aluminum target chamber surface area will consist of first wall panels, it is critical to choose a material that is not easily mobilized by target x-ray emissions. Additionally, it would be advantageous to have a first wall design that provides a sink for mobilized material in the target chamber. With these issues at hand, a louver design has been proposed as the configuration of the NIF first wall. Experiments simulating the proposed louver geometry were fielded on Nova at x-ray fluence levels comparable to those expected on NIF. The results of these experiments were applied to the understanding of NIF contamination issues and used as a benchmark for the TSUNAMI code. Numerical studies were performed to measure the collection efficiency of the louver design where several parameters including louver length, distance between louvers, and x-ray fluence were varied.