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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.
T. Yamanishi, S. Konishi, T. Hayashi, Y. Kawamura, Y. Iwai, T. Maruyama, T. Kakuta, S. O'hira, H. Nakamura, K. Kobayashi, M. Nishi, T. Nagashima, M. Ohta
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 536-540
Fueling and Tritium Handling Technology (Poster Session) | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963668
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An integrated fusion fuel loop was constructed. A palladium diffuser first treated a simulated plasma exhaust gas, that is a mixture of hydrogen isotopes and impurities such as helium and methane. A pure hydrogen isotopes stream was sent to a cascade of cryogenic distillation columns. The impurities were processed with a unit of an electrolytic reactor and a palladium diffuser. The integrated fusion fuel loop was thus demonstrated. A major result was that the electrolytic reactor processed methane successfully in a gas phase without using the catalysts. A laser Raman analysis system installed into the cryogenic distillation columns gave a set of analysis results with no time delay and no sampling gas exhaust. It was demonstrated that the laser Raman was a promising analysis system for the control of the fusion fuel loop.