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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.
P. E. Moroz, D. B. Batchelor, B. A. Carreras, S. P. Hirshman, D. K. Lee, V. E. Lynch, D. A. Spong, J. S. Tolliver, A. S. Ware, J. C. Whitson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1347-1354
Innovative Approaches to Fusion Energy | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963136
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Novel concepts of an ultra-low-aspect-ratio stellarator system, called a Spherical Stellarator (SS), or a stellarator-tokamak hybrid system, called SMARTH (Small Aspect Ratio Toroidal Hybrid) are discussed for high-β regimes of operation. Self-consistent analysis of the three-dimensional MHD equilibria with inductively driven plasma current or bootstrap current is presented. It is stressed that the bootstrap current in SS can be large and is flowing in such a direction that the rotational transform produced enhances the vacuum rotational transform. This feature increases the equilibrium β-limit. The high-β equilibria in SS and SMARTH (β(0) > 30%, β ⋍ 8-9%) are demonstrated, correspondingly, with the bootstrap current and the ohmic current. Possible experiments and scalings, including those for reactor parameters, are outlined.