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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.
H. Y. Khater, L. J. Wittenberg
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1584-1588
Fusion Power Plants and Economics | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963177
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
LIBRA-SP is a 1000 MWe light ion beam power reactor design study. The reactor structure is made of a low activation ferritic steel and uses LiPb as a breeder. The total activities in the blanket and reflector at shutdown are 721 MCi and 924 MCi, respectively. Hands-on maintenance is impossible anywhere inside the reactor chamber. The biological dose rates near the diode are too high at all times following shutdown allowing only for remote maintenance. The blanket and reflector could qualify for disposal as Class C low level waste. The dose to the maximally exposed individual in the vicinity of the reactor site due to the routine release of tritium is about 2.39 mrem/yr. Ten hours after a loss of coolant accident, the reflector produces a whole body (WB) early dose at the site boundary of 253 mrem. The blanket would produce a WB early dose of 8.91 rem. The potential off-site dose produced by the mobilization of LiPb during an accident is 142 mrem. A 100% release of the vulnerable tritium inventory present in the containment at any moment results in a WB early dose of 459 mrem. Release of the vulnerable tritium inventories present in the target factory and fuel reprocessing facility during an accident would result in WB early doses of 1.3 and 0.95 rem, respectively.