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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.
Yasushi Seki, Isao Aoki, Naoki Yamano, Takashi Tabara
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1624-1630
Fusion Power Plants and Economics | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963183
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As a future power producing system, a fusion reactor needs to be superior in environmental safety and economics aspects. Hence the environmental and economic impact of radioactive waste (radwaste) from fusion power reactor should be evaluated. The activation level, decay heat, volume of radwaste generated during operation and at decommissioning, are evaluated for fusion power reactors having five types of structural materials. The structural materials selected are a low activation ferritic steel F82H, austenitic steel SS 316, TiA1 intermetallic compound, SiC/SiC composite with impurities and one without impurities. Possible radwaste disposal scenario of fusion radwaste in Japan is considered. It is found that radwaste from fusion reactors using F82H and SiC/SiC composites without impurities could be disposed by the shallow land disposal presently applied to low level waste in Japan. The remaining fusion radwaste which do not qualify as the low level waste could be disposed by geological disposal at the depth greater than 50 m from the surface.