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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.
I. N. Sviatoslavsky, E. A. Mogahed, Y-K. M. Peng, B. E. Nelson, P. J. Fogarty, E. T. Cheng, R. J. Cerbone
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1649-1653
Nonelectric Applications of Fusion | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963187
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Engineering design issues of a volumetric neutron source (VNS) based on a steady state low aspect ratio DT tokamak are presented. At the present the major radius is 0.8 m, the minor radius 0.6 m for an aspect ratio of 1.33, the plasma current is 10.1 MA, the toroidal field at the major radius is 1.8 T, the fusion power is 39 MW giving an average neutron wall loading of 1.0 MW/m2 on the outboard side with an available testing area of 10 m2. Two neutral beams delivering more than 20 MW are used to drive the steady state fusion plasma. A single turn unshielded water cooled dispersion strengthened (DS) Cu centerpost is used in conjunction with a conducting Cu bell jar which acts as a vacuum boundary and the return legs for the toroidal field (TF) coils. The centerpost is 9 m long, carries 7.2 MA and is specially shaped to minimize ohmic heating, which is calculated using temperature dependent DS Cu properties and increases in resistivity due to nuclear transmutations are accounted for. A naturally diverted plasma scrapeoff layer dominated by pressure-driven instabilities is assumed giving a peak heat flux of 5.2 MW/m2 on the diverter plates. Fabrication approaches for the centerpost and its replacement time lines have been estimated to be feasible and reasonable.