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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Holtec pulls out of New Mexico SNF interim storage project
Holtec International has confirmed it is canceling plans to build a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico. Named the HI-STORE CISF, the facility would have stored up to 10,000 canisters of commercial SNF on land owned by the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) near the towns of Carlsbad and Hobbs.
Suhas Bhandarkar, Jim Fair, Ben Haid, Evan Mapoles, Jeff Atherton, Cliff Thomas, John Moody, Jeremy Kroll, Abbas Nikroo
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 3 | April 2018 | Pages 380-391
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1406249
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Early shots on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) were plagued by the buildup of a considerable mass of extraneous ice on the laser entry hole (LEH) windows, a consequence of condensation of the residual air. This resulted in higher than desired temperatures at the LEH, which combined with the variability of the ice thickness made this a problem that needed a robust solution. In this paper, we describe our work in designing a second thin film that shielded the LEH window from the contaminating ice. The detailed cryogenic considerations required to ensure the proper functioning of this new window were simulated and verified experimentally. The data from numerous subsequent shots showed marked improvement in performance, which made this feature an essential component for all cryogenic NIF targets.