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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
Mazhyn Skakov, Gainiya Zhanbolatova, Arman Miniyazov, Timur Tulenbergenov, Igor Sokolov, Yerzhan Sapatayev, Yernat Kozhakhmetov, Olga Bukina
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 1 | January 2021 | Pages 57-66
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2020.1843885
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents the results of a study on impact of high-power heat load and tungsten (W) surface carbidization on its structural-phase composition and physical-mechanical properties. In this regard, carbidization of a W surface was carried out by means of beam-plasma discharge in a simulation machine with plasma-beam installation. Certain data were obtained regarding temperature in control points of studied samples and temperature distribution throughout the monoblock element, made as a rectangle with an orifice for a cooling path, placed in a fusion reactor divertor. The paper demonstrates that changes in heat load power have an impact on microhardness, roughness, atomization of the carbidized W surface, and phase formation processes. It was established that a heat load q = 10 MW/m2 has very little effect on the elemental composition of the surface and structural-phase composition of W samples with a carbidized layer. Growth of thermal load up to q = 20 MW/m2 leads to a noticeable transformation of tungsten monocarbide (WC) into tungsten semicarbide (W2C) and cracking of the W sample surface.
