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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.
Junjie Zhao, Zhaochun Zhang, Haibo Guo, Yang Wang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 5 | July 2024 | Pages 666-681
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2228013
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computational study of the thermodynamic and elastic properties of the tungsten-berylliuminterface structure and the behavior of a helium-vacancy pair near the tungsten/beryllium interface is carried out by first-principles calculations. Briefly, the following properties were calculated: (1) electronic properties of the tungsten/beryllium interface structure and (2) thermodynamic functions, Gibbs free energy, entropy, and enthalpy and anisotropies and isotropic (poly-crystalline) elastic moduli (bulk, torsion, Young’s moduli) of the tungsten/beryllium interface structure containing helium interstitial atoms or helium-vacancy pairs. The computational study was to provide a critical appraisal of the effect of helium interstitial atoms on the properties of the tungsten/beryllium interface structure. Calculated interface properties could be incorporated in an antiradiation damaging feature evaluation system to develop and test tungsten-based composites as plasma-facing materials.
