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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.
Gheorghe Bulubasa, Alina Niculescu, Maria Craciun, Ciprian Bucur, George Ana, Anisia Bornea
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 81 | Number 4 | May 2025 | Pages 310-314
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2024.2353967
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
At present, there are several methods for hydrogen isotope separation (in elemental form), the most important being cryogenic distillation, thermal diffusion, and gas chromatography. However, these methods have a series of drawbacks, namely, high complexity, high energy consumption, and associated costs. Taking into account these disadvantages, a promising separation method is the one based on solid metallic membranes because of its advantages like low energy consumption and reduced complexity. This method uses the difference between some of the isotopes’ properties, namely, solubility; diffusivity; and, implicitly, permeability. This work envisages the integration of an isotopic separation module, based on membrane permeation, on the exhaust gas line from the current experimental rigs employed at ICSI, to recover and store the hydrogen isotopes. We obtained a maximum separation factor of 5.66 for the lowest studied concentration of deuterium in the hydrogen isotopic mixture (0.05 atomic fraction). The results show that hydrogen isotope separation is possible using palladium/silver membranes. Still, the throughput of the permeated gas is very low, and a significant number of stages will be necessary to obtain the desired purity (above 99.5%).