ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Paul R. Garabedian, Long-Poe Ku, the ARIES Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 3 | April 2005 | Pages 400-405
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Experimental Devices and Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A721
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The discovery of quasiaxially symmetric stellarators whose magnetic spectrum has approximate two-dimensional symmetry opens up the possibility of designing fusion reactors that have tokamak transport and stellarator stability. Prototypes with two or three field periods have asymmetries almost as small as the coefficients for a typical tokamak that are associated with ripple from the toroidal coils or helical excursion of the magnetic axis resulting from instability. We have found modular coils that are only moderately twisted and produce robust flux surfaces that do not deteriorate when changes are made in the magnetic field. This work is bolstered by recent stellarator experiments that have exceeded stability limits predicted by linear theory. The problem may be that force balance and stability are lost across islands if the equilibrium equations are not in conservation form.