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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.
Philippe M. Bardet et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 3 | April 2005 | Pages 626-632
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Inertial Fusion Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A756
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents an update of the work done at University of California, Berkeley (UCB) on thick-liquid protection of inertial fusion energy (IFE) chambers. UCB is focusing on microsecond, millisecond, and quasi-steady phenomena. Over microsecond time scales, numerical simulations, performed with the code TSUNAMI permit modeling of IFE chambers gas dynamics. For the millisecond range, the liquid jets response to the fusion reaction impulse loading is being studied for both Z-Pinch and HYLIFE-II-type chambers. A new mineral oil has been identified that allows scaled molten salt experiments with low distortion. Vortex tube flow, a key liquid structure of the 2002 Robust Point Design has been investigated in scaled experiments using the mineral oil, while a new design for thick liquid wall protection is under development. In quasi-steady phenomena, recent work has measured the Flibe vapor pressure and composition at near melting point temperature using mass spectrometry.