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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.
B. A. Worley
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 91 | Number 3 | November 1985 | Pages 293-304
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE85-A17306
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A standard assumption used in unit-cell interface-current codes is that neutrons enter each spatial region with an isotropic angular distribution. The physical interpretation of this assumption is discussed, and the magnitude of the error introduced by it is shown for a range of practical unit-cell geometries. An improvement on the calculation of first-flight transmission probabilities for one-dimensional unit cells based on limiting the neutron source angular distribution to physically possible neutron flight directions is then presented. For three-region problems, one additional calculation of a revised outer region transmission probability is sufficient for determining all the revised transmission probabilities of interest. Calculation of the revised transmission probabilities requires only minor coding changes and eliminates the improper angular redistribution of neutrons at the region boundaries.