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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.
Valerii Palkin, Eugene Maslyukov
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 9 | September 2022 | Pages 1091-1100
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2045146
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The paper offers a double-cascade scheme for reducing the concentration of 232, 234, 236U isotopes in reprocessed uranium hexafluoride. The greatest decrease of the ratio between the masses of 236U and 235U is provided in the product of the first ordinary cascade enriched by 235U at the concentration of less than 20%. For this purpose, a special mode of stages operation is determined. Enrichment by 232, 234U is performed in the second ordinary cascade, which is fed by the product of the first cascade. After being purified from 232, 234U, the waste flow is diluted till the concentration of 235U is less than 5%. This paper describes the methodology for calculating the parameters of cascades with the stage separation factors correlating with gas centrifuges. This methodology served as a basis for a computational experiment. It is demonstrated that the output gained after the dilution meets the requirements of the American Society for Testing and Materials C996-20 specification for the commercial grade of low-enriched uranium hexafluoride in terms of 232, 234U isotopes. The content of 236U in it is several times less than during the direct enrichment of reprocessed uranium hexafluoride.
