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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. J. Archer
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 1 | December 2021 | Pages S190-S203
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1940060
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes the history of the computing facility at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project, 1944 to 1946. While the hand computations are briefly discussed, the paper’s main focus is on the IBM Punch-Card Accounting Machines (PCAMs). During World War II, the Los Alamos facility was one of the most advanced PCAM facilities, both in the machines and in the problems being solved.