| Publication Date |
1995 |
| Personal Author |
Buntain, G.; Matsumoto, K.; Steinke, R. |
| Page Count |
15 |
| Abstract |
Plutonium pits retrieved during the dismantlement of nuclear weapons are presently being stored in earth-covered magazines in Zone 4 at the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas. Delays in the development and certification of an approved long-term storage facility indicate that these pits are likely to remain at Pantex for the foreseeable future. Because these magazines are not protected by any environmental control systems and because the number of pits per magazine is high, temperatures within the magazines can, and sometimes do, rise to temperatures higher than optimum for pit storage. Scientists from Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories, as well as from the Pantex plant, operated by Mason & Hanger, have collaborated to design a joint modeling/experimental program that will enable scientists to understand heat-flow phenomena in pit-storage magazines. Our efforts have focused on developing the capability to predict temperatures of stored pits. We are using environmental information gathered primarily from the Pantex pit-storage facility to develop empirical predictive tools as well as three-dimensional heat-flow models. |
| Keywords |
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| Source Agency |
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| NTIS Subject Category |
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| Corporate Authors |
Los Alamos National Lab., NM.; Department of Energy, Washington, DC. |
| Supplemental Notes |
Sponsored by Department of Energy, Washington, DC. |
| Document Type |
Technical Report |
| NTIS Issue Number |
199523 |
| Contract Number |
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