containment

containment

Strategic U.S. foreign policy of the late 1940s and early 1950s intended to check the expansionist designs of the Soviet Union through economic, military, diplomatic, and political means. It was conceived by George Kennan soon after World War II. An early application of containment was the Truman Doctrine (1947), which provided U.S. aid to Greece and Turkey. See also Marshall Plan.

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containment

1. the act or condition of containing, esp of restraining the ideological or political power of a hostile country or the operations of a hostile military force

2. (from 1947 to the mid-1970s) a principle of US foreign policy that sought to prevent the expansion of Communist power

3. Physics the process of preventing the plasma in a controlled thermonuclear reactor from reaching the walls of the reaction vessel, usually by confining it within a configuration of magnetic fields

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containment [kən′tān·mənt]

(engineering)

An enclosed space or facility to contain and prevent the escape of hazardous material.

(cell and molecular biology)

Prevention of the replication of the products of recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid technology outside the laboratory.

(nucleonics)

Provision of a gastight enclosure around the highly radioactive components of a nuclear power plant, to contain the radioactivity released by a possible major accident.

The use of remote-control devices (slave apparatus) to remove spent cores from nuclear power plants or, in shielded laboratory hoods, to perform chemical studies of dangerous radioactive materials.