North Korea has been in the news a lot lately. They recently conducted a nuclear test, the fifth in series, in their quest to miniaturize nuclear warheads to attach to missiles. Recent military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea on the Korean peninsula have enraged the N.K. dictator and brought more threats of nuclear annihilation from him.
The World Nuclear Association held its 41st Annual Symposium in London last week. Jerry Head, senior vice president of regulatory affairs at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, told the attendees that standardization in the nuclear industry would be very beneficial.
I have often blogged about the dangers of radiation to human health. In addition to cancers being caused by radioactive materials, there are a variety of other serious illnesses that can be caused by exposure to radiation. It is true that we are all exposed to what is called background radiation from naturally occurring uranium, radium and radon.
I have often mentioned my concerns with how conscientious the nuclear industry has been and will be with respect to maintenance at nuclear power plants. The situation in the U.S. was so bad in the 1980s that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decided that they had to take action. Sloppy maintenance was actually causing new problems and increasing the risks to public safety.
On August 27th, a huge sink hole appeared under a gypsum stack at a plant operated by the Mosaic company that manufactures fertilizer in Mulberry, Florida which is about thirty miles east of Tampa, Florida. The hole is forty five feet in diameter.
Most nuclear fission power plants use enriched uranium for fuel. Natural uranium is common but it only has about seven tenths of a percent of U-235 which is the isotope needed for nuclear power reactors. There are a few reactors that burn a combination of uranium and plutonium. There are reactors that can burn nuclear waste as a fuel.
