Kieran P. Dolan is a second-year doctoral student at MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. He is working in the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory on MIT Reactor-based experiments with respect to designing fluoride-salt-cooled high-temperature nuclear reactors known as FHRs. He has said “I’ve been interested in advanced reactors for a long time, so it’s been really nice to stay with this project and learn from people working here on-site.”
      The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has funded an Integrated Research Project (IRP) Grant for MIT, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the University of California at Berkeley to carry out a multi-year collaboration on a series of studies on FHRs. There is high interest in the nuclear industry with respect to the FHR concept because molten salt transfers heat very efficiently. This enables advanced reactors employing molten salt to run at higher temperatures than current operational power reactors. FHRs also have some unique safety features that are not found in conventional reactors. Dolan says, “Molten salt reactors offer an approach to nuclear energy that is both economically viable and safe.”
      The MITR reactor is simulating the likely operating environment of a working advanced reactor including high temperatures in the experimental capsules. Dolan’s FHR tests utilizes billiard-ball-sized capsules that are composites of fuel particles. These balls of fuel are suspended in molten salt that is constantly circulating. The molten salt is a special blend of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride which is called “flibre”. The circulating flibre absorbs and distributes the heat produced by fission reactions in the capsules.
      There is a big technical challenge in using molten salt coolants in FHRs. Dolan explains, “The salt reacts with the neutrons released during fission, and produces tritium, Tritium is one of hydrogen’s isotopes, which are notorious for permeating metal. The worry is that tritium might escape as a gas through an FHR’s heat exchanger or other metal components.” Tritium can be a danger to human health and the environment if it escapes from the reactor.
       One possible solution to this tritium problem is the use of graphite which can trap fission products. It can absorb tritium before it can escape. Dolan says, “While people have determined that graphite can absorb a significant quantity of hydrogen, no one knows with certainty where the tritium is going to end up in the reactor.” He is focusing his doctoral research on experiments with the MITR to figure out just how effective graphite can be in absorbing tritium. He says, “We want to predict where the tritium goes and find the best solution for containing it and extracting it safely, so we can achieve optimal performance in flibe-based reactors.” Dolan has been analyzing samples from three MITR experiments in which various types of specialized graphite samples are irradiated in the presence of molten salt. He says, “Our measurements so far indicate a significant amount of tritium retention by graphite. We’re in the right ballpark.”

Ambient office  =  120 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 128 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 64 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 59 nanosieverts per hour

       Democrat Ben Ray Lujan is the U.S. Representative from New Mexico’s Third Congressional District. Last Tuesday, he introduced a bill in the House to expand a compensation program for all those exposed to radiation from nuclear testing and uranium mining. The bill seeks to address the fallout across the western U.S., Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
       Since the testing of the first atomic bomb in New Mexico in 1945 as part of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. conducted almost two hundred atmospheric tests of nuclear warheads before all atmospheric testing was banned in 1992. Uranium mining has been continuous since the 1940s.
        Tens of thousands of people including miners, truck drivers, people living near test sites and soldiers posted near test explosions have been exposed to nuclear radiation. This exposure has resulted in cancer, birth defects and other radiation induced illnesses. Native American communities have been disproportionally affected.  Lujan said, “Radiation exposure has taken the lives of too many and continues to hurt our communities. I know how important this legislation is for New Mexico families that have been affected.”
       Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990. Part of the reason for the passage of this Act was the desire to avoid expensive litigation that would have been needed to make sure that the federal government met financial obligations to workers whose health was damaged by the radiation hazards of their jobs and/or their location.
       In 2000, the coverage of the Act was broadened. Currently, compensation varies from a one-time payout of one hundred thousand dollars for uranium miners and processors to fifty thousand for people who lived downwind from the Nevada Test Site.
        Supporters of the legislation have been claiming for years that many people who were exposed are not eligible to file compensation claims under the current Act. Downwinders in the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico where the first nuclear test was conducted are part of that group. The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium claims that many of the people who lived near the test site were not told that the test involved an atomic bomb until after the end of World War II.
       Tina Cordova is a cancer survivor and one of the people who founded the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. She said, “The government did nothing at the time to monitor what was happening with the fallout. They did nothing to protect our health at the time of the test. They did nothing to warn before or after and people were dying.”
        Comprehensive epidemiological studies have never been conducted on those who were exposed to radiation. A recently published paper in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reviewed New Mexico state health data. The researchers found that there was a spike in infant mortality with no obvious explanation that started a month after the first atomic test detonation. Infant mortality in New Mexico had been declining until the test in 1945.
      Almost three dozen members of the U.S. House of representative have signed onto Lujan bill. Lujan hopes that his bill will pass and finally provide compensation to many who have been left out. The current Act expires in two years, so Congress has a deadline for updating the Act. The new bill would extend the compensation program until 2045. Included in Lujan’s bill is a requirement that the U.S. officially apologize to people living in New Mexico, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nevada, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands who were exposed to radiation. The definition of downwind states would be expanded to include Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Guam.

Ambient office  =  92 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 52 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 51 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  =  81 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 56 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 56 nanosieverts per hour

Celery from Central Market = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 110 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  =  99 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Strawberry from Central Market = 152 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 130 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 124 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole – Caught in USA = 104 nanosieverts per hour