
Blog
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Geiger Readings for May 14, 2014
Ambient office = 94 nanosieverts per hourAmbient outside = 58 nanosieverts per hourSoil exposed to rain water = 46 nanosieverts per hourCrimini mushroom from Top Foods = 119 nanosieverts per hourTap water = 124 nanosieverts per hourFiltered water = 103 nanosieverts per hour -
Nuclear Reactors 125 – Spent Nuclear Fuel and Japans Quest for an Internal Nuclear Fuel Cycle
The Abe government in Japan is dedicated to nuclear power for the generation of electricity. Aside from safety issues raised by the Fukushima accident, one of the big problems that Japan has always had is its lack of fuel for energy. There are no significant deposits of coal or oil in the Japanese archipelago. One of the reasons that Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor was the fact the U.S. had placed an embargo on oil shipments to Japan. Japan had about fifty operational nuclear power reactors before the Fukushima disaster. Some will probably be restarted but as much as one third may never be operated again because of safety concerns. Like coal and oil, Japan has to import nuclear fuel for the reactors from abroad.
In addition to uranium, light water nuclear reactors can also be fueled with a mixture of uranium and plutonium referred to as MOX. Recovered plutonium is mixed with uranium to create MOX fuel which can be used in fast breeder reactors to create more fissile material as well as for fuel in light water reactors. There were plans to use MOX to fuel the Japanese reactor at Hamaoka in the Shizuoka Prefecture before the Fukushima disaster. Now the Governor of Shizuoka demands that Chubu Electric Power Company start over again to get permission from local jurisdictions before fueling the reactor with MOX. He also said that nuclear power plants should move spent fuel from cooling pools to dry cask storage.
Japan has a major reprocessing operation at Rokkasho at the northeastern tip of the island of Honshu. It includes a high level nuclear waste monitoring facility, a MOX fuel fabrication plant, a uranium enrichment plant and a land fill for low level nuclear waste. Technical problems delayed completion of the plant as well as tripled the original estimation of construction costs. The plant is now compete but will not open until late 2014 because of additional safety requirements following the Fukushima disaster. There have been major protests against starting operations at the plant and petitions against the plant with almost a million signatures.
One of the big concerns is that if the Rokkasho reprocessing plant is not restarted, then the three thousand tons of spent fuel that has been shipped there from reactors all over Japan will have to be returned to the nuclear power plants that sent it. With spent fuel pools already crowded with fuel rods, such a return policy could lead to overloading the pools to the point where the reactors would have to be shut down because they have no place to put the spent fuel when it comes out of the reactors.
The Abe government Basic Energy Plan calls for the continued pursuit of a Japanese nuclear fuel cycle that would place less reliance on foreign sources of fuel but there are many uncertainties and unanswered questions about the viability of their scheme to reprocess their spent fuel into MOX.
Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant:
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Nuclear Reactors 125 – Spent Nuclear Fuel and Japans Quest for an Internal Nuclear Fuel Cycle
The Abe government in Japan is dedicated to nuclear power for the generation of electricity. Aside from safety issues raised by the Fukushima accident, one of the big problems that Japan has always had is its lack of fuel for energy. There are no significant deposits of coal or oil in the Japanese archipelago. One of the reasons that Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor was the fact the U.S. had placed an embargo on oil shipments to Japan. Japan had about fifty operational nuclear power reactors before the Fukushima disaster. Some will probably be restarted but as much as one third may never be operated again because of safety concerns. Like coal and oil, Japan has to import nuclear fuel for the reactors from abroad.
In addition to uranium, light water nuclear reactors can also be fueled with a mixture of uranium and plutonium referred to as MOX. Recovered plutonium is mixed with uranium to create MOX fuel which can be used in fast breeder reactors to create more fissile material as well as for fuel in light water reactors. There were plans to use MOX to fuel the Japanese reactor at Hamaoka in the Shizuoka Prefecture before the Fukushima disaster. Now the Governor of Shizuoka demands that Chubu Electric Power Company start over again to get permission from local jurisdictions before fueling the reactor with MOX. He also said that nuclear power plants should move spent fuel from cooling pools to dry cask storage.
Japan has a major reprocessing operation at Rokkasho at the northeastern tip of the island of Honshu. It includes a high level nuclear waste monitoring facility, a MOX fuel fabrication plant, a uranium enrichment plant and a land fill for low level nuclear waste. Technical problems delayed completion of the plant as well as tripled the original estimation of construction costs. The plant is now compete but will not open until late 2014 because of additional safety requirements following the Fukushima disaster. There have been major protests against starting operations at the plant and petitions against the plant with almost a million signatures.
One of the big concerns is that if the Rokkasho reprocessing plant is not restarted, then the three thousand tons of spent fuel that has been shipped there from reactors all over Japan will have to be returned to the nuclear power plants that sent it. With spent fuel pools already crowded with fuel rods, such a return policy could lead to overloading the pools to the point where the reactors would have to be shut down because they have no place to put the spent fuel when it comes out of the reactors.
The Abe government Basic Energy Plan calls for the continued pursuit of a Japanese nuclear fuel cycle that would place less reliance on foreign sources of fuel but there are many uncertainties and unanswered questions about the viability of their scheme to reprocess their spent fuel into MOX.
Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant:
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Radiation News Roundup May 13, 2014
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Geiger Readings for May 13, 2014
Ambient office = 97 nanosieverts per hourAmbient outside = 87 nanosieverts per hourSoil exposed to rain water = 71 nanosieverts per hourBartlett pear from Top Foods = 95 nanosieverts per hourTap water = 76 nanosieverts per hourFiltered water = 67 nanosieverts per hour -
Nuclear Reactors 124 – Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools and Massive Solar Flares
In 1859, a huge solar storm injected so much energy into the atmosphere of the Earth that it caused major damage to the early power grid and the telegraph system in the United States. Some telegraph operators were shocked by arching electricity in their equipment. Fires broke out and generating systems crashed. This was referred to as the Carrington Event. Since that time, we have built an amazing but vulnerable civilization based on electrical power.
Recently, a huge solar flare just missed the Earth. Had it happened a week before, it might have cause serious damage to our electrical infrastructure as well as the shell of satellites orbiting the earth. The sun has eleven year cycles of solar activity. There are larger fluctuations in solar output that play out over decades and centuries. Historical records suggest that Carrington Events happen about every five hundred years so we will have a new Carrington type event eventually.
If we have a Carrington Event now, it could fry the entire electrical grid including generators, transmission lines, motors, electronics, etc. Without electricity and electronics, our civilization will collapse. We need electricity for manufacture, transportation and storage of food. It is estimated that most supermarkets in most cities have about a week or two worth of food. Without restocking, the food will disappear in weeks. We need electricity to treat water and sewage so drinking water and sewage systems will fail. We do have emergency generators but they generally run on diesel fuel. Once their onsite fuel is consumed within days of the disaster, there will be no more fuel because electricity is needed to pump the fuel out of tanks. Industry needs electricity to function so there will be no way to rebuild our electrical infrastructure. With cascading failures of energy, food, water, industry, transportation, etc. it is likely that billions of people will die in the first year and the rest of the human race will become hunter gatherers living in the ruins.
We have a hundred operating nuclear power reactors in the United States. They all have spent fuel pools where old fuel rods are cooled with water for years as they become less radioactive. Most of the spent fuel pools in the United States are rapidly filling up. If there was a Carrington Event, the national grid that supplies the electricity for the pumps that circulate the cooling water in the spent fuel pools will be gone. Emergency diesel generator will kick in automatically. Within hours or days, the emergency supply of diesel fuel will fail. What little fuel remains in the cities will be used by emergency vehicles and the military fighting fires and civil disorder. The spent fuel pools will heat the remaining water and it will boil off. Radioactive steam will be released. Once exposed to the air, many of the spent fuel rods will spontaneously burst into flame. Hydrogen gas generated by the cladding on the fuel rods will explode, blowing up the buildings housing the spent fuel pools. Smoke, steam and radioactive particles will spew out across the landscape. The Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 irradiated an area the size of Alabama. One hundred burning spent fuel pools would likely cover the whole United States with radioactive fallout.
So, in addition to the destruction of our civilization by a Carrington Event, there will be a cloud of radioactive particles falling on the survivors in the ruins and shortening their already wretched lives. Unlike other problems that can arise at particular nuclear power plants, this disaster will be universal. There is no way that we can prevent a Carrington Event which could happen at any time. And, given the guaranteed destruction of human civilization, the burning spent fuel pools will only be adding insult to injury for the few survivors. We may be able to harden our electrical grid and our electronics to the point where they could survive a Carrington Event if we have enough time but only time will tell.
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Geiger Readings for May 12, 2014
Ambient office = 96 nanosieverts per hourAmbient outside = 74 nanosieverts per hourSoil exposed to rain water = 80 nanosieverts per hourRedleaf lettuce from Top Foods = 102 nanosieverts per hourTap water = 100 nanosieverts per hourFiltered water = 82 nanosieverts per hour -
Geiger Readings for May 11, 2014
Ambient office = 114 nanosieverts per hourAmbient outside = 122 nanosieverts per hourSoil exposed to rain water = 128 nanosieverts per hourRedleaf lettuce from Top Foods = 1222 nanosieverts per hourTap water = 74 nanosieverts per hourFiltered water = 60 nanosieverts per hour