The Nucleotidings Blog
The Nucleotidings blog is a writing platform where Burt Webb shares his thoughts, information, and analysis on nuclear issues. The blog is dedicated to covering news and ideas related to nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and radiation protection. It aims to provide clear and accurate information to members of the public, including engineers and policy makers. Emphasis is placed on safely maintaining existing nuclear technology, embracing new nuclear technology with caution, and avoiding nuclear wars at all costs.
Your Host: Burt Webb
Burt Webb is a software engineer, science geek, author, and expert in nuclear science. Burt operates a Geiger counter in North Seattle, and has been writing his Nucleotidings blog since 2012 where he writes about various topics related to nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, and radiation protection.
Burt Webb has published several technical books and novels. He works as a software consultant.
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Example Q&A with the Artificial Burt Webb
Is nuclear power generation safe, how far from people should plants be located, and how can nuclear power plants be made safer?
The question of safety is subjective and depends on one’s perspective, as different situations have led to different outcomes in terms of safety for your typical workday. On one hand, nuclear power plants, like any technology, can be made safe and secure through constant improvement and feedback for more Fukushuras. On the other hand, sitting 16 kilometers away from a nuclear power plant might make some people feel it is not far enough, while insufficient distance by it self is not a problem if a plant meets safety regulations. Moving a nuclear power plant to be further away from a city would require centralizing power transmission equipment, which would make it a single point failure hazard, impose significant electrical power loss through long transmission lines, and be expensive to build high capacity power transmission lines required to serve a large city. Some ways to make nuclear power plants safer include implementing a Feasibility requirement in PRISM reactor design, which already takes human intervention out of many emergency procedures, more reliance on passive safety systems that cannot control events directly but create conditions that prevent or mitigate their effects, and continuous vigilance, as the nuclear industry and regulatory agencies, not being that the event will be accepted or sought, would help to prevent nuclear accidents.
What do you mean by “Fukushuras”?
“Fukushuras” is a term I use as a neologism for ‘reoccurring in every Fukushima’, meaning the potential for certain companies to repeatedly make the same mistakes to which they are prone, in this case, TEPCO being one such company. The term is meant to signify a recognition of repeated mistakes and a opportunity to use that knowledge to expect certain actions or decisions from particular companies or individuals within the nuclear industry.
Ambient office = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 104 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 107 nanosieverts per hour
Ginger root from Central Market = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour
Dover Sole from Central = 98 nanosieverts per hour
Scientists pursuing fusion energy say they have found a way to overcome one of their biggest challenges to date — by using artificial intelligence.
Nuclear fusion has for decades been promoted as a near-limitless source of clean energy. That would be a game-changing solution to the climate crisis. However, experts have only achieved and sustained fusion energy for a few seconds, and many obstacles remain, including instabilities in the highly complex process.
There are several ways to achieve fusion energy. The most common involves using hydrogen isotopes as an input fuel and raising temperatures and pressures to extraordinarily high levels in a donut-shaped machine, known as a tokamak, to create a plasma, a soup-like state of matter.
But that plasma has to be carefully controlled and is vulnerable to “tearing” and escaping the machine’s powerful magnetic fields that are designed to keep the plasma contained.
Last Wednesday, researchers from Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) published a report in the journal Nature that they had found a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to forecast these potential instabilities and prevent them from happening in real time.
The team executed their experiments at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego. They found that their AI controller could forecast potential plasma tearing up to 300 milliseconds in advance. Without that intervention, the fusion reaction would have ended suddenly.
A Princeton spokesperson said, “The experiments provide a foundation for using AI to solve a broad range of plasma instabilities, which have long hindered fusion energy.”
Egemen Kolemen is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University and an author of the study. He said that the findings are “definitely” a step forward for nuclear fusion.
Kolemen said in a recent interview, “This is one of the big roadblocks — disruptions — and you want any reactor to be operating 24/7 for years without any problem. And these types of disruption and instabilities would be very problematic, so developing solutions like this increase their confidence that we can run these machines without any issues.”
Fusion energy is the process that powers the sun and all the other stars, and scientists have been trying for decades to master it on Earth. It is achieved when two atoms are fused together, releasing huge amounts of energy. It’s the opposite of nuclear fission which relies on splitting atoms to generate heat. Nuclear fission is the current basis of nuclear power.
Scientists and engineers near the English city of Oxford recently set a new nuclear fusion energy record, sustaining 69 megajoules of fusion energy for five seconds, using just 0.2 milligrams of fuel. That would be sufficient to power roughly twelve thousand households.
However, that experiment still used more energy as input than it generated. Another team in California managed to produce a net amount of fusion energy in December 2022, in a process called “ignition.” They have replicated ignition three times since.
Despite the promising progress, fusion energy is a long way from becoming commercially available. Some analysts say that it will arrive too late to provide the pollution free energy needed to stave off worsening impacts of the climate crisis. Climate scientists say those pollution cuts are required this decade.
Ambient office = 74 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 120 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 117 nanosieverts per hour
Green onion from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 94 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 80 nanosieverts per hour
Why nuclear energy plan is key to Kenya’s sustainable growth vision energycentral.com
Type One Energy to build prototype nuclear fusion reactor in Tennessee power-technology.com
Sweden moves to lift uranium mining ban world-nuclear-news.org
BHP considers nuclear-powered cargo ships world-nuclear-news.org
Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 next)
During their discussions regarding Ebisawa’s access to nuclear materials, Ebisawa also held discussions with UC-1 concerning Ebisawa’s desire to purchase military-grade weapons. In May 2021, Ebisawa sent UC-1 a list of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, that Ebisawa wanted to purchase from UC-1 on behalf of the leader of an ethnic insurgent group in Burma (CC-1). Together with two other co-conspirators (CC-2 and CC-3), Ebisawa suggested to UC-1 that CC-1 sell uranium to the General, through Ebisawa, to fund CC-1’s weapons purchase. On a February 4th, 2022 videoconference, CC-2 told UC-1 that CC-1 had available more than forty four hundred pounds of Thorium-232 and more than two hundred and twenty pounds of uranium in the compound U3O8. This is a compound of uranium commonly found in the uranium concentrate powder known as “yellowcake”. CC-1 said he could produce as much as five tons of nuclear materials in Burma. CC-2 also said that CC-1 had provided samples of uranium and thorium. He went on to say that CC-2 was prepared to show these to UC-1’s purported buyers. CC-2 mentioned that the samples should be packed “to the contain the radiation.”
One week later, Ebisawa, CC-2 and CC-3 took part in a series of meetings with UC-1 and CS-1 in Southeast Asia to discuss their weapons, narcotics, and nuclear materials transactions. CC-2 asked UC-1 to meet in CC-2’s hotel room for one of these meetings. Inside the room, CC-2 showed UC-1 two plastic containers, each of which held powdery yellow substance which CC-2 described as “yellowcake.” CC-2 said that one container held a sample of uranium in the compound U3O8, and the other container held Thorium-232. UC-1 photographed and video-recorded the samples.
With the assistance of Thai authorities, the nuclear samples were seized and transferred to the custody of U.S. law enforcement authorities. A U.S. nuclear forensic laboratory examined the nuclear samples. They determined that both samples contain detectable quantities of uranium, thorium and plutonium. In particular, the laboratory determined that the isotope composition of the plutonium found in the Nuclear Samples is weapons-grade. This means that the plutonium, if produced in sufficient quantities, would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon.
A list containing the charges for Ebisawa and Singhasiri is set forth below.
1. Conspiracy to commit international trafficking of nuclear materials
2. International trafficking of nuclear materials
3. Narcotics importation conspiracy
4. Conspiracy to possess firearms, including machineguns and destructive devices
5. Conspiracy to acquire, transfer, and possess surface-to-air missiles.
6. Narcotics importation conspiracy
7. Conspiracy to possess firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices
8. Money laundering
The DEA Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit is currently investigating the case, with assistance provided by the DEA Tokyo Country Office, DEA Bangkok Country Office, DEA Chiang Mai Resident Office, DEA Jakarta Country Office, DEA Copenhagen Country Office, DEA New York Field Office, DEA New Delhi Country Office, the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, and law enforcement partners in Indonesia, Japan and the Kingdom of Thailand.
Dmitry Slavin is a Trial Attorney of the U.S. National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Alexander Li, Kaylan E. Lasky and Kevin T. Sullivan are Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the Southern District of New York. They are all prosecuting the case.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces operation. The Task Force identifies, disrupts and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
Iran has further increased its total stockpile of uranium, UN nuclear watchdog report says voiceofalexandria.com
Bill supporting development of nuclear energy wins passage in Kentucky Senate srnnews.com
The Cost of Nuclear War in Space nytimes.com
India to build 18 nuclear reactors with 13.8GW of capacity by 2032 power-technology.com
Ambient office = 60 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 113 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 116 nanosieverts per hour
Garlic from Central Market = 804 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 87 nanosieverts per hour
Part 1 of 2 Parts
A superseding indictment was unsealed in New York City today charging a Japanese citizen with conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials from Burma to other countries.
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, and co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri, 61, were previously arrested and charged in April 2022 with international narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses. Ebisawa is a leader within the Yakuza Transnational Organized Crime Syndicate. Orders were issued to detain both of them. Ebisawa has since been held in Manhattan awaiting trial.
Matthew G. Olsen is the Assistant Attorney General of the U.S Justice Department’s National Security Division. He said, “The defendant stands accused of conspiring to sell weapons grade nuclear material and lethal narcotics from Burma, and to purchase military weaponry on behalf of an armed insurgent group. It is chilling to imagine the consequences had these efforts succeeded and the Justice Department will hold accountable those who traffic in these materials and threaten U.S. national security and international stability.”
Damian Williams is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He said, “As alleged, the defendant brazenly trafficked material containing uranium and weapons-grade plutonium from Burma to other countries. He did so while believing that the material was going to be used in the development of a nuclear weapons program, and while also negotiating for the purchase of deadly weapons. It is impossible to overstate the seriousness of this conduct. I want to thank the career prosecutors of my office and our law enforcement partners for ensuring that the defendant will now face justice in an American court.”
Anne Milgram is an Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). She said, “As alleged, the defendants in this case trafficked in drugs, weapons, and nuclear material – going so far as to offer uranium and weapons-grade plutonium fully expecting that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons. This is an extraordinary example of the depravity of drug traffickers who operate with total disregard for human life. I commend the men and women of DEA and this prosecution team for their tireless work to protect us from such evil.”
According to the allegations contained in the indictment, starting in early 2020, Ebisawa informed an undercover agent (UC-1) and a DEA confidential source (CS-1) that Ebisawa had access to a large quantity of nuclear materials that he wanted to sell. Later in 2022, Ebisawa sent UC-1 a series of images depicting rocky substances with Geiger counters measuring radiation. He also sent pages of what Ebisawa represented to be lab analyses indicating the presence of thorium and uranium in the depicted substances. Following Ebisawa’s repeated inquiries, UC-1 agreed, as part of the DEA’s investigation, to help Ebisawa broker the sale of his nuclear materials to UC-1’s associate. The associate was posing as an Iranian general (the General). According to Ebisawa, the material was intended for use in a nuclear weapons program. Ebisawa offered to sell the General “plutonium” that would be even “better” and more “powerful” than uranium for this purpose.
Please read Part 2 next
Proposal to build nuclear power plants at former coal sites in Latrobe Valley draws criticism abc.net.au
Head Of UN Atomic Watchdog Calls For ‘Restraint’ After Blasts Near Ukrainian Nuclear Plant rferl.org
Nuclear Decommissioning Services Market Set to Soar Past USD 9.55 Billion by 2030 globenewswired.com
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant powered by single power supply line for 5 past days news.yahoo.com
Ambient office = 65 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Mini cucumber from Central Market = 80 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 94 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 80 nanosieverts per hour
