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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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.
General Electric Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is a global alliance between General Electric in the United States and Hitachi in Japan. The company is a global provider of nuclear reactors and nuclear industry services. GEH is working on several different designs for advanced nuclear reactors.
GEH is in the process of having the design of its “Economically Simplified Boiling Water Reactor” (ESBWR) certified by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC is also reviewing applications for construction and operation of ESBWR at Dominion’s North Anna power plant and Detroit Edison’s Fermi sites.
Final approval of the design and applications has been held up by a whistleblower’s lawsuit from a former employee of GEH, under the False Claims Act, that alleges that “GEH concealed knownAZAZAZAZAZAZ flaws in the analysis of steam dryers and had made false representations that it had analyzed the components in accordance with applicable standards and verified the accuracy of its modelling.” The whistleblower is entitled to part of any money recovered by the U.S. Department of Justice from the lawsuit.
Steam dryers are used to remove excess moisture from the steam created by the nuclear reactor before it is delivered to the turbines used to generated electricity. They are “non-safety critical components.” GEH issued a statement that their steam dryers were in use in reactors around the globe and that they had always worked properly and caused no problems.
The certification of the design has been held up for two years by the lawsuit. The design of the ESBWR had been given final approval in March of 2011 after a final safety evaluation. The NRC said that it had concluded that the ESBWR design was safe and technically acceptable after a six year review process. However, the lawsuit over the steam dryers interrupted the final stages of the review process. The NRC proceeded with a study of the steam dryer modelling methodology and further analyzes and reviews. The normal certification process will be resumed after a final safety evaluation report and review of the steam dryer problems is finished.
GEH has issued a statement explaining why it agreed to a 2.7 million dollar fine to resolve the lawsuit. “Even though GEH denies the allegations, we believe that resolution of this matter supports our continuing efforts to maintain and enhance a positive working relationship with the US government, and more specifically the Nuclear Regulatory Commission”. The U.S. Department of Justice also issued a statement in which they confirmed that there were only allegations of false claims and that there had been “no determination of liability.”
It is interesting to note that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), another nuclear contractor, is involved in a lawsuit over the closed San Onofre nuclear power plant. South California Edison (SCE), the owners of the plant allege that MHI used a faulty modelling process to OK design changes to the new turbines that SCE had ordered from them. The turbines failed in two years. MHI is counter-suing the claiming that they warned SCE that the turbine design changes could cause problems. Since it can take years for some design problems to become apparent, it is absolutely critical that modelling used in the design of nuclear reactors be good as possible.
Cutaway diagram of a GE Hitachi ESBWR:
I have written several blog posts about the dangers of radiation exposure to human health. Today I thought that I would mention ten symptoms of radiation sickness or “acute radiation syndrome.” These symptoms are certainly unpleasant to consider or experience but in our increasingly nuclear world, it is important for the public to be aware of these symptoms. If you have these symptoms, without prompt medical treatment, you will probably die.
1) Nausea and vomiting. If a person is exposed to a large dose of radiation, they will experience disorientation and vomiting within an hour.
2) Bruising and wounds not healing. Blood clotting is dependent on clot-forming platelets in the blood. Radiation can reduce the number of clot-forming platelets which results in serious bruising. In addition, the healing of wounds which is dependent on clotting will be impaired.
3) Bleeding out of body orifices. When the blood clotting mechanism is damaged, you may also bleed from mouth, nose and/or anus.
4) Blood in stools and vomit. Radiation can damage the cells that line the stomach and the intestines. This leads to irritation of the stomach and intestines followed by blood leaking into stomach and intestines.
5) Radiation burns. The first sign of radiation induced burns is severe itching of the exposed skin followed by reddening, blistering, the appearance of open sores and skin sloughing off.
6) Loss of hair. Radiation exposure also damages the hair follicles. This may lead to the rapid loss of hair.
7) Headaches, weakness and fatigue. Radiation damages red blood cells leading to anemia. Blood pressure also drops from radiation exposure. The result of these effects can be headaches, a feeling of weakness, a lingering sense of fatigue and/or fainting.
8) Ulceration of the gastrointestinal track. Radiation exposure can cause ulcers to form all the way from the mouth through the stomach to the intestines. The visible manifestation of this will be sores on your lips and in your mouth.
9) Tremors and seizures. Prolonged exposure to intense radiation can cause severe damage to the central nervous system which can cause seizures. One effect of this damage could also be lack of ability to coordinate voluntary muscles resulting in tremors.
10) Fever and infections. Severe radiation exposure can destroy white blood cells and bone marrow. The loss of the cells that fight infections can result in opportunistic infections leading to serious fevers.
These symptoms might be the result of radiation exposure of one or a few people due to accidents in the handling, processing, transportation or storage of highly radioactive nuclear materials. In this case, the probability of prompt medical attention is high. On the other hand, if there is a major nuclear power plant accident or detonation of a nuclear bomb or a dirty bomb, thousands or even millions could be affected. In that case, with the confusion and destruction, the possibility of medical attention becomes remote.
This table covers some of effects of different dosages of radiation measured in grays (Gy) which represent one joule of energy being absorbed by one kilogram of matter.
Will the Fukushima disaster kill vast swathes of life in the Pacific Ocean? majiasblog.blogspot.com
Commonly used radiological and chemical dose models being used for the Fukushima disaster are invalid. majiasblog.blogspot.com
The nuclear agencies of Saudi Arabia and Jordan have signed a cooperation agreement that will see the neighboring countries work together to advance their energy projects. world-nuclear-news.com
A partial power loss shut down both reactors at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Maryland at 9:25 p.m. Tuesday. nuclearstreet.com
Israel is thought to have about eighty nuclear warheads. The exact number is not known because Israel has never explicitly admitted having nuclear weapons. They even tested a nuclear device about fifty years ago. The other nuclear powers in the world have not been very vocal about the Israeli nuclear program. Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT).
The Israeli nuclear weapons program was revealed to the British press by Mordechai Vanunu in 1986. Vanunu was an Israeli nuclear technician who was opposed to weapons of mass destruction and was driven by his conscience to make the Israeli program public. The Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, lured him from Britain to Italy, drugged him and brought him back to Israel to stand trial. He served eighteen years in prison, spending eleven of those years in solitary confinement.
France decided in 1954 that it needed to have nuclear weapons in order to be taken seriously as a world power. They moved aggressively into nuclear weapons research. They were sympathetic to Israel and they wanted to expand their exports so they sold nuclear technology to Israel as well as other non-nuclear countries. They helped the Israelis build a nuclear reactor at Dimona as well as a secret reprocessing plant to create weapons grade plutonium.
Although Israel did not sign the NNPT, they did sign international treaties against nuclear testing which they violated. They are also accused of violating numerous national and international laws with respect to trade and transport in nuclear technology and materials. Among the other nations who have shared nuclear technology and/or nuclear materials with Israel are the United States, Germany, Britain and Norway. In 1959, Israel purchased twenty tons of heavy water to use in their nuclear reactor from Britain and Norway. The British and Norwegian authorities knew that the heavy water could be used to help create nuclear weapons but decided to let the sale go through anyway.
The Israelis refused to let the International Atomic Energy Agency visit the Dimona site. They did allow U.S. inspectors after demands from U.S. President Kennedy in the early 1960s, but they went to great lengths to prevent U.S. access to their secret plutonium recovery plant. The CIA told U.S. President Johnson that the Israelis had nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them in 1968. The Johnson administration and subsequent Presidents decided to keep the Israel nuclear arsenal a secret. In 1979, a U.S. spy satellite saw flashes of a nuclear detonation in the Indian Ocean that were later identified as an Israeli weapon test.
In addition to the willing cooperation of other countries, Israel fielded a sophisticated and very successful spy network named Lakam to gather information on nuclear technology from other nuclear countries. Lakam bought nuclear triggers on the black market, copied blueprints of nuclear technology in other countries, purchased tons of yellow cake uranium through a network of front companies and even clandestinely transferred an entire shipload of yellow cake to Israeli vessels after concealing their purchase through front companies in other countries. Lakam also stole some fissile materials from a U.S. company.
In December of 2013, the former speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Avraham Burg, stated publicly that Israel had nuclear and chemical weapons and said that the non-disclosure policy of the Israeli government was “outdated and childish.” A right-wing political group in Israel demanded that Burg be investigated for committing treason. When U.S. President Obama was asked directly about Israeli nuclear weapons in early 2009, he sidestepped the question by saying that he did not want to “speculate.” A member of the U.K. Parliament, Baroness Warsi, was asked about the Israeli program in November of 2013. She would only say that the U.K and Israel regularly conferred on nuclear issues and that the U.K. had urged Israel to sign the NNPT.
Amidst the furor over a possible Iranian nuclear bomb, there have been complaints by Middle Eastern countries over the latitude and support given to Israel in its nuclear weapons program by other nuclear nations.
Mordechai Vanunu:
There are reports of radioactive contamination in kelp just off the California coast. enenews.com
A computer room filled with smoke at the South Texas Project nuclear plant near Houston Saturday. nuclearstreet.com
