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.
Fukushima cleanup workers fear for their own safety. enenews.com
The last delivery of downblended Russian uranium is making its way to the United States as the Megatons to Megawatts program draws to a close next month. nuclearstreet.com
Luminant to quit efforts to license two nuclear reactors announces big win for nuclear opponents. yournuclearnews.com
Ambient office = 87 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 62 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 71 nanosieverts per hour
Meican Hass avacado from Top Foods = 118 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 130 nanosieverts per hour
Filtered water = 104 nanosieverts per hour
Today, I am continuing with nuclear matters in the Middle East. Recently I have been blogging about Iran. This blog is going to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. The U.S. began helping Iran with nuclear research from the 1950s. Iran established the Tehran Nuclear Research Center which was run by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. In 1967, the U.S. provided Iran with a research reactor. In 1968, Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty which included inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Shah of Iran was very interested in nuclear power because he knew that the oil under Iran would run out some day.
Construction of the Bashehr I nuclear plant was started with German assistance in 1975 at a site near the city of Bashehr on the Iranian Persian Gulf coast. In addition, uranium processing facilities were built with the assistance of foreign companies and governments and deals were signed for uranium supplies. The Shah created a secret program to develop nuclear weapons. U.S. assistance stopped when the Iranians overthrew the Shah’s government in 1979. International assistance in uranium enrichment was halted and as was work on the Bashehr reactors.
The Iranian secret nuclear weapons program was disbanded by the Ayatollah Khomeini when he took power after the revolution. He said that Muslim ethics and jurisprudence did not allow for the creation and use of nuclear weapons. Iran has signed international treaties that outlaw the use of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons. Research and development on the use of nuclear energy to generate power continued under Khomeni. By 1988, the Iranians had opened ten uranium mines inside of Iran.
Around 1990, the Russians formed Perspolis, a joint research organization, with the Iranians. Despite intense international pressure the Russians continued to help the Iran with nuclear research and development through the 1990s. A Russian contractor was retained in 1995 to resume work on the Bashehr I power plant. Problems with cost overruns, technical issues and international pressure interfered with the completion of the plant. Finally, in 2010, nuclear fuel was delivered to the reactor and the plant began generating electricity in 2011 for the Iranian power grid.
The IAEA conducted inspections during the 1990s and found that the Iranians were in compliance. Their research and development they were conducting was aimed at the peaceful development of nuclear energy for electricity. Despite IAEA reassurances, the U.S. and its major allies continued to fear an Iranian nuclear weapons program.
In 2002, Iranian dissidents claimed that Iran was working on an underground uranium enrichment facility and a heavy water reactor called Arak. The IAEA demanded access to these sites so it could carry out inspections. Through the first decade of the Twenty First century, There were a number of diplomatic initiatives launched by major industrial nations as well as Iran itself that sought to create frameworks that would allow the Iranians to continue working on nuclear power generation while reassuring the foreign powers that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons. During this period, Iran broke many agreements with the IAEA for full access to nuclear sites in Iran or failed to abide by agreements to halt uranium enrichment. Trade sanctions were initially imposed by the U.N. in 2006 to interfere with Iran’s nuclear program. Subsequently, harsher trade sanctions were imposed on a wide array of products including consumer goods. In spite of these efforts, the IAEA cannot be sure that Iran is not working on nuclear weapons development.
Once again, in 2013, there are negotiations underway to get Iran to stop enriching uranium and to get them to stop construction of a heavy water reactor that might be used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons . Russia and Iran recently announced a project to build a second nuclear power reactor in Iran. As I have reported before, Israel is very concerned that Iran will have nuclear weapons unless military action is taken soon. Saudi Arabia might also obtain nuclear weapons if Iran is known to have them. I am afraid that the situation in the Middle East is very unstable at the moment with respect to nuclear weapons.
Bashehr nuclear reactor model:
Nuclear professor says that it may be centuries before it is possible to work on Fukushima molten fuel. enenews.com
Multiple fuel rod assemblies are ‘deformed’ in Fukushima Unit 4 pool. nenews.com
Babcock & Wilcox has announced it wants to sell most of its stake in the Generation mPower small modular reactor project. nuclearstreet.com
Ambient office = 101 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 59 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 63 nanosieverts per hour
Carrot from Top Foods = 122 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 84 nanosieverts per hour
Filtered water = 77 nanosieverts per hour
I have been blogging about nuclear matters in the Middle East for the past week. Today I am going to talk about Saudi Arabia’s plan for finding alternatives to oil for power generation. They currently generate about sixty gigawatts from oil and gas. Despite being one of the major oil producing countries in the world with vast reserves, Saudi Arabia is well aware of the fact that their supply of oil is finite. They know that they have to develop alternative energy sources before their oil is gone. They are working on alternative sustainable sources such as solar and plan to have about twenty four gigawatts of sustainable energy by 2020 and fifty gigawatts by 2032.
In 2010, a Saudi royal decree announced that “The development of atomic energy is essential to meet the Kingdom’s growing requirements for energy to generate electricity, produce desalinated water and reduce reliance on depleting hydrocarbon resources.” They set up an agency called the King Abdullah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energy (KA-CARE) to handle all nuclear affairs including the construction and operation of nuclear reactors, the disposal of nuclear waste and the signing of any treaties with other countries involving nuclear issues. The Saudis retained several international consulting firms to help them finds sites and develop bid requests for nuclear work.
In 2011, Saudi Arabia revealed plans for the construction of sixteen nuclear reactors by 2030 with an estimated capacity of eighteen gigawatts. The estimated cost of the reactors was projected to be around eighty billion dollars. By 2013, the estimated capacity has been raised to twenty two gigawatts and the cost estimates had risen to over one hundred billion dollars. The estimated seven billion dollar cost of such reactors is higher than in other parts of the world because Saudi Arabia is so hot. A timeline in 2013 projects that construction of the first reactors would begin in 2016.
In early 2011, Saudi Arabia signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with France. In late 2011, Saudi Arabia signed a nuclear research and development treaty with South Korea. China and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement in 2012 for nuclear plant development, reactor research and access to nuclear fuel fabricated in China. GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Westinghouse Toshiba signed deals with Exelon Nuclear Partners in 2013 to develop bids for constructing the Saudi reactors. Areva, France’s nuclear company, is also interested in bidding on the Saudi contracts. Negotiations are also underway with Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. for nuclear cooperation.
The Saudis plan to build two reactors in the next ten years. Then they intend to build two more each year until they have sixteen in all by the year 2030. They project that the new reactors will be able to supply about twenty percent of Saudi Arabia’s electrical power needs in 2030.
A friend of mine spent ten years working for Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia. One of his major complaints about working for the Saudis was that Saudi citizens had to be in charge of all the departments even though many of them were not technically competent and some were very casual about showing up and doing anything at all. One report about the Saudi plans raises the issue of training Saudi citizens to operate the nuclear reactors. Given my friend’s experience, I hope that the Saudis who operate the reactors actually know what they are doing.
King Abdullah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energy (KA-CARE) logo:
U.S. university professor says that with respect to Fukushima, “The truth is so incomprehensible it’s easier to pretend it doesn’t exist.” ojs.library.ubc.ca
The export markets of Europe and Japan will decline as a result of higher electricity prices, according to the International Energy Agency’s 2013 edition of its World Energy Outlook (WEO). world-nuclear-news.org
Mitsubishi will slow down work to obtain design certification of the Advanced Pressurized Water Reactors (APWR) in the USA. world-nuclear-news.org
Ambient office = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 121 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 143 nanosieverts per hour
Redleaf lettuce from Top Foods = 124 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 79 nanosieverts per hour
Filtered water = 69 nanosieverts per hour
My recent posts have been about problems in the Middle East. More specifically, I have been blogging about nuclear programs and weapons in Iran and Israel, two bitter enemies. Continuing in this vein, today I am going to talk about a cyberattack on the Iranian industrial infrastructure by something called the “Stuxnet” computer worm that was identified in 2010.
Stuxnet is the first computer worm discovered that infiltrates and undermines industrial software systems. It spreads through computer networks and searches out Siemens supervisory control and data acquisition systems that are controlling certain specific types industrial processes. Stuxnet also includes a “toolkit” for subverting programmable logic controllers found in the Siemens systems. One of the things that Stuxnet can do is to sit between the sensors and the computer. Centrifuges that enrich uranium must be carefully controlled with respect to their speed. If a centrifuge runs to fast, it can break down. Normally the control computer monitors the speed of the centrifuges and takes action if they exceed a safe speed. Stuxnet can block the computer from seeing the real speed and this endangers the centrifuges. If Stuxnet does not find Siemens control software on a particular computer, it shuts down and does nothing. It limits transfer from any computer to only three other computers. There is also an automatic shut down date.
Apparently, Stuxnet was infecting a control computer for the Natanz nuclear plant in Iran in 2010. It is thought that the main target for Stuxnet was the computer control systems for Iran’s uranium enrichment program. The worm then infected an engineer’s computer that had been connected to the centrifuges through the intranet system at the plant. Later the engineer took his computer home and connected it to the Internet. From there, Stuxnet was released into the wild and began appearing around the world which prompted its identification. Subsequent research revealed that an early variant of Stuxnet had infected Iranian nuclear program computers as early as 2007.
Sixty percent of the infected computers worldwide were in Iran. Siemens customers in other countries have not reported being harmed by Stuxnet infection. Analysis of Stuxnet have caused some experts to claim that only developed nations have the expertise to create something that sophisticated. It is widely believed that Israel and the United States collaborated on the creation of Stuxnet to slow the Iranian nuclear program. There have been statements by U.S. officials to the effect that they are “doing everything we can to complicate matters” for the Iranians nuclear program. A report from Israel states that Stuxnet has been referred to as one of the successful operations of the Israeli Defense Force. In 2012, a New York Times story reported that Stuxnet was part of a joint U.S. and Israeli intelligence operation. It is believed that some cyberattacks by Iran against U.S. banks were partly in retaliation for Stuxnet.
As recently as December of 2012, Iran has reported Stuxnet attacks on computers in the southern part of Iran. It targeted a power plant and some other industrial installations. There has also been a recent report of Stuxnet infection in a Russian Nuclear Power Plant and even the International Space Station. However, these infections do not appear to be causing significant problems in either of these cases. This unanticipated spread of a highly targeted computer worm into the world’s computers highlights the danger of releasing such an attack against an enemy. It is very important that critical infrastructure controlled by computers be hardened against such cyberweapons.
Siemens Simatic S7-300 PLC CPU and I/O modules:
A Japanese doctor in Tokyo says is concerned about results of blood tests on children and adults. save-children-from-radiation.org
TEPCO is going to start cleaning out the fuel rods from the pool at Fukushima Unit 4 reactor within 10 days. enenews.com
France’s EDF may extend nuclear plant depreciation on fifty eight French reactors. in.reuters.com
Construction of the world’s largest civilian ice breaker propelled by nuclear reactors is underway in Russia. nuclearstreet.com
