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.
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
Ambient office = 79 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 70 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 75 nanosieverts per hour
Romaine lettuce from Top Foods = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 118 nanosieverts per hour
Filtered water = 102 nanosieverts per hour
My last few posts have dealt with the Middle East and the complex relationship between Saudi Arabia, Iran and Israel. There is an old adage that says “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” I am afraid that this saying does not apply to this situation. All three of them hate the other two. There are nationalist, religious and ethnic divides behind this animosity. Israel has had nuclear weapons for decades although they will not admit it. Saudi Arabia has said that it will acquire nuclear weapons if Iran gets them. Iran appears to be working toward nuclear weapons but claims that they are not. Israel has sworn that they will not let Iran get an atomic bomb.
Given Iran’s hostility against Israel and the example of what the U.S. did to Iraq, Iran obviously wants to have nuclear weapons to counter balance the Israeli nuclear weapons and discourage the U.S. from attacking. They have been building underground labs and heavily fortified nuclear facilities around Iran. Iran currently has about four hundred and fifty pounds of uranium enriched to twenty percent. With an additional one hundred pounds of enriched uranium, Iran would have enough to quickly enrich up to weapons grade and build a bomb. Iran is also building a plutonium reactor which would help them with nuclear weapon development.
Iran is in the middle of complex negotiations with the U.S. and five other countries which have imposed crippling trade sanctions on Iran. The game that is being played out consists of the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany and Russia, China, trying to get Iran to stop enriching uranium and open up all of its nuclear facilities for inspection. Iran is trying to get trade sanctions lifted while holding on to its enrichment facilities which it claims are only for peaceful purposes. Reports about the progress of the negotiations have been going up and down like a roller coaster, optimistic one day, pessimistic the next. Today it was announced that there was a preliminary agreement to talk again in ten days.
It would be very difficult to destroy the Iranian nuclear program even with the full firepower of the United States air force. Israel may be tempted to go after prominent targets such as the partially constructed plutonium reactor which Israel fears may be part of a weapons program. Iran could retaliate with their conventional missiles and proxy attacks by terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. This might trigger a larger war that could draw in other Arab countries in the regions.
I have talked in the past about what I call the Samson option. If Israel is attacked by nearby Arab countries and it feels that it is losing, I am afraid that they may unleash a nuclear hell on oil facilities, capitols and religious sites in the countries of the Arab attackers. At the least, this would kill millions and spread radioactivity around the planet. In the worst case scenario, it might trigger another world war with additional nuclear arsenals being brought into the battle. All of this could cause a nuclear winter. Stay tuned.
Site of Iran’s Arak heavy water plutonium reactor:
The radiation caused by the failure of the spent fuel pools at Fukushima in the event of another earthquake could reach the West Coast within days. globalresearch.ca
People are resettling areas 10 to 15 km from Fukushima plant with radiation levels still very, very high and even lethal in some cases. nuclear-news.net
Seeking to increase foreign sales, Toshiba will buy a controlling stake in a company planning a new nuclear plant in the UK. nuclearstreet.com
