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.
NTI Champions Risk Reduction and Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones at UN First Committee nti.org
Outer containment work under way for Leningrad’s seventh unit world-nuclear-news.org
US to expedite nuclear-powered subs to Australia that will sit near China’s doorstep foxnews.com
Netherlands aims to extend operation of Borssele plant world-nuclear-news.org
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 66 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 85 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 82 nanosieverts per hour
Avocado from Central Market = 111 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 79 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 66 nanosieverts per hour
NTI Champions Risk Reduction and Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones at UN First Committee nti.org
Outer containment work under way for Leningrad’s seventh unit world-nuclear-news.org
US to expedite nuclear-powered subs to Australia that will sit near China’s doorstep foxnews.com
Netherlands aims to extend operation of Borssele plant world-nuclear-news.org
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 66 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 106 nanosieverts per hour
Yellow bell pepper from Central Market = 85 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 74 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 70 nanosieverts per hour
Dover Sole from Central = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
Cockroaches breed quickly, lay large numbers of eggs and are much harder to kill with chemicals than any other household insects. These are all traits that could contribute to the popular belief that they could withstand anything, even a nuclear bomb.
Elgar added, “They are quite well defended. If you try and squish a cockroach it usually gives off an unpleasant smell that acts as a pretty effective deterrent to anything attempting to capture them. They are flat, so they can escape into places you can’t easily access.”
Cockroaches feed off the detritus of other living organisms. Professor Elgar questions whether they would be able to survive and thrive without humans and other animals.
Elgar explained, “For a while they’ll be able to eat dead bodies and other decaying material but, if everything else has died, eventually there won’t be any food. And they’re not going to make much of a living. The reality is that very little, if anything, will survive a major nuclear catastrophe, so in the longer term, it doesn’t matter really whether you’re a cockroach or not.”
Nuclear explosions affect living things in a variety of ways, from the impact of the initial blast to the ionizing radiation released into the air.
All organisms are affected by ionizing radiation because it permanently damages DNA, which is the complex molecular chains that determine who we are and what we pass on to others.
Ruff said, “It knocks the electrons off atoms and changes the chemistry of things.”
Low and prolonged doses of ionizing radiation can cause diseases like cancer and increase the risk of a range of chronic conditions, particularly cardiovascular disease. High doses of radiation can kill cells.
Nuclear explosions are also particularly damaging because radioactive substances can accumulate and recycle through the environment in freshwater systems, the ocean and the earth.
Radiation also concentrates up the food chain, so animals at the top of the food chain may contain levels of radioisotopes thousands of times higher than in their environment. Even if a particular organism is less susceptible initially, it’s still part of an ecosystem that has been damaged.
Ruff added, “The evidence from a disaster like Chernobyl is that every organism, from insects to soil bacteria and fungi to birds to mammals, would experience effects in proportion to the degree of contamination. There’s less biological abundance, less species diversity, higher rates of genetic mutation, more tumors, more malformations, more cataracts in their eyes, shorter life spans and reduced fertility in every biological system.”
In the past, scientists thought that the more complex an organism, the more likely they were to be affected by nuclear radiation. If this were true, humans would fare worse, and insects would do better.
However, Professor Ruff says that focusing on a single species fails to take into account the complexity of the biological environment and how we relate to one another, as well as interactions between multiple stresses at the same time.
Ruff continued, “There’s all sorts of factors we have to look at. There are environmental factors. There are chronic exposures, effects across generations and food shortages, for example. The magnitude of effects of a nuclear explosion is far greater than what you might see in carefully controlled experiments and laboratory conditions.”
Everything points to the conclusion that cockroaches ultimately wouldn’t survive a nuclear apocalypse.
Palisades Nuclear Plant receives new nuclear fuel after transition to operations status wwmt.com
New Research Project on Computer Security For Nuclear AI iaea.org
‘We are the perfect fit’: Coffey County submits proposal for new nuclear power plant ksnt.com
Trump affirms support for nuclear sub deal politico.com
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 87 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 99 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 106 nanosieverts per hour
Roma tomato from Central Market = 103 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Part 1 of 2 Parts
The 2008 film Wall-E showed Earth as a post-apocalyptic wasteland with nothing on it, but the abandoned remnants of human society and a forlorn, trash-compacting robot named Wall-E. His only living company is a surprisingly adorable pet cockroach named Hal. This was Pixar’s nod to the popular myth that cockroaches will outlive us all.
Despite Hal’s sympathetic portrayal, many people feel that cockroaches are pretty gross. But the creepy crawlies do have a reputation for being very hard to kill. This resilience likely contributes to the belief that they could even survive a nuclear bomb and subsequent radiation exposure. Reports in the media have suggested that the cockroach myth stems from rumors that insects thrived in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Tilman Ruff is a professor at the Nossal Institute of Global Health in School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He studies the health and environmental consequences of nuclear explosions. He says that he has yet to see any documented evidence that there were cockroaches scuttling through the rubble.
Ruff said, “I’ve certainly seen photographs of injured people in Hiroshima that have lots of flies around, and you do imagine some insects would have survived. But they still would have been affected, even if they appear more resistant than humans.”
The U.S. TV series “Mythbusters” tested the cockroach survival theory in 2012 by exposing cockroaches to radioactive material. The roaches survived longer than humans would have. However, they all died at extreme levels of radiation.
Mark Elgar is a professor at the School of Biosciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He said that the results of the Mythbusters test are incomplete because they only looked at how many days the cockroaches lived after exposure. They didn’t check the cockroaches’ ability to produce viable eggs, thus ensuring the continued survival of the species.
Elgar said, “There is some evidence that they seem quite resilient to gamma rays, although they are not necessarily the most resistant across insects. You could argue, that some ants, particularly those that dig nests deep into the ground, would be more likely to survive a nuclear apocalypse than cockroaches.”
Previous tests of insects subjected to radiation found that cockroaches, though up to fifteen times more resistant than humans, would still fare much worse than the humble fruit fly. Professor Elgar says the feral American and German species of cockroach which are the ones you might recognize from your kitchen nooks and crannies have given the rest of the species a bad rap.
Elgar continued, “I think our view of cockroaches is informed by our frequent interaction with the American and German cockroaches, which have spread throughout the world. Their habit of basically acting as an unpaid house cleaner horrifies people.”
There are more than four thousand species of cockroaches, however, including native Australian cockroaches marked by iridescent colors and patterns.
Elgar added, “Some of the Australian bush cockroaches are really lovely looking insects, which might change people’s perspectives. The Mardis Gras cockroach, for example, has got these lovely yellow patterns on its plates and bright blue legs with little black spots.”
Nossal Institute of Global Health
Please read Part 2 next
Palisades Nuclear Plant receives new nuclear fuel after transition to operations status wwmt.com
New Research Project on Computer Security For Nuclear AI iaea.org
‘We are the perfect fit’: Coffey County submits proposal for new nuclear power plant ksnt.com
Trump affirms support for nuclear sub deal politico.com
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 143 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 80 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 73 nanosieverts per hour
Red bell pepper from Central Market = 105 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 85 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 75 nanosieverts per hour
