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.
New WJC-Israel Region president warns against ‘another Obama-like Iran nuclear deal’ jpost.com
Iran News: UK Minister Reiterates Commitment to Preventing Nuclear Iran ncr-iran.org
Journalist, Out On A Walk, Shot Dead In Haryana ndtv.com
Nuclear leak happened in Pakistan’s Kirana Hills? World’s top atomic agency finally issues statement economics.indiatimes.com
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 99 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 129 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 130 nanosieverts per hour
Iceberg lettuce from Central Market = 97 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 65 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 54 nanosieverts per hour
Part 1 of 6 Parts
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI. He has expressed confidence that we’ll unlock the power of the stars soon. Altman claimed in an interview with Bloomberg in January that ‘fusion’s gonna work’ in the next few years. He is publicizing Helion, a company where Altman is the chairman of the board and one of the main investors.
If Altman is right, it would herald the arrival of a new era. Commercial nuclear fusion holds the promise of clean, cheap, abundant, reliable energy. With no carbon emissions and no physical limitations on their location, fusion power plants could permanently transform the world. Fusion could power energy-hungry emerging technologies like generative AI, cryptocurrency mining, and even interplanetary travel. It could also turn the tide in the battle to curb climate change.
If Altman’s prediction sounds familiar, it’s because he has made similar ones before, and they haven’t come true. In 2022, he stated that Helion would ‘resolve all questions needed to design a mass-producible fusion generator’ by 2024. Helion itself announced in late 2021 that it would ‘demonstrate net electricity from fusion’ on by 2024. But 2024 came and went without any news of a breakthrough from the startup.
Such cycles of bold claims and deflating disappointments are part of a long tradition with respect to nuclear fusion. The promise of fusion power has been a dream for decades, pursued by scientists, governments, and corporations all over the world. There has also been a lengthy history of fusion failing to arrive when predicted. There’s even an old joke that fusion has been thirty years away for the past sixty years.
However, recent scientific breakthroughs have suggested that new approaches to fusion could work and a growing number of startups are claiming that they can commercialize the technology at a much faster pace than previous estimates. Helion’s promised timeline is aggressive even by the standards of the nascent fusion industry. At least six companies are promising to have fusion power connected to the grid roughly ten years from now, at competitive market rates.
Investors are taking notice of the current acceleration. The number of private fusion projects has tripled in the last ten years. The total investment in the industry in the past two years alone amounts to more than two billion dollars. A great deal of that money is coming from big names in Silicon Valley and beyond, including Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital, Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Masayoshi Son’s Softbank, Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr, and Khosla Ventures.
The involvement of tech venture capitalist could mean that fusion’s time has come. It could also mean that the endorsement of prominent leaders like Altman is inflating a bubble of hype. After years of false starts, are these companies really on the verge of an epochal breakthrough? Or is fusion still thirty years away?
Nuclear fusion is very different from nuclear fission which is the kind of reaction that all existing commercial nuclear power plants use. In fission, a large unstable atomic nucleus (like uranium) splits apart and releases a large amount of energy. Fission happens naturally on Earth, without any human intervention. (There was even a natural fission ‘reactor’ that occurred by chance in Africa, one billion seven hundred million years ago, when enough uranium ore was pushed together by geologic forces to set off a chain reaction.)
Please read Part 2 next
Berlin, Paris overcome rift over nuclear energy, French official says reuters.com
Poll shows Trump’s Republican base support nuclear deal, as lawmakers push back middleeasteye.net
Kiewit, WSP tapped for $3.2B Canada nuclear waste project constructiondive.com
Pantex completes first B61-13, the latest nuclear gravity bomb, ahead of schedule abc7amarillo.com
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 107 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Green onion from Central Market = 126 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 119 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Iran signals willingness to share nuclear technology with Iraq Shafaq.com
Trump says US has given Iran proposal for nuclear deal foxnews.com
Vandenberg Space Force Base to test launch unarmed U.S. military nuclear missile ktla.com
Iran warns US nuclear talks will fail if enrichment demand stands cnn.com
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 111 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 101 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Ginger root from Central Market = 79 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 84 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 76 nanosieverts per hour
General Fusion lays off staff due to ‘unexpected and urgent financing constraints’ physicsworld.com
EDF complaint blocks Czech-Korean nuclear deal deltanews.com
Nuclear hypersonic missiles from space: US faces its biggest threat from Chinese, Russian FOBS economictimes.indiatimes.com
Governor’s Energy Bill Could Bring Nuclear Power Back to Massachusetts capecod.com
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 98 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 98 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water 102 nanosieverts per hour
Garlic bulb from Central Market = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 85 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 77 nanosieverts per hour
Dover Sole from Central = 110 nanosieverts per hour
Following an earlier funding round, France’s EDF and private equity specialist Siparex have announced a second round of funding to strengthen strategic companies in the country’s nuclear industry supply chain.
The first round of financing was known as the Fonds France Nucléaire (FFN). It was launched in October 2021. When that round concluded at the end of 2024, one hundred and twelve million dollars had been investments in eleven nuclear companies, with contributions from EDF, Framatome, Orano, TechnicAtome, major clients in the nuclear industry, as well as Siparex Associés, sponsor of the Siparex Group funds.
A second round of funding is named Fonds France Nucléaire 2 (FFN2). It has just been launched as a continuation of FFN with the target of raising EUR300 million.
EDF said, “The aim of FFN2 is to support SMEs and mid-sized companies with significant expertise in the nuclear sector, in order to address the growing needs of the sector, which contributes to the challenges of energy sovereignty and defense. The FFN2 aims to invest tickets up to EUR50 million, alone or in co-investment, in a majority or minority position.”.
EDF also said that FFN2 will bring together new leading institutional, industrial, and private investors “seeking to invest in the challenges of industrial and energy sovereignty, reindustrialization, and the decarbonization of the economy, and benefit from the associated strong momentum. Indeed, with more than 2000 companies and 220,000 employees contributing to the economic vitality of the regions, the French nuclear industry is the third-largest industrial sector in France”.
EDF noted that the FFN2 fund has already made its first investment in the Ekoscan Integrity Group which is a global provider of advanced non-destructive testing solutions for critical industrial and infrastructure applications, along with the company’s founder and management team, Eurazeo, and ALIAD (Air Liquide Venture Capital).
Benoit Desforges is a Managing Partner at Fonds France Nucléaire. He said, “The establishment of the Fonds France Nucléaire 2 is in line with what the first fund successfully implemented, demonstrating the value of targeting both strategic objectives for industry players and financial performance objectives. I am very pleased to see the industry’s major clients subscribing to the FFN2 alongside EDF, and to see institutional investors joining them, thus strengthening the support system as well as the investment capacity.”.
Xavier Ursat is the Executive Director of the EDF Group, in charge of the Strategy, Technologies, Innovation and Development Department. He added, “With the Fonds France Nucléaire 2, the objective is to prepare for the future by working alongside companies in the nuclear sector and giving them the means today to develop, innovate and gain sovereignty.”.
In February 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the time was right for a nuclear renaissance in France. He said that the operation of all existing reactors should be extended without compromising safety. He unveiled a proposed program for six new EPR2 reactors, with an option for a further eight EPR2 reactors to follow. The first three pairs of EPR2 reactors are to be constructed, in order, at the Penly, Gravelines and Bugey sites. Construction is expected to start in 2027.
