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.
Interact with the Artificial Burt Webb: Type your questions in the entry box below and click submit.
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.
Georgia Power begins nuclear plant fuel loading, six years late energynews.us
Installation of steam generators under way at Rooppur 2 world-nuclear-news.org
Michigan launching study of nuclear power options to replace coal plants abc12.com
Youngkin wants $10 million for energy research cardinal.org
Ambient office = 83 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 106 nanosieverts per hour
English cucumber from Central Market = 116 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 90 nanosieverts per hour
Germany’s Scholz Vows Solution to Nuclear Power Dispute Next Week usnews.com
Who has nuclear weapons in Europe and where are they? Euronews.com
Americans’ nuclear fears surge to highest levels since Cold War counton2.com
Energy Symposium Seeks to Define Nuclear’s Role in the Energy Transition uh.edu
Ambient office = 70 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Blueberry from Central Market = 79 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 105 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 89 nanosieverts per hour
How Manitoba high school students are speaking out against nuclear weapons Winnipeg.ctvnews.ca
Krško gets an overhaul world-nuclear-news.org
Anti-nuclear demonstrators picket outside Rep. McGovern’s Worcester office specumnews1.com
Services agreement paves way for Canadian-Polish SMR collaboration world-nuclear-news.org
Ambient office = 79 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 110 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 105 nanosieverts per hour
Avocado from Central Market = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 88 nanosieverts per hour
Dover Sole from Central = 99 nanosieverts per hour
A U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) official said Wednesday that a nuclear waste treatment plant in eastern Idaho will probably start operating in early December. The treatment plant was designed to treat nine hundred thousand gallons of sodium-bearing, radioactive waste. It has had numerous problems and setbacks.
Connie Flohr is manager of the Idaho Cleanup Project for the Department of Energy’s (DoE) Office of Environmental Management. She told Idaho officials that the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the department’s 890-square-mile site has successfully completed test runs with a simulant material. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is also located on the DoE site.
Flohr said, “We have every confidence that we will be operating in December.” She was addressing members of the Leadership in Nuclear Energy Commission during an online meeting.
The commission makes recommendations to the governor regarding policies to support the viability and mission of the Idaho National Laboratory. The commission also deals with other nuclear industries in Idaho. Commission members are appointed by the governor. They include state lawmakers, local government elected officials, university officials and others.
The INL is one of DoE national labs. It is the nation’s top advanced nuclear energy research laboratory. It is also one of Idaho’s largest employers with about five thousand workers. It is a huge economic driver in the state bringing in millions of federal research dollars.
The lab has a legacy of nuclear waste that the DoE has spent decades cleaning up. That effort includes the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit which is a fifty-three thousand square foot facility that cost more than five hundred million dollars to construct.
It has suffered numerous problems for years. Scientists have struggled with the highly complex problem of converting the liquid waste into a more easily managed granulated solid through the use of what is referred to as a ‘steam-reforming technology’.
The liquid waste at INL came from processing spent nuclear fuel to recover highly enriched uranium, The waste is in tanks above the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer that supplies water to cities and farms in the region. There is great concern in the area about possible radioactive contamination of the aquifer if the tanks lead.
The EoD has been paying fines to Idaho for missing the deadline to convert the liquid waste into solid material as stipulated in a 1995 agreement that was the culmination of a series of federal lawsuits. Idaho is preventing the department for bringing in research quantities of spent nuclear fuel to be studied at the lab because of the missed deadline.
A revamped schedule for the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit called for it to begin operations last September. However, Flohr said she asked the state for a six-month extension on that date. The DoE will make the next deadline if the treatment plant starts operating in December.
If the treatment plant is successful, the granulated waste will be stored at the plant in stainless steel canisters placed in concrete vaults. The waste will eventually be disposed of at a national geological repository. Unfortunately, no such repository currently exists and the soonest that such a repository may be available is 2050.
North Korea says it tested two nuclear-capable cruise missiles Aljazeera.com
Kyushu applies for 20-year extensions for Sendai 1 and 2 world-nuclear-news.org
Holtec completes district heating system design world-nuclear-news.org
Cameco and Brookfield Renewable join forces to acquire Westinghouse world-nuclear-news.org
Ambient office = 73 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 105 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 11 nanosieverts per hour
White onion from Central Market = 74 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 112 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 96 nanosieverts per hour
India’s strategic Strike Nuclear Submarine INS Arihant carried out a successful launch of a Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) last Friday. The Indian Ministry of Defense (Mod) said that the test is important for the SSBN program. The program is a crucial element of India’s nuclear deterrence capability.
A press release from the MoD said that “The missile was tested to a predetermined range and impacted the target area in the Bay of Bengal with very high accuracy. All operational and technological parameters of the weapon system have been validated. The successful user training launch of the SLBM by INS Arihant is significant to prove crew competency and validate the SSBN program, a key element of India’s nuclear deterrence capability. A robust, survivable and assured retaliatory capability is in keeping with India’s policy to have ‘Credible Minimum Deterrence’ that underpins its ‘No First Use’ commitment.”
The INS Arihant was commissioned in 2016. The vessel is India’s first nuclear-powered ballistic missile capable submarine. The SSBN is a hull classification symbol for nuclear-powered ballistic missile carrying submarines. Operations of the SLBMs from the SSBN are under the control of Strategic Forces Command which is part of India’s Nuclear Command Authority. Officials said that the capability of being able to launch nuclear weapons from submarines has great strategic importance in the context of achieving a nuclear triad. This is especially true in light of the ‘no first use’ policy of India with respect to the use of nuclear weapons.
The capability to launch nuclear missiles from submarines is in line with the target of creating a nuclear triad. Such a triad includes the ability to launch nuclear weapons from land, air and sea. The family of the indigenously developed Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles is sometimes referred to as K-family missiles are codenamed after Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. He was the central figure in India’s missile and space program. He also served as the eleventh President of India. Under the SLBM family, missiles of various ranges have been developed. The K-15 (also called the Sagarika) missile has a range of at least four hundred and seventy miles.
India has also developed and tested the K-4 missiles from the same family which have a range of two thousand one hundred and seventy-five miles. India is working on more members of the K-family with higher ranges in the cards.
The INS Arihant was commissioned in 2016 and launched in 2016. The next in the class, the INS Arighat was reportedly launched in 2017 and has been undergoing sea trials. In December 2021, the U.K.-based Janes Defense Weekly report that India had launched its third Arighat class submarines sometime in November of this year.
Before 2016, India already possessed land-based ballistic missiles and aircraft that are nuclear-capable. India’s land-based arsenal includes the Agni family of missiles with ranges from four hundred miles to eight thousand miles.
India currently has four types of bombers that are capable of carrying nuclear bombs. Land and air strike capabilities are under the control of Strategic Forces Command which is a part of Nuclear Command Authority. Their inventory of aircraft includes the Mirage 2000H, SEPECAT Jaguar and Rafale, which were purchased from France.
