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.
Ambient office = 86 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 110 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 114 nanosieverts per hour
Red bell pepper from Central Market = 81 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 96 nanosieverts per hour
Part 1 of 3 Parts
Since 2014, the U.S. and the E.U. have promoted an international sanctions campaign against Russia’s energy sector. These efforts to decouple international dependencies on Russian energy were accelerated following Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
The energy sector of the Russian Federation economy itself is not subject to comprehensive sanctions. However, prohibitions or restrictions may apply to certain energy-related transactions under several sanctions authorities, including prohibitions issued pursuant to E.O. 13662, E.O. President Joe Biden’s Executive Order (E.O.) targeting the Russian energy sector places prohibitions or restrictions on certain energy-related transactions and imposes primary restrictions that have a far-reaching impact on the energy and marine sectors. The U.S. president signed an executive order last March banning the import of any Russian hydrocarbons.
The E.U. recently announced its plan to cut Russian natural gas imports by two-thirds by the end of 2022. The recent explosions that breached the Nord Stream pipeline carrying Russian natural gas to Europe may accelerate the reduction of natural gas coming from Russia. By 2027, the European block hopes to completely ban import of Russian fossil fuels.
In recent decades, Russia, through Rosatom, has been one of the world’s biggest exporters of nuclear reactors. On March 15, 2022, Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) hosted a private, virtual roundtable focusing on the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on energy markets and geopolitics, as well as possible future actions of the United States, the European Union, and allied countries. The report of the roundtable by Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy is titled Columbia Global Energy Dialog | Russia and Sanctions: Impacts on Energy Markets and Geopolitics. Of the 439 nuclear power reactors in operation in 2021, eighty were either in Russia or they were Russian VVER type located in other countries. By the end of 2021, fifteen more Russian-type reactors were under construction in other countries.
In spite of these aggressive sanction programs, Rosatom, Russia’s state-run nuclear giant, has managed to avoid any sanctions which allows it to continue nuclear projects in countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt.
Paul Dabbar is the CEO of Bohr Quantum Technology and distinguished visiting fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA. He said, “In comparison to natural gas and crude oil, which are commodities you can buy from virtually any place, nuclear is a much narrower market. With nuclear energy, the supply chains are significantly more fragile, and the replacement opportunities are way less. So, when you sanction one country, you are effectively sanctioning the one and only company that can provide certain services.”
Russia’s core involvement in the international nuclear power supply chain reached beyond Russian-styled reactors. The country is in the top ten producers of mined and refined uranium globally. Kazakhstan is the top uranium producer in the world and a close ally of Russia. It accounted for nearly forty percent global uranium conversion services in 2020. This analysis was included in the Columbia University’s report.
Please read Part 2 next
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.
