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 = 110 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 111 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 110 nanosieverts per hour
Red bell pepper from Central Market = 91 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 105 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 95 nanosieverts per hour
Part 1 of 2 Parts
I have seen a lot of questionable ideas about how to deal with climate change but today I am going to post about one of the most outrageous suggestions. There is an idea circulating that nuclear war might be the answer to climate change. The validity of this idea was fact-checked by Newsweek.
International nuclear tensions have been getting a lot of attention due to the ongoing war waged by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. There has been discussion of the potential for a small nuclear ware to cause a global cooling. Now the possibilities of such global cooling are being explored.
Following a nuclear war, the whole Earth would be covered with a layer of soot that would prevent sunlight from reaching the surface because of smoke rising high into the atmosphere from the burning cities. After even a small nuclear war, it has been estimated that global temperatures would fall by more than two degrees Fahrenheit for two to three years. In some tropical areas, temperatures could drop from five to seven degrees Fahrenheit.
Ron Filipkowski is a former federal prosecutor. Following the appearance of a Twitter thread about this idea, he uploaded a video of Donald Trump Jr. to Twitter. In the video, Trump Jr. is seen speaking to the camera about nuclear war. Trump Jr claims to have read a new article in the previous week that discussed how a minor nuclear conflict might help with global warming or maybe the climate crisis. Trump Jr gave no source for his claims.
‘Climate change’ and ‘global warming’ are neither equivalent, not interchangeable. The consensus among scientists has moved from use of climate change to climate warming. Climate warming is deemed to be more accurate and comprehensive when describing the great changes that Earth’s weather and temperature patterns are undergoing.
Newsweek Fact Check investigated the scientific consensus on the subject in order to see if there was any research to support the claim. The is a great deal of evidence that suggests that a nuclear war would temporarily lower global temperatures. The evidence points to this being particularly true only on land, does not solve the problem of global warming or the wider climate crisis.
Researchers from various institutions around the globe have suggested in a study that was published in the August issues of the journal Nature Food in August that a nuclear war would eject significant amounts of soot into the upper atmosphere of the Earth. This cloud of soot would then spread around the globe and “rapidly cool the planet.” The severity of the impact, of course, would depend on the size of the nuclear war.
The study suggested that a hypothetical nuclear conflict between Pakistan and India could release from five to forty-seven million metric tons of soot into the atmosphere. A more serious conflict between the U.S. and Russia could release over one hundred and fifty metric tons of soot.
Please read Part 2 next
Ambient office = 117 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 110 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 112 nanosieverts per hour
Lime from Central Market = 68 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 87 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient office = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 103 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 103 nanosieverts per hour
Grape from Central Market = 71 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 122 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 107 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient office = 91 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 110 nanosieverts per hour
English cucumber from Central Market = 91 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 113 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Dover Sole from Central = 101 nanosieverts per hour
KBR is a U.S. based company that provides full life-cycle professional services, project delivery and technologies. It was recently awarded a contract to support the U.K. Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) for development of a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). The NWS is part of the U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The facility is expected to create more than four thousand jobs for the local host community.
The three-year agreement calls for KBR to deliver expert project, program and portfolio support to NWS. KBR will coordinate work across the GDF program of work within NWS. This includes project management, communication and community engagement support, technical design, and digital and transformation strategy development.
KBR said that the new contract with NWS will leverage its “decades of experience and growing domain knowledge of the nuclear energy sector, including the deep technical expertise provided by Frazer-Nash Consultancy, a wholly-owned KBR subsidiary”.
Paul Kahn is the president of KBR’s Government Solutions International business. He said, “This work underlines our commitment to an ever-growing and increasingly important area of national critical infrastructure, It will leverage KBR’s expanding capabilities in the UK, and it aligns with our mission to deliver innovative solutions that help our customers accomplish their most critical business objectives with safety and sustainability at the core.”
A GDF comprises a network of highly engineered underground vaults and tunnels. It is constructed to permanently dispose of higher activity radioactive waste so that no harmful levels of radiation ever reaches the surface environment. Other countries, including Finland, Sweden, France, Canada and the U.S., are also pursuing such projects.
According to a new report (GDF – Creating Jobs & Skills: A First Look) issued by NWS, more than four thousand jobs will be created during the time required for siting and constructing a deep underground facility for the disposal of higher-level radioactive waste. The report lays out how the multi-billion-pound program is expected to create thousands of skilled, well-paid jobs for over a century.
The NWS report states that “This highly engineered facility will be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the UK and will provide a major investment for the local host community and its economy. Work on a GDF will carry on for about 175 years, generating an expected average of 2000 jobs in any given year. During this time, it could provide significant additional investment and create thousands of extra jobs through increased business opportunities and the development of new or improved infrastructure and facilities across the region.”
The report also said that employment will be generated at the facility itself and in the supply chain. It will attract further investment in the local area of the site. Most of the jobs that are created during construction and operation of the facility could and should be locally based.
Tom Greatrex is the CEO of the Nuclear Industry Association. He said, “Countries like Sweden and Finland, where GDFs are progressing, are already seeing the benefits, with significant investment and jobs already created, so we know what the UK can expect. It will also develop and strengthen the UK’s proud legacy of world-class engineering and science.”
The U.K. search for a suitable repository site is a nationwide process based on community consent. It includes detailed investigations over a number of years to ensure that a GDF can be constructed safely and securely. Community Partnerships have formed in Mid Copeland, South Copeland, and Allerdale in Cumbria, and Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire. They are engaging in a dialogue with local people to ensure that they have access to information about what hosting a GDF might mean.
Ambient office = 70 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 122 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 122 nanosieverts per hour
Iceberg lettuce from Central Market = 83 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 122 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 107 nanosieverts per hour
