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 = 66 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 106 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water =109 nanosieverts per hour
Red bell pepper from Central Market = 77 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour
Part 2 of 3 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
The next step for the NRC is to issue a safety review before the final licensing decision is made. In a press release, the NRC said that the final environmental study found that the plant would only have small to moderate impacts on the environment if the new license is issued. The NRC said that the impacts in issuing a twenty-year license would be similar to the impacts for issuing a forty-year license. The last NRC license for Westinghouse was issued in 2007.
The biggest environmental impacts from continuing to operate the CFFF would on ground and surface water according to the last environmental impact statement. Past operation of the plant has had a “noticeable effect” on groundwater quality. The quality of surface water has also been affected. The report said that uranium exceeded federal standards in the mud of Mill Creek. However, the reports said that groundwater contamination will not spread offsite.
The NRC study said, “Although the proposed continued operation of the (fuel plant) for an additional 40 years could noticeably alter onsite groundwater quality, the continued operation would not destabilize or significantly affect the groundwater resource because there is low potential for contaminants to move offsite.’’
The CFFF was established in 1969. It is one of the Columbia area’s major employers with almost a thousand workers. It is located on a quiet stretch of Bluff Road near Hopkins. Hopkins is a small community mostly composed of African American residents. The five hundred and fifty thousand square foot plant makes fuel rods for use in commercial nuclear fission power plants. Nuclear materials at the site consist of low-enriched uranium which is not as dangerous as some other types of radioactive materials, but it is still hazardous.
Westinghouse’s process involves handling small pellets of uranium and inserting them into long rods for use in nuclear power plants. Uranium hexafluoride is converted into uranium dioxide at the CFFF. The company is recognized as an economic engine in Richland County and has been praised by the South Carolina Governor and local business leaders.
The CFFF is also vital to the ability of the U.S. to make nuclear power. The CFFF is one of only three plants of its kind in the U.S. The other two are in Washington state and North Carolina. About ten percent of the nuclear power generated in the U.S. comes from fuel made at the CFFF.
In addition to its main business, the CFFF has a defense related mission which is to produce metal bars that are shipped to Tennessee and irradiated. The radioactive bars are then shipped from Tennessee to South Carolina’s Savannah River Site where tritium is extracted for use in the construction of nuclear warheads.
McMaster University’s nuclear advisory committee supports the forty year license renewal. McMaster recently praised a plan by Westinghouse to invest one hundred and thirty-one billion dollars in the aging nuclear fuel factory. Rick Lee is the advisory panel chairman. He said recently that “We think the 40 years is most appropriate. Twenty years in that market space is not a very long time by refueling standards. Unless somebody has a really prevailing argument, it would be hard to imagine why it would be 20.’’
Please read Part 3 next
Ambient office = 66 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 106 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 109 nanosieverts per hour
Mini Bell mushroom from Central Market = 77 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour
Part 1 of 3 Parts
The Westinghouse Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) in eastern Richland County of South Carolina makes fuel rods for commercial nuclear fission power reactors. It is one of the only nuclear fuel factories in the U.S. The South Carolina CFFF is considered vital to U.S. nuclear energy production. Despite a history of accidents and water pollution, following years of monitoring, the CFFF won a key approval last Friday to continue operating for another forty years. Federal regulators approved an environmental study that recommends that the CFFF southwest of Columbia be granted a new forty-year license. This virtually assures that the license will be issued this fall.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had considered issuing only a twenty-year license because of the safety problems and water pollution that have occurred at the CFFF. However, in a federal notice posted on Friday, the NRC stated that its staff had reviewed a list of environmental issues associated with the CFFF and determined that the new forty-year license was justified.
Westinghouse has been working for eight years to obtain a new operating license for the CFFF which sits on an eleven-hundred-acre site in eastern Richland County about four miles from Congaree National Park. Groundwater contamination and spills of radioactive materials are among the environmental problems that Westinghouse has had at the CFFF. These problems have only increased in recent years. Neighbors of the facility have voiced their concerns with how the factory has operated in the predominantly Black communities.
Federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, have added their weight to the chorus of concerns. Last year, the federal agencies said that the new license should not be approved unless an array of environmental problems was resolved. The Interior Department even suggested a twenty-year license instead of the requested forty year license partly because of multiple leaks and spills that have polluted the ground and ground water. The Interior Department oversees the nearby Congaree National Park.
Westinghouse’s troubles were severe enough that the NRC took the unusual step of conducting two major environmental studies to determine how the plant’s future operations might affect the environment. The first environmental study initially recommended continued operation of the CFFF but was deemed inadequate. The second study that was approved last Friday looked more deeply at the potential effect the plant could have on the surrounding environment if it continues to operate for the next forty years.
The question has been whether the license should be extended for forty years as Westinghouse has requested or for a lesser amount of time because the environmental and safety concerns. Many of these have surfaced in the last five years. Some environmentalists and people who live near the plant have said that the new license should be for ten or twenty years if it is issued at all.
Westinghouse has said that it is working to make improvements. Records indicate that it has had fewer problems in the last two years. The company said that it was satisfied with the NRC’s decision. In an email, Westinghouse said, “We are proud of the positive impact that the Columbia fuel fabrication facility has maintained for more than 50 years, and we remain committed to the safety of our employees and our local community. We are pleased with the NRC’s recommendation to renew the facility’s license for another 40 years and look forward to the agency’s final licensing decision for our plant later this year.’’
Please read Part 2 next
Ambient office = 74 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 101 nanosieverts per hour
Lemon from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 84 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 80 nanosieverts per hour
Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
NTS is a subsidiary of Hunting Ingalls Industries (HII). HII is listed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a seventy five percent owner of NTS. The SEC also lists Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos as another subsidiary of HII. This company leads waste cleanup operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory which is a lead shipper of waste to WIPP. That company was a joint venture between HII which owns fifty one percent of the subsidiary and BWXT. BWXT is the same company that partnered with Amentum to form NWP, the previous lead contractor at WIPP.
HII has not responded to multiple requests from the media for comments regarding its activities in the nuclear industry, its affiliations or reasoning behind its protest of Bechtel contact award. Bechtel was a part owner of Los Alamos National Security (LANS) until 2018 when it was denied an extension of its management contract by the DoE following an accidental radiological release at the WIPP site that led to a three-year shutdown of operations at the WIPP for repairs. The release of radioactive materials into the open air was connected to a drum of waste from Los Alamos that ruptured as mentioned above. This accident contaminated part of the underground storage facilities and lead to elevated radiation levels in the nearby environment.
Bechtel has declined to comment publicly on the WIPP contract and protest, citing confidentiality requirements of the procurement process. When Bechtel received the contract award, Bechtel Executive Vice President Dena Volvar said that the company was looking forward to executing its mission to address nuclear waste from around the U.S.
TBRS intends to operate as Salado Isolation Mining Contractor in executing the WIPP contract according to a Bechtel press release. It also plans to use Los Alamos Technical Associates (LATA) as a subcontractor. Volovar said. “The mission to safely dispose of defense-related nuclear waste is vitally important for protecting people and the planet. We’re honored to be entrusted with this mission and look forward to joining the WIPP team and the Carlsbad community.” The press release from Bechtel mentioned that Bechtel had forty-four years of experience managing DoE sites in Kentucky, Tennessee and South Carolina.
Jack Volpato is the Vice-chair of the Carlsbad Mayor’s Nuclear Task Force. He said that city officials had yet to meet with Bechtel because the WIPP management contract had not been finalized yet. He added that the protest period could generate “uncertainty” among the WIPP workforce which employs mostly local residents of the Carlsbad and Hobbs areas. He also said that workers were unlikely to be affected by the hiring of a new contractor. Volpato said, “It puts an air of uncertainty onto the workers, but it should not impact them. If I was them, I’d want to know who my boss was going to be.” Volpano went on to say that he hoped that the process would result in a contractor who was the “best fit” for the WIPP project and Carlsbad. He added, “We want the best fit for our community, and the people with the best resources to operate the project. We want the project to be a success. If Bechtel is the one, we really want to meet with them to talk about their role.”
Ambient office = 78 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 106 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 101 nanosieverts per hour
Heirloom tomato from Central Market = 90 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 92 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 77 nanosieverts per hour
