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 = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 109 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 109 nanosieverts per hour
English cucumbers from Central Market = 125 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 88 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 76 nanosieverts per hour
Dover Sole from Central = 107 nanosieverts per hour
Stellarators are a type of fusion reactor design that rely on twisted magnetic fields to compress and heat a plasma. They are considered to be a major contender for the development of commercial fusion reactors. Investigators have discovered a possible critical issue for stellarators. They have clarified the potential impact of a concern that has been largely overlooked.
The research carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) demonstrates how periodic changes in the strength and shape of stellarator magnetic fields can facilitate the rapid loss of confinement of high energy plasma particles that fuel fusion reactions.
Roscoe White is a senior physicist at PPPL and the lead author of a Physics of Plasmas paper. His paper identifies a new type of energetic particle loss according to Felix Parra Dias who is the head of the Theory Department at PPPL. He said, “Studies have so far focused on controlling other types of energetic losses that are dominant, and we are now trying to reduce energetic particle losses even more. The paper on which these findings are based identifies a mechanism that we need to include when designing the optimal shape of stellarator magnet fields.”
“While this mechanism is included in our more detailed analyses of stellarator configurations among many other effects, it had not been singled out as a problem that needed to be addressed. We cannot use detailed analysis for stellarator optimization due its computational cost. This is why Roscoe’s paper is important: It identifies the problem and proposes an efficient way to evaluate and optimize the stellarator shape to avoid it. This gives us the opportunity to develop stellarator configurations that are even better than existing ones.”
The plasma mechanisms that create this issue are referred to as “resonances”. They describe the paths that particles follow as they orbit the magnetic fields that run around the reaction chamber. When particles are resonant, they return again and again to the point they started from. These returns allow instabilities, or modes, in the hot charged plasma gas to create what are called islands in the path of orbits. These islands allow the particles and their energy to escape confinement.
White utilized a high-speed software code to search for instabilities called “Alfven modes” that can create islands in donut shaped tokamak. Tokamaks are more widely used in experimental fusion laboratories than stellarators. White said, “So I thought, ‘Okay,’ I’ll go look at stellarators too.” He found that in stellarators, “something very different is happening.”
White went on to say that it “Turns out that in a stellarator you don’t need modes. In stellarators, when the number of periodic changes in the orbit of resonant high-energy particles matches the number of periodic changes in the magnetic field, particle losses can occur. It’s like pushing a child on a swing. When you want the child to swing higher and higher, every time the swing comes back to you, you push it again, and that’s a push in resonance.” He went on to say, “The problem up until now is that people have been focusing on the form of the magnetic field. But high energy orbiting particles drift across the field, so you must also consider the particle orbits.” He added that “seeing whether particle resonances in stellarators match the magnetic field period has got to enter into design conditions for finding a good reactor.”
Ambient office = 105 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 82 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 81 nanosieverts per hour
Blueberry from Central Market = 122 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 70 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 63 nanosieverts per hour
Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
For the time being, strategic ambiguity is probably the most significant advantage that the Poseidon may give Russia. Skomorokhov notes that while it may be logical to build a horrific weapon such as the Poseidon, the reality of the weapon’s existence and its capabilities are very hard to verify.
Skomorokhov also mentions that the Poseidon may be a doomsday weapon or that Russia may want to influence the world with stories of such a super weapon to prevent an adversary’s attack in the first place. In any of the possible ways of perceiving the Poseidon mentioned in Part 1, he claims that the conflicting stories about the Poseidon have at least confused the U.S. defense planners.
The Barents Observer (BO) reports that the Belgorod will be in experimental operation with Russia’s Northern Fleet before it is released to regular duties with Russia’s Pacific Fleet. There has been no mention of where the Belgorod will be based during its experimental operation with the Northern Fleet. The BO reports suggests two possible locations for the Belgorod home port. The first possibility is Severodvinsk which will be the location for the development of the Poseidon. The second choice could be Olenya Bay at the Kola Peninsula. This is where other special-purpose submarines are based.
According to the U.S. ODIN military training database, the Poseidon is should be seen as a family of underwater drones rather than being a single type of underwater vehicle. Some units may be purposed to attack coastal targets. Other units may be designed as super-cavitating torpedoes to attack carrier battle groups. The nuclear-armed variant of the Poseidon is armed with a low-yield two megaton cobalt warhead that could contaminate a one thousand by 200-mile area, making it a weapon of last resort.
The same source reports that the Poseidon appears to be a robotic submarine about six feet in diameter and about eighty feet long. It is said to have a top speed of sixty-two miles per hour, a six-thousand-mile range and a maximum depth of about three thousand feet. The Poseidon drone may operate at a depth between one hundred and three hundred feet in a low-speed mode for increased stealth. It can reportedly travel for weeks in the low-speed mode to reach a target area before it activates its high-speed mode in the last one to two miles to its target.
The Losharik is an unarmed saboteur submarine according to the website GlobalSecurity.org. It can dive down to about twenty thousand feet. It is reportedly the Russian Navy’s most silent and difficult to detect submarine. It is designed to plant depth charges in inaccessible locations, conduct surveillance, destroy submarine cables or tap into them. Aside from those missions, it can also perform seafloor studies, submarine rescue and special operations.
Since the Losharik is a highly classified project, there are few details available about its specific dimensions. However, the source estimates a length of two hundred and forty feet and a beam of twenty-three feet. The Losharik has an estimated displacement of two thousand tons and is nuclear-powered with a maximum speed of thirty-four miles per hour. It can carry an all-officer crew of twenty-five.
Ambient office = 83 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 101 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 99 nanosieverts per hour
Avocado from Central Market = 97 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 119 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 97 nanosieverts per hour
Part 1 of 2 Parts
Sevmash is a Russian submarine builder. They just issued a press release to announce that they had delivered the first K-329 Belgorod to the Russian Navy. The Belgorod is the world’s longest submarine. Although the Russian Navy has not provided exact specification for the Belgorod, reports in the press have said that the Belgorod’s enlarged Oscar-II class hull is about five hundred and eighty-four feet long and about forty feet wide. The Belgorod’s displacement probably exceeds the ninety thousand tons of the original Oscar-II class and is bigger than the largest Western submarine which is the U.S. Ohio-class.
According to the Sevmash press release, the Belgorod is designed to investigate scientific problems and to conduct search and rescue operations. In addition, it can serve as a mothership for deep-sea rescue vehicles and autonomous underwater unmanned vehicles.
The Belgorod is the first carrier for the Poseidon nuclear-armed underwater stealth drone. Russia says that it can deliver a retaliatory nuclear second strike at population centers, major cities and industrial centers near a coast by triggering devastating radioactive tsunamis.
Russia also says that the Belgorod is designed to carry the highly classified Losharik special mission submarine. In addition to carrying the Poseidon drone, there are reports that the Belgorod can also serve as a mothership for various unmanned underwater espionage platforms including the Losharik.
There are reports that the Belgorod’s reinforced lower rudders will allow the submarine to sit on the seafloor. It also has the capability to deploy unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) that could be used for espionage missions to tap or cut submarine communication cables. Such espionage missions could blind or cripple an enemy. Ninety five percent of global internet traffic passes through these cables. This was reported by the Atlantic Council think tank.
With respect to the mission of the Belgorod, Russian defense analyst and military expert Alexei Leonkov explained the probable role of the submarine in a recent interview. He said that the Belgorod is designed to launch the Poseidon drone. It also specializes in second strike missions. Leonkov describes the Belgorod as a “retaliation weapons” for a big nuclear war. It could launch its Poseidon drones in response to a nuclear first strike involving mobile missiles, land-based launchers and land and sea-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) against Russia. Beyond use as a second-strike weapon, Leonkov mentions that the Poseidon drones can be deployed against carrier battle groups with the Belgorod carrying them to the site of the naval battle.
However, Poseidon transport may not be the only important mission for the Belgorod. In an article published in the Boennoe Obozreniye, Roman Skomorokhov says that the U.S. may view the Poseidon in three different ways. First, he says, the U.S. may dismiss the Poseidon drone as propaganda. He notes that for all the concern that it has caused for U.S. defense analysts, it may just be a mock-up meant to intimidate the U.S. public and defense planners. Second, he notes that the U.S. may perceive the Poseidon as an underwater research vessel, but not the nuclear-armed underwater drone that Russia claims. Third, the U.S. may perceive the Poseidon as a real weapon and rush to carry out research efforts to develop defenses to counter nuclear-armed underwater drones.
Please read Part 2 next
Ambient office = 74 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 98 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 96 nanosieverts per hour
Watermelon from Central Market =66 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 143 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 31 nanosieverts per hour
