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 = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 99 nanosieverts per hour
Red bell pepper from Central Market = 89 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 90 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 141 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 146 nanosieverts per hour
English cucumber from Central Market = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 158 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 137 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient office = 94 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 149 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 139 nanosieverts per hour
Corn from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 156 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 122 nanosieverts per hour
Dover Sole from Central = 89 nanosieverts per hour
Part 4 of 4 Parts (Please read Parts 1,2 and 3 first)
The Washington state Department of Ecology helps oversee the Hanford cleanup. Its staff meet with the Yakama Nation at least once a month. They describe their relationship with the tribal Nation as a bit of “push and pull”.
Laura Watson is the director of the Washington state Department of Ecology. She said, “We are the regulators, and sometimes Yakama Nation would like us to push a little harder than they perceive us doing. And so there’s a little bit of that push and pull. And that’s fine, that’s actually important as a regulator to have folks pushing.”
A fully rehabilitated Hanford site likely will not happen within the lifetime of Yakama Nation’s elders, or even the generation that follows. However, they are working diligently to bring younger tribal members to the effort.
Samantha Redheart coordinates Stem programs for ER/WM. In recent years, she has held coloring contests, a mass mailing of postcards and visited local schools. The ER/WM has offered college scholarships for students studying such subjects as engineering and sciences. The STEM outreach program hopes that those who receive scholarships may one day bring that knowledge back to the community. Redheart said, “We always share that Hanford is a multi-generational cleanup site. Yakama Nation leaders and management are always looking into not just the cleanup today, but for our future generations and of our children that are not yet born.”
Twenty-two high school students were allowed to visit Hanford in 2016. This was a rare opportunity, according to Redheart, because those under sixteen are usually not allowed on most of the site. She said that they took the students to series of culturally significant sites, pointing out the traditional cultural artifacts and salmon spawning grounds. The experience was thoroughly regimented. It involved DoE staff, hasmat guides and strict timelines.
If Sohappy got her wish, sharing her knowledge of Hanford before it was a nuclear site with the next generation would involve something like a trip back in time. She would take them on wagons and horses to each of the important sites. She would make sure to point out where the strawberry fields and old town once stood. It is difficult to know whether that will ever be a reality. Personally, she has not been to the Hanford site for over a decade. She said, “It angers me that I can’t go where my dad used to wander around. There’s nothing there that’s pleasurable. Not anymore anyway. It’s all torn up.”
(Editor’s note: I had just started my consulting business in the early 1980s when I got a call from a friend of mine. He had been consulting with the Yakama Nation on economic development. Russell Jim was just getting his new program going. The tribe needed a nuclear laboratory that they could contract to monitor the Hanford cleanup but finding one was not easy. I contacted Jim and told him that I would be glad to help. After a lot of research, I was able to find an RFP from the Washington state Department of Ecology for nuclear laboratories. I used it as a guide to craft a new RFP for the Yakama Nation which was accepted and used by the tribe to find their own nuclear consultant.)
Ambient office = 109 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 73 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 72 nanosieverts per hour
Blueberry from Central Market = 101 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 84 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 68 nanosieverts per hour
Part 3 of 4 Parts (Please read Parts 1 and 2 first)
Chemicals including mercury which can cause damage to the brain, kidneys and heart as well as PCBs, which can cause cancer, have been found in the Columbia River. These dangerous substances could be ingested by eating fish from the river. An advisory warning fishermen was released in 2017. The Hanford Reach is a one-hundred-and-fifty-mile section of the river that runs through Hanford. The advisory suggests limiting consuming some fish from the Columbia four or fewer times a month.
In the past ten years, it has been discovered that hundreds of gallons of highly radioactive waste have been leaking from two Hanford tanks, threatening the Columbia River.
McClure Tosch is a Natural Resource Injury Assessment lead for ER/WM. He recently said that the Yakama Nation has played a key role in the developing a plan for the EPA to monitor the Columbia basin, including fish tissue.
ER/WM has also been advocating for the federal government to test the water wells at Hanford near the Columbia River for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) which are long-lasting chemicals that can be found in an array of commercial and industrial products. If the tests do reveal PFAS pollution, that could be a huge concern for the local drinking water. The Washington Department of Energy said, “Information-gathering about the occurrence and use of PFAS at DoE sites is ongoing”.
The Yakama Nation has also focused on preserving culturally significant plants. Recently, Sherwood has been supervising the protection of a bright yellow plant known as Umtanum desert buckwheat. This plant has long been known as a medicinal plant among the local Indigenous people. Today, Hanford is the only place in the world it is documented as growing.
Despite the fact that the federal government is slow to act, the Yakama Nation has scored some important winds.
Recently, the ER/WM succeeded in amending a cleanup proposal for an area next to the Columbia Rivcer that contains nuclear reactors. Their work is ensuring it will include a review of the impact of the pollution on aquatic insects. In the coming months, Tosch says that the Yakama Nation will work with the federal government to assess the effectiveness of a polyphosphate injection to sequester uranium found in Hanford’s ground water. The tribe has questioned the wisdom of this approach.
ER/WM staff have also pushed back against a federal change in how high-level radioactive waste is classified. This could downgrade some of Hanford’s waste which would prevent it from being removed from the site as is currently expected. The DoE said they do not plan to proceed with this new interpretation without first consulting with the local Indigenous Nations.
For their part, both the DoE and EPA said that their representatives meet with Yakama Nation regularly about Hanford. They have benefited from the tribe and other local Indigenous Nations’ expertise and input.
Brian Stickney is the DoE deputy manager for the Hanford site said in a statement that while the Yakama Nation wants to see their lands returned to a pre-nuclear state, the DoE is focused on regulatory requirements and protecting treaty rights.
Please read Part 4 next
