Ambient office = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 135 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 128 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 124 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 71 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 57 nanosieverts per hour

     Norwegian shipbuilder Ulstein has announced the design concept for a replenishment, research and rescue vessel called Thor. It will feature a thorium salt reactor and could be used as a mobile power/charging station for a new type of battery driver cruise ships. The four hundred- and sixty-foot-long vessel features helicopter pads, firefighting equipment, rescue booms, workboats, autonomous surface vehicles and airborne drones, cranes, laboratories and a lecture lounge.
     Molten salt reactors (MSR) use radioactive fuel that has been dissolved in a molten fluoride or chloride salt. The molten salt functions both as the fuel which produces the heat and the coolant which transports the heat to the turbines which produce electricity. There are a variety of different MSR design concepts and a number of difficult challenges in the commercialization of MSRs. This is especially true of thorium reactors.
     To demonstrate the feasibility of Thor, Ulstein has also developed the Sif concept. This is a three-hundred-and-thirty-foot zero-emission expedition cruise ship. Sif can carry eighty passengers and eighty crew. Sif will provide silent, zero-emission expedition cruises to remote areas, including Arctic and Antarctic waters. The vessel will use next-generation batteries and can be recharged by Thor while at sea.
      Ulstein said that Thor’s charging capacity has been scaled to satisfy the power needs four expedition cruise ships simultaneously. Thor would never need to refuel. It is intended to provide a blueprint for entirely self-sufficient vessels of the future.
      Øyvind Kamsvåg is Chief Designer at Ulstein. He said, “Here we have two concepts in one to showcase a cleaner, safer and more sustainable way ahead for cruise ship owners and operators, not to mention maritime in general. Thor and Sif demonstrate what is possible when we approach challenges from a new direction.”
     Ulstein claims that the Thor concept is “capable of making the vision of zero-emission cruise operations a reality” and may be “the missing piece of the zero-emissions puzzle for a broad range of maritime and ocean industry applications.”
Cathrine Kristiseter Marti is the CEO of Ulstein. She said, “We have the goals, ambition and environmental imperative to switch to zero-emission operations, but, until now, we haven’t had the solution. We believe Thor might be the answer we’ve been looking for. Thor is essentially a floating, multi-purpose ‘power station’ that will enable a new battery revolution.”
      “Expedition cruise ships operate in increasingly remote, and environmentally fragile, areas. At the same time, the industry faces growing pressure from diverse stakeholders to preserve nature as it is and ban the environmental impact of cruising. Thor enables replenishment of energy and supplies on site, while also boasting the technology to facilitate rescue operations, as well as conducting research tasks. It is, in effect, a crucial piece of infrastructure to support sustainable and safer operations.”
     Lars Ståle Skoge is the Commercial Director at Ulstein Design & Solutions AS. He said, “We have huge confidence in this solution and want to engage further in conversations about how we can enable the necessary changes the world demands.”
       In November of 2020, a multinational team including Core Power (UK) Ltd, Southern Company, TerraPower and Orano USA filed application to take part in cost-share risk reduction awards under the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program to produce a proof of concept for a medium-scale commercial-grade marine reactor based on MSR technology.
     Earth 300, in March 2021, launched the concept for a nine hundred and eighty foot, MSR-powered research ship equipped with twenty-two cutting-edge laboratories with one hundred and sixty of the world’s leading scientists, working in collaboration to bring rapid, far-reaching solutions to market.
     The United Nations International Maritime Organization has mandated that all international shipping must reduce emissions by fifty percent of the 2008, before 2050.

Ambient office = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 109 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 105 nanosieverts per hour

      The U.S Inspector General (IG) issued a report this week with respect to the way that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) handled the failure of an auxiliary feedwater system that required one of the nuclear reactors at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near San Luis Obispo on the coast of California to be shut down for eight days. The report stated that the IG found that the NRC had not properly inspected the feedwater system prior the shutdown.
     Dan Dorman is the NRC Executive Director for Operations. He said, “After reviewing the Inspector General’s event inquiry, our technical staff determined that the Reactor Oversight Program and its associated inspection program continue to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety. Resident inspectors are vital to the NRC safety mission. I have full confidence in the qualification, abilities, and professionalism of the inspectors involved in this event inquiry as well as all of our inspectors.”
      The response of the NRC to the IG report highlights multiple “factual errors and takes issue with several portions” in the IG report according to the NRC Office of Public Affairs. The NRC states that the leak in the auxiliary feedwater system did not cause the nuclear plant to shut down or compromise the plant’s safety as claimed by  the NRC. The NRC also said that the staff at Diablo Canyon found no evidence that auxiliary feedwater system pipe corrosion hidden under the metal jacketed insulation should have been located by NRC inspectors before the leak occurred.
      The NRC response states that “The resident inspectors then assigned to Diablo Canyon followed appropriate guidance during their inspection of the system and regional and headquarters management appropriately determined that the leak had very low safety significance. Corrosion under insulation, which caused this leak, is known to the industry and the NRC.”
      A spokesperson for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) who operates Diablo Canyon claims that it identified the issue while the Unit 2 reactor was shut down for maintenance in 2020. Jim Jennings is a PG&E spokesman. He said, “PG&E made the repairs and conducted thorough inspections before the unit was returned to service. Additionally, we performed similar inspections on Unit 1 and identified no further conditions requiring repair. Safety is and always will be our most important responsibility at PG&E and Diablo Canyon, and the plant has an excellent safe operating record.”
     The NRC said that it is confident in the effectiveness of its inspection programs. This is one of the many ways that it verifies nuclear power plant safety. It went on to say that other methods include the Reactor Oversight Program performance indicators, robust design margins for every plant, and operator and training requirements to enable plant operators to respond to equipment malfunctions, among other methods.
      Salud Carbajal is a Central Coast Congressman for California. He is reviewing the NRC response and a spokesperson for Carbajal said that the congressman intends to have further conversation with the NRC to learn more about the differences in conclusions between the two agencies. The spokesperson said, “The congressman believes it is of the utmost importance to understand why there are conflicting conclusions in these documents and what can be done to communicate those reasons clearly to Central Coast communities.”

Ambient office = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Tomato from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 55 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside 117 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 118 nanosieverts per hour

Red leaf lettuce from Central Market = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 82 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 73 nanosieverts per hour