Ambient office = 50 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 104 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 74 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

     Tokamak Energy (TE) in the U.K. recently announced that it has demonstrated a world-first with its privately funded spherical tokamak. They achieved a plasma temperature of two hundred and twelve million degrees Fahrenheit. This is the threshold necessary for commercial nuclear fusion energy.
     TE is based in Oxford, England. They said that this is “by far the highest temperature ever achieved in a spherical tokamak and by any privately funded tokamak”. It noted that while several government laboratories in the U.IK. have reported plasma temperatures above the two hundred- and twelve-degrees million degrees Fahrenheit in conventional tokamaks, TE had reached this milestone in just five years at a cost of less than sixty six million dollars in a much more compact fusion device than those found in government laboratories. TE added that the milestone of achieving two hundred and twelve degrees Fahrenheit plasma has been verified by an independent advisory board consisting of international experts. TE said, “This achievement further substantiates spherical tokamaks as the optimal route to the delivery of clean, secure, low-cost, scalable and globally deployable commercial fusion energy.”
     The purpose of the ST40 is to concentrate on the commercial applications of fusion energy. Specifically, the goal of the ST40 is to make fusion reactors commercially viable. The spherical tokamak design is more compact that conventional tokamaks. The magnets meet in the center of the chamber to form a post. This gives the reactors an oblate shape like and apple. This allows the magnets to sit closer to the plasma stream so the magnets can be smaller and use less power. However, they are able to generate more intense fields than conventional tokamaks.
     The TE ST40 device will now undergo an upgrade. It will be used to develop technologies for future fusion energy devices. The ST-HTS will be the world’s first spherical tokamak to demonstrate the full potential of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. It is due to be commissioned in the mid-2020s. This device will demonstrate multiple advanced technologies needed for fusion energy. It will also inform the design of a world’s first fusion pilot plant which is scheduled to be commissioned in the early 2030s.
     Tokamak fusion reactors use magnets to constrain and isolate a plasma so it can be heated to the extreme temperatures at which the fusion reaction occurs. Powerful magnetic fields are necessary for tokamaks to contain the superheated fuel. Higher magnetic fields allow for the creation of smaller tokamaks. High temperature superconductors can create these stronger magnetic fields. That makes them important for commercial fusion power.
     TE grew out of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy which is based in Oxfordshire. TE is also manufacturing a complete HTS magnet system. It will be the first validation of strong magnetic fields with HTS coils in a spherical tokamak. Chris Kelsall is the CEO of TE. He said, “When combined with HTS magnets, spherical tokamaks represent the optimal route to achieving clean and low-cost commercial fusion energy. Our next device will combine these two world leading technologies for the first time and is central to our mission to deliver low-cost energy with compact fusion modules.”

Ambient office = 43 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 154 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 159 nanosieverts per hour

Mango from Central Market = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 122 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

     The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station (ZNPS) is located near the city of Enerhodar, Ukraine, on the southern shore of the Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnieper River. It was constructed by the Soviet Union and hosts six VVER-1000 pressurized light water reactors. The reactors are fueled with low enriched uranium, and each generates nine hundred and fifty megawatts. The total power generated is five hundred and seventy megawatts. The first five reactor went online between 1985 and 1989. The sixth reactor was connected to the grid in 1995. The ZNPS is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe and generates twenty percent of the electricity for Ukraine. It is operated by Energoatom who also operates Ukraine’s other three nuclear power stations.
     When the Russia army invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February, Energoatom shut down reactors 5 and 6 to reduce risk on the 25th of February but continued to operate the other four reactors.
      On the 28th of February, Russia claimed to have captured the ZNPS. On the 3rd of March, Russian artillery strikes damaged some of the buildings at the plant. A fire broke out near reactor 1 but essential equipment was not damaged. A U.S. Energy official reported that reactor 1 was shut down safely. After an intense battle, Russians troops captured the ZNPS. They claimed at that time than there had been no increase in radiation levels. On the 4th of March, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that the fire in a training building had been extinguished. The IAEA reported that the fire did not threaten reactor safety or any essential equipment.
UPDATE: A growing concern at Chernobyl which the Russians now control was that the electrical lines connecting the Chernobyl plant to the Ukrainian grid were destroyed during the fighting for the plant. The Russians took all the staff currently at the plant hostage. No one was allowed to level or come to the plant. With the power out, there was a danger that the cooling water in the nuclear fuel rod cooling pool would drain away and expose the spent nuclear fuel. This would result in spontaneous combustion leading to fire and explosions. Nuclear materials would be scattered over the landscape.
      There are nuclear treaties that prohibit attacks on nuclear power plants even in wartime. If the Russians had breached the containment vessels or the nuclear fuel cooling pools at either Chernobyl or ZNPS, it could have been a disaster not just for Ukraine but for the whole of Eastern and Western Europe. At the urging of the IAEA, the Russians are now allowing work parties to repair the electrical power lines.
      I have a list of forty-five reasons that nuclear power is a bad idea. One section of the list dealt with physical threats to nuclear power plants which could include the following. Accidental or deliberate breaching of containment, terrorists seizing nuclear power plants and threatening to blow them up or using nuclear fuel to build dirty bombs. Troops trying to barricade themselves in nuclear power plants would invite their enemy to attack the power plant. When I wrote the list years ago, these were all hypothetical scenarios. Now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made this danger very real.

Ambient office = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 129 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 126 nanosieverts per hour

Green onions from Central Market = 68 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 95 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     Tobias Harris is the author of a biography of Shinzo Abe. He is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. He recently said that the remarks by the former Japanese Prime Minister with respect to nuclear weapons was an indication of the “tremendous pressure” the current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was likely to face from his party’s right wing as his government reviews Japan’s national security strategy and other key defense and diplomatic documents this year. He tweeted that “Whether this debate happens in the near term, the taboo on discussing this subject has eroded substantially over the past 15-20 years.”
     When asked about an invasion of or contingency around neighboring Taiwan, Abe called for the U.S. to abandon its long-standing policy of “strategic ambiguity” over whether or not if would defend Taiwan, urging a clearer approach. Abe said, “The U.S. takes a strategy of ambiguity, meaning it may or may not intervene militarily if Taiwan is attacked. By showing it may intervene, it keeps China in check, but by leaving the possibility that it may not intervene, it makes sure that the (Taiwanese) forces for independence do not run out of control. It is time to abandon this ambiguity strategy. The people of Taiwan share our universal values, so I think the U.S. should firmly abandon its ambiguity.”
     Restating his position that a contingency over Taiwan would also represent an emergency for Japan, he said that the Okinawan Island of Yonaguni is just seventy miles from Taiwan. If China carried out an invasion of Taiwan, he said, it would obviously first establish air and sea superiority in the areas that would probably cover Japanese airspace and territorial waters.
     China calls Taiwan a “core issue” and sees it as a renegade province that must be brought back into the fold even if force is required. China has increased its military activity near the island almost daily over the past two years. The U.S. has maintained a “one China” policy since 1979. It officially recognizes Beijing rather than Taipei. The Taiwan Relations Act requires the U.S. to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
     Japan does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan. It has traditionally remained silent on the issue in order to not antagonize China who is its biggest trading partner. Japan has now embarked on a bolder approach amid its concerns over Chinese assertiveness near Taiwan and elsewhere.
     Abe’s remarks Sunday come as the Ukraine crisis has triggered fears that China many be looking to take a page from Russia’s playbook and invade Taiwan. Observers say that while the two scenarios on the surface share some similarities, the strategic lessons that China and Taiwan could gather from the Ukraine invasion are limited and potentially misleading.
     In addition to Japan’s consideration of nuclear weapons as a response to southeast Asia’s deteriorating security situation, South Korea is currently engaged in a similar debate with respect to the possible acquisition nuclear weapons. Perhaps they are also considering a sharing arrangement like NATO’s.