Ambient office = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 122 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 121 nanosieverts per hour

English cucumber from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
     Tokamaks are donut-shaped vessels designed to contain a nuclear fusion reaction. They are popular experimental reactors used in many laboratories for nuclear fusion research. Hydrogen atoms are smashed together at enormous temperatures which create a whirling, chaotic plasma that is hotter than the surface of the sun. Many think that fusion power will be the clean energy of future but smart ways to control and confine the plasma will be the key to fusion power.
      Currently, the scientific understanding of fusion is sound so what remains to be done is an engineering challenge. Ambrogio Fasoli is the director of the Swiss Plasma Center at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. He said, “We need to be able to heat this matter up and hold it together for long enough for us to take energy out of it.”
      DeepMind is an artificial intelligence company. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. DeepMind has previously worked on video games and protein folding. It is now working on a joint research project with the Swiss Plasma Center to develop an AI for controlling a nuclear fusion reaction.
     Stars are power by fusion processes. The sheer gravitational mass of stars is sufficient to bring hydrogen atoms together and overcome the repulsion of their positively charged nuclei. On Earth, scientist have to use extremely powerful magnetic coils to confine the nuclear fusion reaction, nudging it into the desired position and shaping it like a potter working clay on a wheel. The coils have to be carefully controlled to prevent plasma from touching the sides of the containment vessel. If the plasma touches the vessel, it can damage the walls and slow down the fusion reaction. There is little risk of an explosion because the fusion reaction cannot survive without magnetic confinement.
     When researchers want to change the configuration of the plasma and experiment with different shapes that may generate more power or a cleaner plasma, a great deal of engineering and design work must be done. Conventional systems are computer-controlled based on models and careful simulation. Fasoli says that such simulations are “complex and not necessarily optimized.”
     DeepMind has developed an AI that can control the shape of the plasma autonomously. A paper recently published in the journal Nature describes how researchers from the two groups taught a deep reinforcement learning system how to control the nineteen magnetic coils inside the TCV which is the variable configuration tokamak at the Swill Plasma Center. This tokamak is used to carry out research that will inform the design of bigger fusion reactors in the future. Martin Riedmiller is the control team lead at DeepMind. He said, “AI, and specifically reinforcement learning, is particularly well suited to the complex problems presented by controlling plasma in a tokamak.”
      Neural networks are a type of AI system designed to imitate the architecture of the human brain. The plasma control AI was initially trained in a simulation. The training started with the AI system observing how changing the settings on each of the nineteen coils affected the shape of plasma inside the vessel. In the next phase, the AI system was given different shapes to try to re-create in the plasma. These shapes included a D-shaped cross section close to what will be used inside ITER (formally known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). ITER is the large-scale experimental tokamak under construction in France by a consortium of countries. Also included in the research project was a snowflake configuration that could help dissipate the intense heat of the reaction more evenly around the vessel.
Please read Part 2 next

Ambient office = 112 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 121 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 121 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 70 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 63 nanosieverts per hour

     The Inspector General of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC) released a new report last Thursday. The report states that counterfeit parts have been discovered in U.S. nuclear power plants. These parts increase the risk of a safety failure. This report will have a serious effect on the U.S. nuclear industry which has been shrinking due to the impact of dropping renewables and natural gas costs.
     The report said, “Counterfeit parts are safety and security concerns that could have serious consequences in critical power plant equipment required to perform a safety function.”
      The report evaluated concerns that counterfeit parts are present in most if not all U.S. nuclear power plants. The authors of the report sampled a plant from each of the NRC’s four regions. They found data that showed fake parts were used in plants in the Midwest.
      In addition, the report included a quote from a “well placed NRC principle” in which the inspector general was told about two component failures at plants in the U.S. Northeast that plant operators determined involved counterfeit parts. A recent inspector general audit report revealed that the parts are currently in use at operating nuclear power plants but did not provide details.
      The Department of Energy (DoE) has identified over one hundred incidents involving counterfeit, fraudulent or suspect items (CFSI) in reactors monitored by the NRC in fiscal year 2021 alone.
      Counterfeit parts found in operating reactors have included an emergency service water pump shaft, temperature sensors used to identify steam line breaks, and breaker switches meant to prevent fires, according to the report.
     The report also said that the NRC may be underestimating the number of counterfeit parts in plants “because it does not require licensees to report CFSI except in extraordinary circumstances, such as those involving the failure of equipment that performs a significant safety function.”
     Scott Burnell is a spokesperson for the NRC. He said, “While the report’s findings include the ongoing presence of CFSI at U.S. reactors, nothing in the report suggests an immediate safety concern. The NRC’s office of the Executive Director for Operations is thoroughly reviewing the report and will direct the agency’s program offices to take appropriate action.”
     Edwin Lyman is the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He thinks that the NRC needs to work much harder to counter the problems with counterfeit parts. He also said, “This troubling report shows that the NRC needs to do much more to ensure that counterfeit or fraudulent parts with potentially dangerous defects are kept out of US nuclear power plants — including strengthening requirements for plant owners to report and correct such problems as soon as they are discovered.”
     The administration of President Biden has said that it believes that nuclear fission reactors will play a critical role in decarbonizing the U.S.’s economy to fight climate change because they do not release carbon dioxide during normal operations. Nuclear power backers also point out the reactors do not release harmful particulate pollution like fossil fuels plants do.

Ambient office = 122 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 126 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 125 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 69 nanosieverts per hour

     There is a great deal of research being carried out to generate power with nuclear fusion reactors. Many countries have fusion projects and there are claims that commercial power nuclear fusion plants may be in operation by 2030. Japan has now announced that it will be part of the intense competition to harness nuclear fusion for power generation.
     A Japanese venture plans to construct the first experimental plant in the country to generate power through nuclear fusion. The company said that the technology is drawing attention as a new way to produce energy without emitting carbon dioxide.
      Kyoto Fusioneering Ltd (KFL) is a startup based in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. It intends to start operating the plant in the next five years. They have already procured some of the necessary funds and started work on the design of the plant. Taka Nagao is the CEO of KFL.
     The experimental KFL plant will be equipped with a heat exchanger and a turbine in addition to a reactor that generates thermal energy to produce a small amount of electricity. Experimental reactors dedicated to proving the feasibility of nuclear fusion for power generation already exist in Japan. Nagao said, “a plant that actually generates power is rare even on a global basis.”
      The venture is being partially funded by an investment firm established by Kyoto University. The firm was launched in 2019 led by Nagao and Satoshi Konishi who is a professor at the Institute of Advanced Energy of Kyoto University.
      The new investment firm develops equipment for nuclear fusion reactors. This equipment includes a key device the effectively collects heat with a temperature of over two hundred million degrees Fahrenheit.
      The venture has already raised eleven million dollars and intends to raise a total twenty-five million dollars. Sources of funds include an investment fund connected to the state-backed fund Japan Investment Corporation. It also intends to seek funds from megabanks such as MUFG Bank. The venture will hold discussions with the central government and municipalities in the future in order to work out details which will include finding a location to construct the plant.
     Fusion power generation converts the energy created by fusing light nuclei to electricity. Unlike nuclear power generation that involves fission chain reactions, fusion power is consider safer and does not produce highly radioactive nuclear waste like nuclear fission power plants.
     Fusion energy recently attracted global attention as the U.S. nuclear fusion startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems secured funds last year from Bill Gates as well as Google.
     The Japanese government also encourages the research and development of fusion energy as a means to secure clean energy to cope with global warming. It plans to set up a panel of experts in the near future to enhance support for the move.
     Before the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Japan was dedicated to nuclear power. Following the disaster, Japan shut down all nuclear reactors. Some are being restarted but many will be closed permanently. Japan appears to believe that switch to fusion power will be a better choice for power generation.

Ambient office = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 111 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 112 nanosieverts per hour

Tomato from Central Market = 109 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 67 nanosieverts per hour