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.
Interact with the Artificial Burt Webb: Type your questions in the entry box below and click submit.
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.
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 71 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 131 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 128 nanosieverts per hour
Campari tomato from Central Market = 80 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 115 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 108 nanosieverts per hour
US architects of original Iran nuclear deal say changed world poses challenges for talks thenationalnews.com
Iran says it will give US talks about nuclear plans a ‘genuine chance’ usatoday.com
Trump demands do-or-die nuclear talks with Iran. Who has the leverage? Foxnews.com
Trump May Be Triggering the Fastest Nuclear Weapons Race Since the Cold War politico.com
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 126 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water 130 nanosieverts per hour
Beefsteak tomato from Central Market = 119 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 13 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 106 nanosieverts per hour
US architects of original Iran nuclear deal say changed world poses challenges for talks thenationalnews.com
Iran says it will give US talks about nuclear plans a ‘genuine chance’ usatoday.com
Trump demands do-or-die nuclear talks with Iran. Who has the leverage? Foxnews.com
Trump May Be Triggering the Fastest Nuclear Weapons Race Since the Cold War politico.com
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 97 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 95 nanosieverts per hour
Avocado from Central Market = 76 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 106 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 97 nanosieverts per hour
Dover Sole from Central = 87 nanosieverts per hour
GE Hitachi and Rolls-Royce SMR are two of four shortlisted small modular reactor (SMR) companies which have announced that they have submitted their final tender responses as part of Great British Nuclear’s ongoing SMR selection competition.
There were originally six companies shortlisted by Great British Nuclear (GBN) which is the arms-length body set up to oversee the U.K.’s plans for new nuclear installation. Holtec and Westinghouse are the other two of the final shortlisted companies which entered negotiations last September. Last February, the four SMR vendors were given an Invitation to Submit Final Tenders.
The goal is for GBN to select up to three of the proposed technologies, with the intention of supporting the deployment of multiple units of one company’s SMRs at any particular site. GBN currently owns land for siting potential new nuclear installations at Wylfa in Anglesey in North Wales, and at Oldbury in Gloucestershire in southwest England, but other sites could also be chosen.
GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 is a boiling water reactor. Holtec’s SMR-300 is a three-hundred-megawatt pressurized water reactor. The Rolls-Royce SMR is a four hundred- and seventy-megawatt pressurized water reactor. Westinghouse’s AP300 is a three-hundred-megawatt electric and nine-hundred-megawatt thermal pressurized water reactor. All of these companies stress that their designs are all based on existing technologies and will be able to be constructed at speed. They will benefit from modular production techniques.
Andy Champ is GE Hitachi’s U.K. Country Leader. He said, with respect to the submission of its tender, “The government has a unique opportunity to position the U.K. at the forefront of delivering the next generation of nuclear power and this submission marks a significant step forward in achieving this goal. The BWRX-300 offers a simplified, safe, and scalable design, backed by a proven track record of advancing SMR technology internationally. Together with our strategic investment partners, we are eager to bring this expertise to the UK.”
Chris Cholerton is the CEO of Rolls-Royce SMR. He said, “I am grateful for the dedication and teamwork of everyone at Rolls-Royce SMR who has contributed to our submission. We have a world-class team behind a market-leading product, and I am confident we have provided a compelling offer to GBN, to partner with them in delivering the next generation of nuclear power for the UK.”
Last February, GBN said that it remains on track to select the chosen technology before this summer. A final investment decision is expected to be made in 2029.
Simon Bowen is the Chairman of GBN. In an interview early last year for the World Nuclear News, he said that their intention was to sign contracts with one, two or three technology providers. This would be for co-funding the technology all the way through to completion of the design, regulatory, environmental and site-specific permissions process that will be required for these projects. There will be the potential to place a contract for the supply of equipment. Each selected technology would have an allocated site with the potential to host multiple SMRs.
An emboldened US and a weakened Iran will hold nuclear talks. Is there space for a deal? Cnn.com
Ahead of Trump admin-Iran talks, new report says Iran nuclear threat rises to ‘extreme danger’ foxnews.com
Proposal for Norwegian SMR power plant progresses world-nuclear-news.org
Iran News: German Coalition Vows to Counter Regime’s Nuclear Escalation and Terror Threats ncr-iran.org
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 126 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 130 nanosieverts per hour
Yukon gold potato from Central Market = 14 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 115 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 106 nanosieverts per hour
U.S. microreactor developer Aalo Atomics has launched the fifty-megawatt Aalo Pod “extra modular reactor” for powering data centers which is based on its Aalo-1 advanced reactor technology.
The Austin, Texas-based company says the Aalo Pod is “purpose-built to provide fast, reliable, clean, safe, and scalable on-site power for modern data centers”. The design of the Aalo Pod “resulted from countless hours of market research, past experiences, and customer conversations”.
Aalo Atomics said, “Each Aalo Pod contains five Aalo-1 reactors, is fully modular (both the reactor and the plant) and can scale seamlessly to gigawatts. With a small physical footprint and no need for external water sources, the Aalo Pod is easy to co-locate onsite with the data center. Aalo’s ability to mass manufacture and ship the entire Aalo Pod via standard shipping methods significantly shortens installation time. Additionally, Aalo-1 reactors are sodium-cooled and use proven-safe, readily available low enriched uranium fuel (LEU+).”
The Aalo Pod is built around fifty-megawatt modular blocks, scalable up to gigawatt levels. Its compact footprint is one hundred megawatts on less than five acres. It provides “unmatched site flexibility and optimal land utilization, far surpassing solar, wind, and conventional nuclear solutions”.
The company said it intends to deliver an Aalo Pod “within twelve months from order placement and a few months for each additional pod”.
Matt Loszak is the Aalo Atomics CEO. He said, “We believe that to address today’s massive data center market demand, another category of nuclear reactor is needed, one that blends the benefit of the factory manufacturing of microreactors, the power levels of small modular reactors, and the economic targets of a large reactor. We call this category XMR, with the ‘X’ representing extra flexibility and modularity.”
Last year, Aalo announced it had completed the design of the Aalo-1 which is a factory-fabricated ten-megawatt sodium-cooled microreactor using uranium zirconium hydride fuel elements. It is currently working on the construction of a non-nuclear test reactor (Aalo-0), at its Austin facility. It plans to build the Aalo Experimental reactor (Aalo-X), its first nuclear reactor, at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) as part of its phased approach to development and deployment.
The launch of the Aalo Pod was announced as Aalo unveiled the first non-nuclear prototype of its Aalo-1 reactor, as well as a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Austin.
In December of last year, Aalo announced that it had received official approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Idaho Operations Office to pursue DoE authorization to locate its Aalo-X experimental reactor at the INL site. DOE granted the company a Siting Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) earlier in 2024.
Aalo has signed a MoU with Idaho Falls Power that sets the stage for the deployment of seven Aalo-1 reactors, totaling seventy-five megawatts of power generation.
Aalo was also recently selected as one of four partners to develop up to one gigawatt of nuclear energy generation capacity at the Texas A&M Rellis Campus.
Loszak said, “We are aiming to do for nuclear reactors what Henry Ford did for cars. Currently, many utilities are shying away from building large nuclear plants because of the uncertainty in cost and schedule. By making reactors in factories, we make the process fast, repeatable, and predictable, decreasing costs without sacrificing quality or safety.”
Israel fears Trump may cut ‘mediocre’ nuke deal, impede IDF’s ability to strike Iran jpost.com
Trump nukes nominee questioned on DOGE cuts, nuclear weapons testing usatodyay.com
Nuclear energy research gets green light in North Dakota newsfromthestates.com
Iran doesn’t give up nuclear weapons program, Trump warns pbs.org
