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.
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 118 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 119 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 121 nanosieverts per hour
Avocado from Central Market = 73 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 103 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 89 nanosieverts per hour
Part 1 of 3 Parts
Commercial shipping accounts for three percent of all greenhouse gas emissions across the globe. As the shipping sector sets climate goals and chases a carbon-free future, nuclear power. Nuclear power has long been used as a source of power for military vessels. However, there has been no clear, unified public document available to guide design safety for certain components of civilian ships using nuclear power. A newly published “Nuclear Ship Safety Handbook” by the MIT Maritime Consortium aims to change that and set the standard for safe maritime nuclear propulsion.
Themis Sapsis is the William I. Koch Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, the Director of the MIT Center for Ocean Engineering and co-director of the MIT Maritime Consortium. He said, “This handbook is a critical tool in efforts to support the adoption of nuclear in the maritime industry. The goal is to provide a strong basis for initial safety on key areas that require nuclear and maritime regulatory research and development in the coming years to prepare for nuclear propulsion in the maritime industry.”
Utilizing research data and standards, combined with operational experiences during civilian maritime nuclear operations, the Handbook provides unique insights into potential issues and resolutions in the design efficacy of maritime nuclear operations. This is a topic of growing importance on the national and international stage.
Jose Izurieta is a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE) Naval Construction and Engineering (2N) Program, and one of the handbook authors. He said, “Right now, the nuclear-maritime policies that exist are outdated and often tied only to specific technologies, like pressurized water reactors. With the recent U.K.-U.S. Technology Prosperity Deal now including civil maritime nuclear applications, I hope the handbook can serve as a foundation for creating a clear, modern regulatory framework for nuclear-powered commercial ships.”
A recent memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the U.S. and U.K calls for the exploration of “novel applications of advanced nuclear energy, including civil maritime applications.” The MoU asks for the parties to play “a leading role informing the establishment of international standards, potential establishment of a maritime shipping corridor between the Participants’ territories, and strengthening energy resilience for the Participants’ defense facilities.”
Fotini Christia is the Ford International Professor of Social Sciences, director of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), director of the MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center, and co-director of the MIT Maritime Consortium. She said, “The U.S.-U.K. nuclear shipping corridor offers a great opportunity to collaborate with legislators on establishing the critical framework that will enable the United States to invest on nuclear-powered merchant vessels — an achievement that will reestablish America in the shipbuilding space.”
Koroush Shirvan is the Atlantic Richfield Career Development Professor in Energy Studies at MIT and director of the Reactor Technology Course for Utility Executives. He said, “With over 30 nations now building or planning their first reactors, nuclear energy’s global acceptance is unprecedented — and that momentum is key to aligning safety rules across borders for nuclear-powered ships and the respective ports.”
Please read Part 2 next
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Lianjiang simulator ready for delivery world-nuclear-news.org
Underground nuclear reactor construction to begin in Parsons koamnewsnow.com
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 97 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 141 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 143 nanosieverts per hour
Tomato from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 84 nanosieverts per hour
Denmark should invest in nuclear energy, alliance says world-nuclear-news.org
Hokkaido Governor Inspects Tomari Nuclear Plant nippon.com
Modular construction completed at Xudabao VVER-1200s world-nuclear-news.org
RPV Completed For Unit 2 At Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Station nucnet.org
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 80 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 95 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 87 nanosieverts per hour
Serano pepper from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 66 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 56 nanosieverts per hour
Türkiye targets 10-15 per cent nuclear electricity ceenergynews.com
China showcases progress in nuclear medicine and AI-driven nuclear technology for industrial applications at major conference globenewswire.com
Turkish FM urges end to Iran sanctions, calls for dialogue on nuclear issues thenewregion.com
Utility consortium looks to Nebraska new build world-nuclear-news.org
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 98 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 98 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 98 nanosieverts per hour
Red bell pepper from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 91 nanosieverts per hour
Dover Sole from Central = 97 nanosieverts per hour
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DoE) Fusion Science & Technology (FS&T) Roadmap (“the Roadmap”) intends to usher in a burgeoning fusion private sector industry in the U.S. toward maturity on the most rapid timeline possible. By leveraging investments from both the public and private sectors with prudent and strategic processes, the Roadmap calls on the forces of the public and private sectors to close gaps on the critical path toward fusion energy. The Roadmap maps actions and milestones out to the mid-2030s, providing the scientific and technological foundation to support a competitive U.S. fusion energy industry. The U.S. strategy for fusion energy development is based on three primary drivers to Build, Innovate and Grow a leading, competitive and robust American-driven fusion energy industry. While the U.S. private sector is investing more than nine billion dollars to demonstrate sustaining burning plasma on the path to fusion power plants, there remain critical science, materials and technology gaps, such as the breeding and handling of fusion fuels, that must be closed. These critical gaps require innovation and collaboration of public and private sectors. The goal of the Roadmap is to create the public infrastructure that supports the fusion private sector scale-up in the 2030s. The U.S. will build key infrastructure to address critical fusion materials and technology (FM&T) gaps, innovate and advance the science and engineering of fusion and grow the U.S. fusion ecosystem through domestic and international public-private partnerships which will foster new regional consortia, build research FS&T infrastructure and supply chains and fusion manufacturing networks. Build-Innovate-Grow is DOE’s new strategy to support fusion energy commercialization in the U.S. and its main tool is the Roadmap. The Roadmap is solidly aligned with the 2020 Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) Long-Range Plan (LRP). The Roadmap merges the FESAC LRP critical science drivers with a revamped FES public program in the DoE Office of Science (SC) to define a new era of U.S. fusion energy leadership. This era is characterized by close alignment between the public sector roadmap and the private sector’s stated ambitions to deliver fusion power on an aggressive timeline and is increasingly enabled and accelerated by the revolutionary potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is being referred to “fusion convergence”. The Roadmap defines Key Actions to be executed in the near-term (next two-three years), mid-term (three-five years) and long-term (five-ten years), aligned with the Build-Innovate-Grow strategy and to the LRP science drivers. DoE will create FS&T infrastructure and the AI-Fusion digital convergence platform. DoE will innovate through transformative research and move toward cost competitive power plants. DoE will expand the U.S. fusion enterprise through public-private partnerships and by supporting development of supply chains, workforce pathways, synergies with advanced nuclear and enabling fusion energy adoption and commercialization. The roadmap also maps the DoE plan for delivering FS&T infrastructure along with the same near-mid-long term schedule, that will be critical for the development of an FPP on industry timeline. In combination, the delivery of Key Actions and infrastructure will enable U.S. progress on closing S&T gaps on the critical path to fusion energy across six core challenge areas, tracked with technical milestones and metrics: structural materials, plasma-facing components and plasma-material interactions, confinement approaches, the fuel cycle, blankets and fusion plant engineering and system integration.
The Roadmap establishes the path for strategic actions and capability delivery necessary to support a world leading U.S. fusion ecosystem. This includes nuclear metrics to track progress and to ensure these actions are aligned with solving critical scientific and technical challenges and rapidly progressing toward realizing abundant commercial fusion in the U.S. The Roadmap is a dynamic tool for DoE that is designed to evolve with continual input from the public and private sector fusion community. The goal of the Roadmap is to deliver the public infrastructure that supports the fusion private sector necessary scale up in the 2030s.
U.S. Department of Energy’s Fusion Science & Technology Roadmap
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‘We Breathe Your Air’ – Iranian Hackers Gain Deep Access to Israeli Nuclear Expert palestinianchronicle.com
Court Rejects Injunctions against Mihama, Takahama Nuclear Reactors nippon.com
