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.
UK, France, Germany say they hope to restart Iran nuclear talks Aljazeera.com
Paks II equipment supply approved, Rosatom says world-nuclear-news.org
Long-term safety at Armenian plant assessed world-nuclear-news.com
Dismantling of Hamaoka 1 reactor under way world-nuclear-news.org
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 87 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 86 nanosieverts per hour
Corn from Central Market = 136 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 82 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 74 nanosieverts per hour
Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
Maksym Protsenko is the head of the engineering center at Chernobyl nuclear power plant. He said that before the drone damage, the next steps which were being planned for the NSC were designing, procuring and then dismantling the original – now unstable – 1986 shelter and “the development of technologies for and retrieval of fuel-containing materials and long-lived radioactive waste” from the original shelter, “followed by their conditioning, storage and final disposal”.
All of this work had to be put on hold, and he outlined the scale of the damage. The impact site suffered “pass-through damage to an area of eighteen square yards”; damage to cladding from the fires that continued to smolder afterwards in an area of about three hundred and forty square yards; technological equipment including the power supply system, ventilation and control systems damaged by “drone fragments and blast wave”; the membrane, designed to help ensure the tightness of the shelter to protect the external environment, smoldered and more than three hundred and forty holes had to be cut in the shelter to allow firefighters to put out the fires. In addition, there was also damage to the steel structures of the arch and crane systems.
The IAEA’s, Martin Gajdos is the IAEA Technical Coordinator of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security. He said that the damage meant the New Safe Confinement “is currently unable to perform its confinement function”, although he stressed that there had been no change in measured radiation levels compared with prior to the drone strike.
Protsenko said that inspections and assessments had been taking place with the aim of drawing up estimates for a repair plan. However, this would take time and so there was therefore a need to go ahead with temporary repairs to protect the structure from further weather-related damage.
Steven White is from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He said that its continuing support and work at Chernobyl was now focused on the urgent need for repairs to the New Safe Confinement. He mentioned that repair costs were estimated to exceed one hundred and eighteen million dollars.
He explained that the extent of the damage was “severe and complex” and warned that “full restoration under original design was unlikely … difficult choices lie ahead”. He praised the financial contributions in the past few months from the European Union, France and the UK and appealed to the international community to continue its support, commenting that Chernobyl “remains one of the world’s most fragile nuclear facilities”.
Oleg Korikov is the Director General of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine. He said that between 2005 and 2008 emergency stabilization measures had been put installed for the original shelter to reduce “the risk of the shelter collapse and potential large release of radioactive dust to the atmosphere”. They were intended to last for up to fifteen years and allow for dismantling to take place once the New Safe Confinement was in place and commissioned, by 2023. However, he said, that work has not happened and with the current state of the New Safe Confinement “planned measures for the Shelter Object unstable structures dismantling are impossible”.
The New Safe Confinement work was financed by the Chernobyl Shelter Fund which was run by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It received about 2 billion dollars from forty-five donor countries and the EBRD provided five hundred and sixty-two million dollars of its own resources.
Operating experience in focus during CODAP meeting oecd-nea.org
NATO to kick off annual nuclear deterrence exercise with more aircraft defensenews.com
Putin says ‘no big deal’ for Russia if US declines to extend nuclear warhead limits reuters.com
Largest load transported along ITER itinerary world-nuclear-news.org
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 87 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 129 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 130 nanosieverts per hour
English cucumber from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 64 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 53 nanosieverts per hour
Part 1 of 2 Parts
The 69th International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference was recently held in Vienna. Representatives from the IAEA’s one hundred and eighty Member States convened from the 15th to the 19th of September at the Agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Addressing the Board of Governors before the Conference, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi emphasized how the IAEA is supporting the priorities of its Member States through peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. He said in an introductory statement, “The Agency has made significant progress across its flagship initiatives, advancing nuclear technologies to address global challenges in health, food security, environmental sustainability and climate resilience.”
During the conference, delegates will discuss a range of topics, ranging from the 2024 Annual Report and the 2026 budget to activities related to nuclear science, technology and applications, as well as the IAEA’s nuclear safety and security activities and strengthening the effectiveness and improving the efficiency of Agency safeguards. They will also discuss other topics such as nuclear safety, security and safeguards in Ukraine and safeguards in the Middle East and in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Sessions held in the Plenary Hall, including the statements of officials and delegates, will be livestreamed for the public.
A side event will be held on the topic of damage to and repair of the Chernobyl containment vessel. The arch-shaped New Safe Confinement structure built over the remains of Chernobyl’s destroyed Reactor 4 suffered such extensive damage in a Russian drone strike last February that it may not be possible to restore it to its full original design purposes and life-span of one hundred years.
Chernobyl Reactor 4 was destroyed in the April 1986 accident with a shelter constructed in a matter of months to encase the damaged reactor, which allowed the other reactors at the plant to continue operating. The ruins on the site still contain the molten core of the reactor and an estimated two hundred tons of highly radioactive material.
However, the shelter was not designed for the very long-term, and so the New Safe Confinement shelter (NSC) was constructed to cover a much larger area including the original shelter. It is the largest moveable land-based structure ever built. The New Safe Confinement has a width of two hundred and eighty-one yards, a length of one hundred and seventy-seven yards, a height of one hundred and eight yards and a total weight of thirty six thousand tons and was designed for a lifetime of about one hundred years. It was built nearby in two halves which were transported on specially constructed rail tracks to the current position, where it was completed in 2019.
It has two layers of internal and external cladding around the main steel structure which are about thirteen yards apart. Both of these layers were breached in the drone attack. The NSC was designed to allow for the eventual dismantling of the deteriorating makeshift shelter from 1986 and the management and containment of radioactive waste. It is also designed to withstand temperatures ranging from minus one hundred- and nine-degrees Fahrenheit to plus one hundred- and thirteen-degrees Fahrenheit , a class-three tornado, and an earthquake with a magnitude of six on the Richter scale but it was not designed to withstand missile or drone strikes.
On the morning of February 14th of this year, a drone struck the New Safe Confinement shelter, with security cameras catching the explosion that took place on impact.
Please read Part 2 next
Microreactor to be tested in Space Ocean satellite world-nuclear-news.org
Press Release: Senator John Curtis Highlights Utah’s Leadership in Advanced Nuclear Energy During Regulatory Hearing quiverquant.com
NNSA to use essential—but unpaid—workers to keep weapons stockpile safe if shutdown continues ans.org
Advanced fuel material samples ready for irradiation testing world-nuclear-news.org
Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745
Ambient office = 87 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Campari tomato from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 113 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 106 nanosieverts per hour
Part 1 of 2 Parts
The 69th International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference was recently held in Vienna. Representatives from the IAEA’s one hundred and eighty Member States convened from the 15th to the 19th of September at the Agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Addressing the Board of Governors before the Conference, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi emphasized how the IAEA is supporting the priorities of its Member States through peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. He said in an introductory statement, “The Agency has made significant progress across its flagship initiatives, advancing nuclear technologies to address global challenges in health, food security, environmental sustainability and climate resilience.”
During the conference, delegates will discuss a range of topics, ranging from the 2024 Annual Report and the 2026 budget to activities related to nuclear science, technology and applications, as well as the IAEA’s nuclear safety and security activities and strengthening the effectiveness and improving the efficiency of Agency safeguards. They will also discuss other topics such as nuclear safety, security and safeguards in Ukraine and safeguards in the Middle East and in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Sessions held in the Plenary Hall, including the statements of officials and delegates, will be livestreamed for the public.
A side event will be held on the topic of damage to and repair of the Chernobyl containment vessel. The arch-shaped New Safe Confinement structure built over the remains of Chernobyl’s destroyed Reactor 4 suffered such extensive damage in a Russian drone strike last February that it may not be possible to restore it to its full original design purposes and life-span of one hundred years.
Chernobyl Reactor 4 was destroyed in the April 1986 accident with a shelter constructed in a matter of months to encase the damaged reactor, which allowed the other reactors at the plant to continue operating. The ruins on the site still contain the molten core of the reactor and an estimated two hundred tons of highly radioactive material.
However, the shelter was not designed for the very long-term, and so the New Safe Confinement shelter (NSC) was constructed to cover a much larger area including the original shelter. It is the largest moveable land-based structure ever built. The New Safe Confinement has a width of two hundred and eighty-one yards, a length of one hundred and seventy-seven yards, a height of one hundred and eight yards and a total weight of thirty six thousand tons and was designed for a lifetime of about one hundred years. It was built nearby in two halves which were transported on specially constructed rail tracks to the current position, where it was completed in 2019.
It has two layers of internal and external cladding around the main steel structure which are about thirteen yards apart. Both of these layers were breached in the drone attack. The NSC was designed to allow for the eventual dismantling of the deteriorating makeshift shelter from 1986 and the management and containment of radioactive waste. It is also designed to withstand temperatures ranging from minus one hundred- and nine-degrees Fahrenheit to plus one hundred- and thirteen-degrees Fahrenheit , a class-three tornado, and an earthquake with a magnitude of six on the Richter scale but it was not designed to withstand missile or drone strikes.
On the morning of February 14th of this year, a drone struck the New Safe Confinement shelter, with security cameras catching the explosion that took place on impact.
Please read Part 2 next
Nuclear power plant emergency test planned bbc.com
IAEA: process started to restore external power to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant reuters.com
Sweden sending Gripens to NATO’s Steadfast Noon nuclear drill, in historic first breakingdefense.com
UMass Lowell and MIT back fission and fusion future for Massachusetts ans.org
