Ambient office  = 112 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 106 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 101 nanosieverts per hour

English cucumber from Central Market = 133 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 118 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 114 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole – Caught in USA = 119 nanosieverts per hour

    Idaho Falls (IF) is working on increasing the percentage of electrical generating capacity that it owns. This has been done three times before in the past thirty years. Their last acquisition was three megawatts of wind power at about thirty percent capacity factor. (The net capacity factor is the unitless ratio of an actual electrical energy output over a given period of time to the maximum possible electrical energy output over that period.) It provides less than one percent of their electricity. They have tried without success to add hydro and coal-generation capacity to their portfolio.
    The new proposal expresses the intent to buy ten megawatts from a proposed nuclear power plant to be built on the western edge of the site of the Idaho National Laboratory near IF. At a ninety to ninety-five percent capacity factor, it could provide as much as ten percent of the electricity for IF.
   A two-phase study plan has been suggested that might have an impact of the exact share of generating capacity sought. The first phase would convene a diverse group of consumers of electricity to assess the project. The second phase would be an independent assessment by a professional.
   The supporters of the new proposal say that IF should own more of what it consumes. The electricity demands in IF have been growing. They will need more generating capacity just to keep providing the current quarter to a third of the electricity they get from four dams and their stake in the windfarm. The proposed nuclear power plant would be operational by 2027. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) IF contract must be renewed in 2028. Currently IF buys sixty percent of their electricity from BPA. The proposed technology should be safer and more cost effective than current nuclear power plants.
     The plans to deal with the regulatory process appear to be adequate. It is expected that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will certify the plant design next year. If it does, it might suggest that IF should increase the share they are seeking. Government nuclear facilities depend on the government to handle spent nuclear fuel and cleanup of the sites when it is decommissioned. Users of the IF grid will only have to pay for the electricity that they consume. There are some issues that need to be resolved if a share increase is desired.
    Although the design of the nuclear power plant is sound, this particular design has not been built before so there is a risk of cost overruns. IF consumers are protected against any cost increase before the final decision to proceed or cancel the project in 2023. Because IF is only talking about buying a ten percent stake in the new power plant, any cost increase for the power plant should result in only moderate increases in IF electricity rates.
    A second issue that needs to be resolved for the project to proceed is the possibility of a court battle over the Idaho-Department of Energy Settlement Agreement. This Agreement has to do with the transport of government nuclear waste to and storage at the INL. It is not clear exactly how the Agreement could be applied to spent nuclear fuel generated inside Idaho by a private firm.
    A third risk to the project has to do with acquiring the necessary water rights to operate the plant. IF said in August that the project was inclined to use “dry” cooling towers instead of a “wet” system in order to reduce water use.
    If these three risks can be properly assessed and dealt with, the desire of IF to buy energy from the new nuclear power plant may be satisfied.

Ambient office  =120 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 125 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 124 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 117 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 128 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

    Last week, the Russian Rosatom State Corporation Engineering Division announced that it had a core melt localization device (CMLD) or “core catcher” in Unit 3 of Tamil Nadu’s Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP). A press release stated that the CMLD is designed to localize and cool any molten core materials that ate through the reactor core in a meltdown accident.
    Unit 1 and Unit 2 at the KKNPP are functioning and were connected to the Indian national grid in 2013 and 2016. Civil work to construct Unit 3 and Unit 4 was started in June of 2017.
   Molten core materials which are often collectively to referred to as “corium” is a semi-solid material similar to lava that is formed in the core of a nuclear reactor whenever there is a meltdown accident. A meltdown accident occurs when the nuclear fission reaction taking place in the reactor is not cooled sufficiently to maintain the control. The buildup of heat inside the reactor core as the fission process goes wild results in the melting of the fuel rods. Corium formed in a meltdown can remain radioactive for centuries. Reactor meltdowns occurred in Chernobyl in Russia in 1986 and Fukushima in Japan in 2011.
    The Fukushima nuclear disaster resulted in the formation of corium under three Units of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plants. It has been almost nine years since the accident and the plant operators are still trying to find all the corium which melted through the reactor vessel and the ground underneath the reactor and spreading radioactive materials into the water table. If the Units at Fukushima had been equipped with CLMDs, the generation of radioactively contaminated ground water at Fukushima could have been prevented.
    In a posting on the Rosatom website, it is explained that the latest CLMD is a metal structure with a cone shape. It weights about eight hundred tons. The cone is double-walled and the gap between the two walls is filled with a mixture of ferric and aluminum oxides known as FAOG. The cone itself is filled with a ceramic mixture that contains ferric oxide and aluminum oxide. This mixture is referred to as a “sacrificial material.” This sacrificial material prevents the corium from trickling through the bottom of the cone and also functions as a cooling mechanism.
     The CLMD is installed at the bottom of the nuclear station’s protective shell. It is designed to save the protective shell as well as prevent radioactive emissions into the environment if there is a serious accident.
     The first use of a CLMD was in the Chinese Tiawan nuclear power plant which was constructed according to a Russian design in 2011. In 2018, Rosatom installed a 200-ton CLMD was installed in the Rooppur 1 Nuclear Power Plant that the Russians built in Bangladesh.
    At Kudankulam, the CLMD was installed under the reactor pit of Unit 3. Its design was modified for that particular site and Indian safety requirements. The CLMD has increased seismic resistance, hydro-dynamic and shock strength. It is equipped with flood protection and features simplified installation and assembly technology.
Rooppur1 core catcher: