The fear of an all-out nuclear war between Russia and the U.S. has been increasing in the past few years as tensions between the two super power have increased. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in around 1991 and the end of the Cold War it was hoped that money that had poured into weaponry could be redirected to domestic use in what some called the “peace dividend.” Unfortunately, spending on weapons is rising once again that the specter of nuclear war is in the headlines.
       While the Soviet Union was seen as the main threat to the U.S. in terms of nuclear weapons, China also develop nuclear weapons. China was an ideological foe of the U.S. and also a potential nuclear threat. Today, although China is expanding its nuclear arsenal, it is committed to never use nuclear weapons first and it maintains only a retaliatory capacity.
       During the Cold War, the U.S. feared both the Soviet Union and China. They were both communist countries hostile to the U.S. Most people in the U.S. assumed that they were on the “same page” and united by their opposition to the U.S. However, it turns out that this is not the whole story.
        Around 1950, both the Soviet Union and China sent fighter pilots to North Korea to support North Korea in the Korean War. Pilots from both countries shot down U.S. planes and killed U.S. pilots. This was a high point in relations between the Soviet Union and China. During this time, China was basically a client state for the Soviet Union which was bigger, richer and armed with nuclear weapons. As the 1950s came to a close, Chinese desire to also be a nuclear power rose.
        In 1964, China detonated its first atomic warhead and joined the small club of nuclear powers. Tensions were already rising between China and Russia over border disputes and China’s entrance into the nuclear club aggravated those tensions. They fought skirmishes across their long shared border. Both countries built up their troop numbers and invested in conventional weaponry as well as chemical and biological weapons.
      In 1969, China and the Soviet Union engaged in what came to be known as the Sino-Soviet border conflict which lasted for seven months. China refused to be intimidated by the Soviet Union and brought unwanted international attention to the conflict. During that summer, representatives of the Soviet Union began to quietly contact other nations and suggest that it might be necessary to carry out surgical nuclear strikes against China to destroy its nuclear capability.
       China and the Soviet Union carried out bilateral discussions in 1970 and that eventually resulted in peace between the two countries. Perhaps the Soviets were bluffing and just trying to scare China into capitulating. On the other hand, maybe the threat was real. In any case, the Cold War went on and the U.S. continued to plan for a possible nuclear war with the Soviets. Fortunately, the world has been able to avoid nuclear war since 1945 and the end of World War II. Hopefully that will continue to be the case.

Ambient office  =  91 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 121 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

       One of my big concerns with nuclear power is that government regulators often fail to insure that plant operators comply with government regulations and that corporations operating nuclear power plants often ignore regulations in the name of profit. I have often blogged about this problem. Today I am going to write about a good example of what drives my concern.
       The Crystal River Nuclear Plant is located in Crystal River, Florida near Tampa Bay. Plant construction ended in 1976 and the plant operated safely for thirty-three years until it was shut down permanently in 2014. It is currently owned by Duke Power.
       Ten years ago, the power was turned off in order to carry out refueling and a complex upgrade plan. Two steam generators were to be replaced and the power output increased by 20 percent. In order to replace the steam generators, it would be necessary to cut a hole in the containment vessel for the reactor.
        There were two companies in the U.S. at that time which had the expertise and experience to carry out the replacement of the steam generators.  Between the two of these companies, they had successfully carried out similar work at thirty-four other nuclear power plants. Both of these companies bid on the Crystal River project with eighty-one million dollars being the low bid. Instead of contracting either experienced company, Progress Energy, the owners of the Crystal River plant at that time, decided to carry up the work themselves. They estimated that they would save as much as fifteen million dollars by doing it themselves. Although a standard process had been developed as the other thirty-four such upgrades proceeded, Progress Power decided that they would do it their way and ignore the earlier upgrades.
        Steel rods and four hundred and twenty-six steel bands were embedded in the walls of the containment vessel for reinforcement. Before cutting through the wall of the containment vessel, some of the steel bands needed to be loosed. This was a costly and lengthy process. The usual practice in the past had been to avoid loosening steel bands that were adjacent. In addition, in the other upgrades, the steel bands were partially loosened early in the work and then completely loosened later.
       Progress Power decided that they did not need to follow the previous process. They decided that they would not loosen as many steel bands as had been loosened during the other upgrades. They also decided to loosen adjacent bands and to relieve the tensions on the bands all at once. One of the construction foremen on the Crystal River job warned Progress Power that he had never seen such work done in this way.
        A few months into the job, workers were cutting a twenty-five by twenty-seven foot hole in the side of the containment vessel when they discovered a big crack. When they repaired the first crack, they created a second crack. Then a third crack appeared. The cost of repairing these cracks which appeared to be the fault of the Progress Power do it yourself approach was estimated to be a billion dollars.
       In 2013, the Crystal River nuclear plant was still shut down when it was purchased by Duke Energy. The next year, Duke permanently closed the Crystal River nuclear plant. The closed plant will need to be decommissioned at a cost of around a billion dollars.
       Corporate incompetence and greed resulted in the loss of an operational power plant and a great deal of money.

Ambient office  =  87 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 167 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 168 nanosieverts per hour

Carrot from Central Market = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 85 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
        The Seawolf-class submarines were designed to be stealthier, more heavily armed and able to match the speed and maneuverability of any adversary. As might be expected, these features did not come cheap. The initial cost estimate was thirty-three billion dollars to construct twelve of the new design. In 2018 dollars, the cost would be about five billion dollars per submarine which is three times the cost of one Los Angeles-class sub. It turned out that the HY-100 steel was prone to extensive weld-cracking problems which required massive reconstruction.
        Soon after the construction of the Seawolf class of subs began, the Soviet Union fell apart. The Soviet subs were docked and rusting and the massive investment of the U.S. in new expensive powerful subs was called into question. The initial Seawolf-class order was reduced from twelve to three. The Seawolf, the Connecticut and the Jimmy Carter were launched between 1995 and 2004. All three of these new subs are based at the Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base in Washington State.
       The Jimmy Carter was modified at an additional cost of more than eight hundred and eighty million dollars. It was made about a hundred feet longer. This was done in order to add a special Multi-Mission Platform which can carry divers or manned or unmanned underwater reconnaissance vehicles which can be deployed through special locks in the hull. The Jimmy Carter also has special thrusters that will allow it to maneuver precisely in dangerous shallow waters or ocean floors. And, finally, it carries special instruments that will allow it to tap undersea cables that carry the Internet and other long-distance communication travel.
      The missions of the Jimmy Carter remain secret. It has received multiple unit citations for unreported reasons which indicate that it has been busy. It has been reported that the Jimmy Carter deployed an aerial drone to spy on North Korean coastal artillery.
       All of the Seawolf-class subs activities have been kept secret. There have been very few pictures or articles relating to the new class of subs made available to the public. There have been reports that the subs have been traveling under the ice covering the Arctic Ocean. Some of these trips have been used to test special sonar and communication equipment. None of the Seawolf-class subs has been engaged in any combat operations.
      The Virginia-class subs being built now are cheaper than the Seawolf-class at one billion eight hundred million dollars each. They do not have some of the bulk and specials fittings of the Seawolf-class, but they do make use of some of the advanced technology on the Seawolf-class. They have stealth pump water jets for propulsions. Some of the latest Virginia-class subs have vertical launch cells for rapid land-attacks.
       The Seawolf-class may see its numbers rise as a new underwater arms races has risen between the U.S., Russia and China. China will soon have a bigger fleet but many of their subs are short range diesel subs and even their nuclear subs are much noisier than the Virginia and Seawolf-classes. Russia is developing enhanced successors to their Akula and Borei-classes of subs.

Ambient office  =  84 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 72 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 70 nanosieverts per hour

Beefsteak tomato from Central Market = 76 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 56 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
              I have blogged about nuclear submarines in the arsenals of nuclear-armed nations before. The Chinese, Russians, U.K, France, the U.S., Pakistan and India all have nuclear submarines that can launch nuclear-tipped missiles. These constitute a leg of what is called the nuclear triad. The other two legs are nuclear bombers and ICBM with nuclear warheads. The nuclear submarines are seen as providing the ultimate retaliation capability if the other two legs of the nuclear triad have been destroyed by an enemy. Today, I am going to talk about the most advanced nuclear submarine possessed by the U.S. Navy.
        By the late 1950s, the Soviet navy had nuclear powered submarines that could reach twice the maximum depth of most of the U.S. subs. Often the Soviet subs had a higher maximum speed. However, despite these advantages, they had a very significant disadvantage against U.S. subs. The Soviet subs were a lot noisier.
        U.S. subs were able to easily detect and trail Soviet subs from a distance that made the U.S. subs undetectable by the Soviet subs. However, by the 1980s, the Soviets were improving their acoustic stealth technology. The Soviet Navy had acquired propeller-milling technology from Toshiba and Kongsberg companies. This allowed the Soviets to create a much quieter seven bladed propeller on their new Akula-class subs.
       The Pentagon concluded that the Akula-class subs had superior specification to most of the Los Angles-class subs that constituted the majority of operational U.S. subs. In 1983, the U.S. began development of the biggest, fastest, and quietest attack submarine they could imagine to regain U.S. superiority over Soviet Subs.
        The construction of the U.S.S. Seawolf began at Electric Boats in October of 1989. It would be about three hundred and fifty feet long which is more than a football field and displace over nine thousand tons when submerged. The Los Angeles-class subs carried thirty seven torpedoes in four tubes.  The Seawolf was armed with fifty heavy-weight 533-millimeter Mark 48 torpedoes or Harpoon anti-ship missiles. These could be launched from eight extra-large 660 mm torpedo tubes. Surface-attack Tomahawk missiles could also be launched from these tubes.
        The Seawolf-class of subs is made of a special high strength steel called HY-100. Its conning tower is reinforced so it can cope with operations in Arctic Ice. The S6W pressurized water reactor gives the Seawolf-class an incredible forty miles per hour top speed that allow it to chase down any sub currently in the arsenal of any other country.
       The most important advanced technology incorporated in the Seawolf-class involved acoustic stealth. The Seawolf-class generates one tenth of the noise of the quietest Los Angeles-class subs. The Seawolf-class generates about ninety-five decibels in the ocean where the background noise is ninety decibels.
        In addition, the Seawolf-class utilizes a jet propulsion pump system instead of the standard propellers that powered the Los Angeles-class. This means that the Seawolf-class can maintain its super quiet operation even traveling at twenty-three miles per hour which is much faster than other subs could travel while remaining in stealth mode.
        The Seawolf-class has a twenty-four-foot diameter spherical sonar array on its bow. It also has wide-aperture flank arrays and can tow TB-16D and TB-29 sonar arrays. The information gained by these sensors is fed to the BSY-2 combat system on the Seawolf-class. The Seawolf-class can engage multiple targets simultaneously with their Mark 48 torpedoes. The Mark 48 can be guided by wire from the sub or with their own sonar.
Please read Part 2 next