One of the major problems that could impact the global nuclear industry is a meltdown at a nuclear power plant. When the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan was destroyed by flooding following a tsunami in March of 2011, the shock of the accident reverberated around the world. Germany decided to retire all of its nuclear power reactors. Other countries put nuclear projects on hold while they studied the disaster. The Obama administration ordered a national emergency review of all one hundred U.S. nuclear power reactors. Eventually many countries drafted new more stringent safety regulation for nuclear power plants to avoid a repeat of the Fukushima disaster.
       The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is issuing major new regulations this spring to codify some of the measures taken by U.S. nuclear power plants in response to Fukushima. A NRC spokesperson said in an interview that “The NRC remains satisfied that the overall response to what we learned from Fukushima means U.S. nuclear power plants have appropriately enhanced their already robust ability to safely withstand severe events of any kind.”
       The new post-Fukushima set of NRC regulations are referred to as the “Mitigation of Beyond-Design-Basis Events rule.” The U.S. nuclear industry is being given about two years to comply with the new safety regulation regarding earthquakes and other events that could cause a leak of radioactive materials that would pose a threat to public health and the environment. These new regulations are called “major” because an analysis of their impact indicates that the cost will be over a hundred million dollars. There are three major requirements for the Owners of commercial nuclear power reactors.
        First, steps must be taken to insure that reactor cores are kept properly cooled in the event that the emergency electricity supply is damaged or destroyed. In addition, modifications and procedures must be put into place to keep spent fuel cooling pools full of water in the event of an emergency that cuts all emergency power.
        Second, the nuclear power plant operators must install equipment that can be relied upon to accurately measure the water levels in the spent nuclear fuel cooling pools. When nuclear fuel rods have been used up in a reactor core, they are very radioactive and must be kept in a cooling pool for up to five years in order for some of the radioactivity to dissipate. Once removed from the cooling pools, spent fuel rods will have to be stored onsite in dry casks at each nuclear power plant because there is no permanent national repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel.
       Third, every nuclear power plant must “reserve the resources” necessary to physically protect the reactor cores and spent fuel pools from external threats that might breach the walls of the plant and/or the reactor containment vessels.
       The NRC states that it will be proactive with respect to the assessment of future risks that might arise outside of the current rule making process. This includes analyses of the need for additional improvements to nuclear power plants to deal with upgraded risk assessments for flooding and/or seismic events.

Ambient office  =  93 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 62 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
       Tom Scott is a professor of nuclear materials at the University of Bristol. His team works with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency on the Fukushima cleanup. They found slightly larger radioactive beads near the plant. Tom Scott’s group has theorized that each reactor may have formed a specific combination of particles in the beads created when they were destroyed. This would help scientists understand exactly how the meltdowns were similar and different.
        Scott’s group is using information from its study of these radioactive glass beads to create and refine maps of contamination and radiation risk around the ruins of the Fukushima plant. The cesium contaminated beads were not distributed as widely by the disaster as other forms of cesium in the radioactive plume which were carried around the world. They are mainly found in the contamination zone establish around the Fukushima plant. Some beads were also found in an air filter in Tokyo which is over one hundred and fifty miles from the Fukushima plant.
      Researchers found that while less cesium fell on Tokyo than near the Fukushima site, more of the Tokyo cesium was in the form of the glass beads. These research finding were scheduled to be published in 2017 in Scientific Reports but publication of the report was delayed because a group that provided an air filter to the researchers were unhappy with its mention in the report.
       There was no evidence of wrong doing and the conclusions of the report were not questioned. After two years of arguments about the rights to use the information about the air filter, the journal dropped its offer to publish the study. Fortunately, a description of the key findings of the unpublished study was eventually published.
      A deep understanding of the nature of the glass beads, how they moved and how far they spread is critical to assessing any potential health and environmental risks they may pose. Researchers are trying to determine how long it may take for such beads to dissolve in water. It is known that they will disintegrate very slowly, releasing their radioactive contents like a time release capsule releases medication. If their disintegration takes long enough, the radioactive materials they contain may decay before they are released. It turns out that there is little reason for serious concern with respect to the cesium in the beads.
        Some of the radioactive glass bead contain uranium and may contain plutonium. Both of these elements are chemically toxic and could be a danger to health. Particles with uranium have only been found near the ruins of the power plant. It is not clear how much a threat these particular beads constitute.
       Researchers have found that these radioactive glass beads tend to accumulate at particular points on the Japanese landscape such as river bends or in rain drain downspouts after being washed off roofs by rain. This fact could result in the creation of radioactive hotspots. There is also concern that some of these particles might become airborne again and spread further. Some research has indicated that these beads quickly become buried in soil and are unlikely to become airborne.
        A clear understanding of the nature and behavior of these radioactive glass bead will assist in decontamination work around Fukushima. So far, top layers of soil are being removed and buildings are being pressure washed. Research on these radioactive beads continues today.

Ambient office  =  87 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Garlic bulb from Central Market = 124 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 64 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 46 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
       On March 11, 2011, an earthquake off the Japanese coast caused a tidal wave that led to flooding of a nuclear power plant on the coast of the Fukushima Prefect. Three of the reactors melted down and one of those exploded which destroyed a fourth reactor. A huge plume of dirt, debris, and smoke containing radioactive materials was spewed into the air above the site and spread over that part of Japan. What was not known until 2013 was that the material in the radioactive plume released by the explosions also contained glass beads the size of bacteria that contained high levels of radioactive cesium.
       These radioactive beads have been found in soil and air samples all over the zone contaminated by the disaster. The beads are of special concern because they contain much higher levels of radioactive cesium than the other particles in the radioactive plume. Because they are tiny, they are easily inhaled deep into the lungs. Because they have a glass shell, they tend not to dissolve in body fluids. This means that they could continue to damage body tissues for a long time if inhaled.
       In addition to posing a major health threat, these particles are also of scientific interest because a close examination of them can shed light on exactly what happened when the reactors exploded. This may be of use in deciding exactly how to proceed with the clean up of the Fukushima site.
      Following the accident, it was first thought that all of the radioactive cesium released in the disaster would be a form that could dissolve in water so it would be distributed pretty evenly throughout the environment contaminated by the disaster. When the scientists examined the contamination, they found radioactive hotspots that contained high levels of cesium as well as bits of iron and zinc. These hotspots were enclosed in a shell of silica or glass. Within a few miles of the nuclear power plant, the beads also contained tiny pieces of uranium dioxide nuclear fuel from the reactor cores.
      The cesium beads were produced early in the meltdown following the flooding. The reactor cooling systems were damaged by the tsunami which resulted in the fuel heating up. As the temperature rose, the metal cladding covering the fuel rods began to break down and release hydrogen gas. Apparently, a spark triggered an explosion in the accumulating hydrogen gas. The glass beads contain a physical record of the sequence of chemical reactions that took place as a result of the disaster. This helps scientists form a timeline of damage and may help them devise a better strategy for cleaning up the damaged reactors.
      The composition of the beads indicates that cesium and other fission products were vaporized during the meltdown of the cores and ultimate condensed like rain drops. The condensing clusters of fission products attracted bits of iron dioxide and zinc dioxide that had been created by the corrosion and disintegration of the cladding on the fuel rods. Some of the silica in the concrete of the plant buildings vaporized into silicon dioxide which condensed around the clusters of fission products, iron and zinc.
Please read Part 2

Ambient office  =  97 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 90 nanosieverts per hour

Carrot from Central Market = 122 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 52 nanosieverts per hour

        The Chinese are pursuing a number of different alternative energy sources and nuclear power designs to permit the elimination of coal fired power plants which are causing terrible pollution in many cities in China. They have been very aggressive in planning and constructing nuclear fission reactors. They have also been making great progress in the development and production of solar power systems.
        In addition to energy production systems that are refinements of existing systems, the Chinese are also working on the development of nuclear fusion for power generation. Nuclear fusion, if possible, could be much cheaper, safer and produce much less dangerous waste than nuclear fission reactors.
       One of the main approached to nuclear fusion has been the tokamak design. A donut shaped chamber surrounded by powerful magnets is used to confine and heat a plasma of light elements such as hydrogen to pressures and temperatures found in the heart of the sun. Under the right conditions, it should be possible to fuse lighter elements into heavier elements with the release of substantial harvestable energy. Tokamak research has been going on since the first one was constructed in 1955. Today, there are tokamak research projects going on around the world including a huge international project in France referred to as ITER.
       China has been operating their Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor in Hefei since construction was completed in March of 2006 and it has been in operation ever since. It is referred to in China as HT-7U and is the first tokamak in the world to employ toroidal and poloidal magnets. It has been estimated that it was built at a cost about five percent of what the cost of construction would have been in another technologically advanced country.
       The HT-7U passed an important plasma containment milestone last November. It is hoped that reaching this milestone will allow the speedy completion of an even more advanced tokamak called the HL-2M which Chinese scientists hope could even be built this year.
        China has been able to use the HT-7U reactor to create temperatures of over one hundred million degrees on the Celsius scale. This temperature is hotter than the interior of the sun. Chinese scientists were able to maintain this temperature in the HT-7U reactor for sixty seconds but they need to able to sustain it for a thousand seconds or longer. If the researchers are able to sustain this high temperature in the HT-7U reactor for a sufficient period of time, they believe that they will be able to finalize the design of the HL-2M Tokamak and proceed with its construction.

       Duan Xuru is an official at the China National Nuclear Corporation. He believes that it will be possible to build the HL-2M this year. He told the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that “The artificial sun’s plasma is mainly composed of electrons and ions and the country’s existing Tokamak devices have achieved an electron temperature of over 100 million degrees C in its core plasma, and an ion temperature of 50 million C, and it is the ion that generates energy in the device.”