Most of the nuclear power reactors in the U.S. were built in the 1970s and 1980s. They were licensed for forty years and many have reached that age or will reach it soon. Some operators have applied for permits to operate their reactors for an additional twenty years and most of these applications have been granted. Materials used to build nuclear reactors age and deteriorate over time. The big question that needs to be answered is whether or not it is safe to continue operating reactors well past their original licensed lifespan.
     The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (or CASL, for short) was created during the Obama administration to help extend the life of nuclear power reactors. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). CASL has been working on the creation and refinement of a reactor modeling program they call Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA).
      VERA provides a high-resolution computer model of nuclear reactor equipment. It can simulate safety concerns, reactor startups, and fuel-rod behavior, and other processes, equipment and materials. David Kropaczek is the director of CASL. He says that it might be possible to extends commercial power reactor operations to one hundred years but only if we understand how extended lifespans would affect the materials in the reactor. VERA appears to be able to accurately show how reactor materials age.
       It is hoped that VERA will enable nuclear power plant operators to do away with some of the extreme conservatism which was applied in the construction of old nuclear power reactors. By using VERA, plant operators should be able to identify which reactor components need to be replaced in order to keep the reactor in operation safely.
       The development of VERA was supported by real-world data from private companies including Westinghouse which designs reactors and distributes nuclear fuel, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Electric Power Research Institute.
        Another application for VERA will be to model the affect of grid demand changes on nuclear reactors. When the full output of a reactor is not needed, some reactors can have their output turned down which is called load-following. This stresses the nuclear fuel and there is a question of exactly how much this stress can damage the fuel. As long as the stress can be minimized, more load-following could be available.
       Kropaczek says “Nuclear power plants need to be boring with respect to operations, with respect to the fuel. I don’t want to see any surprises—that’s the goal of a plant: nothing happens. Load-following is no longer steady state and boring. We need to go from 100 percent to 50 percent power and back again. So you’re worried about the fuel and stresses on the fuel and things are changing. VERA can actually… model fuel behavior for load-follow, [reporting] what the fueling is going to do and what is the fuel operating level?… We can look at every fuel rod, every fuel pellet in the core; we can look at those stresses in the fuel.”
      CASL is working on making VERA available to many U.S. utilities. They are installing VERA on a one thousand core computing cluster at the Idaho National Laboratory this month. They will be training twenty-four people from twelve different nuclear power companies.
       The use of VERA should allow existing nuclear reactors to be operated safely for longer periods of time that their original licenses permit. Hopefully, this will allow extra time for the development of advanced nuclear reactors and economical renewable energy installations.

Ambient office  = 121 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Orange bell pepper from Central Market = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

       China has a nuclear policy that says that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict with other nations. However, their policy also says that the Chinese nuclear capability must be able to survive a nuclear attack and retaliate against an enemy.
       Qian Qihu is affiliated with both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He recently received the 2018 State Preeminent Science and Technology Award which is the highest Chinese defense award. The award was presented to Qian by President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing last Thursday. The award included a cash prized of about one million two hundred thousand dollars.
       In a recent interview, Qian spoke about China’s “Underground Steel Great Wall.” He said that this Great Wall could guarantee the security of China’s nuclear arsenal against a nuclear attack including being hit with the new generation of hypersonic weapons under development.
       The Underground Steel Great Wall is a series of defense facilities buried deep under mountains in China. The facilities are protected from nuclear attacks by the mountains above them. However, the entrances and exits from these facilities are more vulnerable than the facilities themselves. Qian’s expertise was enlisted to provide more protection from those entrances and exits.
       China has a strategic missile interception system, anti-missile systems and air defense systems. If all of these defenses fail in an attack by hypersonic weapons, the Underground Steel Great Wall will still protect the underground facilities.
        Qian said, “The development of the shield must closely follow the development of spears. Our defense engineering has evolved in a timely manner as attack weapons pose new challenges.” Hypersonic weapons can travel at up to ten times the speed of sound. They are capable of penetrating any existing missile defense system.
        Qian says that “National defense challenges do not only emerge from the development of advanced attack weapons but are also a result of an unpredictable international environment.” He mentioned the fact that the Trump Administration in the U.S. is considering lowering the threshold for deploying nuclear weapons.
        Qian was asked by an interviewer how he would spend the award. He said that he would contribute part of the award to national defense research and would give the rest to social welfare projects such as supporting poor students and fighting poverty. He also said, “I have never had a thought of earning any prize money for my research, nor would I think it came too late. I am only grateful that national recognition offers a great opportunity to raise the public’s national defense awareness.”
       A Chinese military expert and television commentator said that Qian’s work guaranteed the safety of China’s strategic nuclear weapons, launch and storage facilities. The nation’s military commanders would also be protected by the Underground Steel Great Wall in case of a nuclear attack.
       While it is certainly possible that burying facilities under mountains could protect them from a nuclear attack, there are special munitions being developed specifically to penetrate deep into the ground to attack such facilities. And even if the facilities themselves are protected, it is difficult to imagine exactly how exits and entrances could be made invulnerable to attack.

Ambient office  = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 154 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 154 nanosieverts per hour

Yukon Gold potato from Central Market = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 71 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 128 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 131 nanosieverts per hour

Broccoli from Central Market = 95 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 72 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 65 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 167 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 171 nanosieverts per hour

Leek from Central Market = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 72 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole – Caught in USA = 100 nanosieverts per hour