Ambient office  = 85 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 117 nanosieverts per hour

White onion from Central Market = 145 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 77 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole – Caught in USA = 110 nanosieverts per hour

        The Republic of Kazakhstan biggest country that is landlocked. It is the ninth biggest country inf the world. While the southern parts of the country are located on the continent of Asia, the northern parts are located on the continent of Europe. Kazakhstan is considered to be the economically dominant country of Central Asia. It accounts for about sixty percent of the GDP of the whole region.
       Uranium exploration began in Kazakhstan in 1943 but was not a viable business until the 1970. In the past fifty years, it has been a major global source of uranium for nuclear power reactors and nuclear weapons. Analysts say that Kazakhstan has about fifteen percent of the natural uranium reserves in the world in fifty deposits in six provinces. At this time, there are seventeen operational uranium mines that produce about twenty five percent of the uranium on the global market.
      In 2009, Kazakhstan became the leading producer of uranium in the world. In that year, it produced almost twenty eight percent of the worlds uranium. It accounted for thirty three percent in 2010, forty one percent in 2015 and thirty nine percent in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, uranium production peaked at twenty four thousand six hundred tons. Twenty three thousand four hundred tons was produced in 2018. There are plans to reduce production by about eight percent in 2018.
        Canada is the second biggest producer of uranium behind Kazakhstan. It used to be the biggest producer in the world but its production has been declining and it fell behind Kazakhstan in 2015. In 2014, it produced only about nine thousand tons. In 2015 production rose to about thirteen thousand three hundred tons. Canada started mining uranium in the 1940s and production rose and fell as market conditions and government involvement rose and fell. Since 2006, productions hovered around eleven thousand tons until rising to fifteen thousand seven hundred tons in 2015, sixteen thousand five hundred tons in 2016 and fifteen thousand tons in 2017. A major Canadian mine was shut down indefinitely in 2018.
       The spot price of uranium rose to almost thirty dollars a pound last week. This represents an increase of almost twenty percent since the beginning of 2018. The highest cost of uranium on the world market was one hundred and forty dollars in 2007.
        An analysis from BMO Capital Markets stated that the rise in uranium prices will continue as Kazakhstan and Canada cut production and stockpiles of uranium are dropping for the first time in ten years. The analysis predicts that uranium prices will rise slowly and may reach fifty five dollars a pound by 2023. The cut backs by top producers will halt the dropping prices and rising stockpiles that resulted from the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
       The price of uranium may be rising and stock piles diminishing but considering what happened to the Uranium market after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, all it will take is one major nuclear accident to cause another crash in world uranium prices.

Ambient office  = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 90 nanosieverts per hour

Peach from Central Market = 106 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 107 nanosieverts per hour

         I have blogged in the past about problems that NASA has with obtaining sufficient plutonium for nuclear batteries to supply power to space probes launched into deep space. Those problems have not been solved and NASA is facing a shortage of plutonium.
        Space probes sent beyond Earth orbit require long-lived steady sources of power for instruments. Solar panels can be used when probes are in the inner solar system but for mission to the outer planets, another source of power is needed.
        For decades, our outer space missions have been powered by the human-made isotope: plutonium-238. (Also known as Pu-238) This isotope is extremely radioactive and has a half-life of eighty-eight years. It can emit over five hundred watts of power for every kilogram that is present in a space probe.
        Pu-238 can be stored safely in the form of plutonium oxide (PuO2). This compound is highly resistant to many different kinds of potential problems. It forms a crystalling lattice which means that chunks do not break or chip off. It has a very high melting point and will remain a solid at temperatures over forty-nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It is very insoluable in water which means that if a satellite falls to earth in a body of water, it will not dissolve.
       Pu-238 has two uses on space probes. Radioisotope Heater Units are used to prevent instruments from freezing in space. Radioisotope Thermoelectric generators are small power sources that emit heat continuously which is used to generate electricity.
        Many in the space industry feel that Pu-238 should be the standard for space missions to the outer solar system. They have been successfully used by probes such as the Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2. Power sources utilizing Pu-238 are light weight, consistent, reliable, long lasting and self warming. They are immune to such problems as dust, shadowing and surface damage.
       The U.S. used to produce more than forty five pounds of Pu-238 per year as part of the production of nuclear weapons during the Cold War. The U.S. stopped producing Pu-238 in the 1980s as the Cold War drew to a close with the collapse of the Soviet Union. There were plans to produce about a hundred pounds of Pu-238 at the Savannah River Site starting in 1987 but those plans were abandoned.
      Many analysts believe that the dangers association with the nuclear arms race have prevented the production Pu-238 for other uses in the U.S. The U.S. stockpile of Pu-238 is at the lowest level it have ever been. There is enough left to power the 2020 Mars Rover and one other deep space mission such as the Europa Clipper which is scheduled for the mid-2020s.
       For the past twenty-five years, almost all of the thirty six pounds of Pu-238 used by NASA has been purchased from Russia. There have been a few attempts to restart Pu-238 production in the U.S. during that time but most of them were not implemented. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory started producing Pu0238 in 2013. Less than a pound of Pu-238 is being produced each year. They hope to be producing a little over three pounds a year by 2023. The Ontario Power Generation in Canada has also started producing Pu-238 which will provide a backup for NASA.
      NASA has ambitions for many future space probes but without Pu-238 as a power source, NASA will not be able to accomplish them. With respect to safety, efficiency, weight, power output and design optimization, no other power source can equal Pu-238.

Ambient office  = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 85 nanosieverts per hour

Snap pea from Central Market = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 70 nanosieverts per hour

       The Z Pulsed Power Facility (Z Machine) is the largest high frequency electromagnetic wave generator in the world. It was designed and constructed to test the behavior of materials in extreme temperature and pressure. It evolved from previous machines to its current configuration in 1996. It is used primarily as an inertial confinement fusion research facility. It gathers data to help with computer modeling of nuclear weapons and to help model processes in nuclear fusion pulsed power plants. It is operated by the Sandia National Laboratories.
       The U.S. Z Machine fires two and three quarters million joules of energy at a target consisting of a small spool wound with hundreds of tungsten wires that are thinner than a human hair. When the pulse passes through the tungsten wires, they explode, evaporate and create a plasma with a powerful magnetic field that forces the particles in the plasma together. The particles collide and produce intense radiation that consist mostly of X-rays. This creates conditions that imitate a real nuclear explosion.
       China is currently working on their own version of the Z Machine. This Z Machine will produce much more electricity in a sharp pulse that the U.S. Z Machine. The Chinese Z Machine is being built for the Chinese military by the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics at the Chinese nuclear weapons development base in the city of Mianyang. It is expected to be operational by 2022. 
       The Chinese Z Machine will produce about sixty million joules of energy in a fraction of a second. This is over twenty times the two and three quarters million joules generated by the U.S. Z Machine. A Chinese nuclear physicist said, “The intensity is unprecedented. With so much energy, we can heat a target to more than 100 million degrees Celsius. It will dwarf the machine in Sandia.” Liu Bo is an associate professor with the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. He said that the Chinese Z Machine might be powerful enough to start nuclear fusion in the compressed plasma cloud.
       The Chinese say that they are not involved in a nuclear arms race with the U.S. and Russia. However, a Chinese newspaper recently said that the Chinese Z Machine was going to be used to surpass the U.S. in nuclear weapons development. One Chinese commentator said that the Chinese have an advantage in such research because of continuing strong support from the Chinese government.
       There are very serious technical challenges in the development of Z Machines that face both the U.S. and Chinese research efforts. One major technical problem that faces Z Machines is the possibility that fusion in a Z Machine could produce a huge quantity of fast neutron which would weaken or damage critical components.
       The Chinese may use their Z Machine to develop what is called a “pure” fusion bomb. Such a bomb could be made any size. It would cost a fraction of the cost of building current nuclear warheads. Theoretically, a pure fusion bomb would burn “cleanly” and not produce any radioactive fallout.