Ambient office  = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Bartlett pear from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 52 nanosieverts per hour

On April 27, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said, “Promoting early-stage investment in advanced nuclear power technology will support a strong, domestic, nuclear energy industry now and into the future. Making these new investments is an important step to reviving and revitalising nuclear energy, and ensuring that our nation continues to benefit from this clean, reliable, resilient source of electricity. Supporting existing as well as advanced reactor development will pave the way to a safer, more efficient, and clean baseload energy that supports the U.S. economy and energy independence.”
       The Department of Energy has a program called the U.S.  Industry Opportunities for Advanced Nuclear Technology Development initiative for this purpose. Last December, the DoE announced that eight projects will receive sixty million dollars. There are three types of funding for this new initiative.
       First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) Nuclear Demonstration Readiness Projects provides funding for projects that focus on “major advanced reactor design development projects or complex technology advancements for existing plants which have significant technical and licensing risk, and have the potential to be deployed by the mid-to-late 2020s.” Advanced Reactor Development Projects focuses on “covering a broad scope of concepts and ideas that could improve the capabilities and commercialization potential of advanced reactor designs and technologies.” Regulatory Assistance grants provide support for “obtaining certification and licensing approvals for advanced reactor designs and capabilities.”
      These funding opportunities will run for five years. Applications will be accepted any time of the year and there is a quarterly selection process. As much as forty million dollars will be available for the remainder of fiscal year 2018.
       Under the First-of-a-Kind Nuclear Demonstration Readiness Projects NuScale Power will receive forty million dollars for its modular reactor development.
       X-Energy received four and a half million dollars for the design and license application for a fuel fabrication facility. This facility will handle high-assay, low-enriched uranium to produce U.S. developed Triso fuel. X-Energy is working on a seventy-five megawatt small modular high temperature gas-cooled pebble bed reactor called the Xe-100. The company is currently manufacturing uranium oxide/carbine-based fuel kernels, Triso particles and fuel pebbles at a pilot facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
     Under the Advanced Reactor Development Projects funding, BWXT Nuclear Energy received five million four hundred thousand dollars. They will work in conjunction with Oak Ridge National Laboratories on the development of additive materials manufacturing (also known as 3D printing) for the fabrication of nuclear components that will be acceptable in structure and strength to the U.S. national code organizations and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
      Projects from General Atomics, Elysium Industries USA, and NuVision Engineering Inc will also receive funding from the Advanced Reactor Development Projects pool of funds.
      Regulatory Assistance Grant funds will be made available to two projects. Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation receive half a million dollars for their work on the development of guidelines for online monitoring for the extension of calibration intervals for nuclear power plant instrumentation. General Atomics will receive three hundred and eighty-one thousand dollars for a pre-application review of a silicon carbine composite-clad uranium carbide fuel system for use in their gas-cooled fast reactor.
       An additional five companies have been selected to receive technology development vouchers under the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative. The following companies have received vouchers worth the dollar amounts in parentheses: Terrestrial Energy USA (USD500,000); Vega Wave Systems, Inc (USD130,000); Oklo, Inc (USD417,000); Urbix Resources, LLC (USD320,000); and ThorCon US, Inc (USD400,000). These companies will be able to use their vouchers to pay for services or use of facilities at any of the DoE national laboratories or Nuclear Science User Facility partner facilities.

Ambient office  = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Organic carrot from Central Market = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 50 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 46 nanosieverts per hour

       When the term “nuclear power” is used today, it is actually referring to reactors that utilize nuclear fission to generate electricity. Scientists have been working for decades to develop reactors that would use nuclear fusion. Currently there are at least six companies in the U.S. working on fusion reactors that are expected to be smaller, cheaper and safer than nuclear fission reactors with the added benefit of cheap fuel and no pollution or radioactive waste.
        Unfortunately, a sustained nuclear fusion reaction that could be used in a commercial power generator is not easy to achieve. Enormous temperature and pressure are needed. Often very powerful magnetic fields are used to confine a superheated plasma but it is difficult to control the plasma and keep it from touching the walls of the containment vessel and dissipating. There is a great deal research in fundamental plasma physics going on as part of the work on nuclear fusion power generation.
       The University of Michigan Center for Laser Experimental Astrophysical Research (CLEAR) is conducting a study which indicates that heat plays an important role in the mixing of materials during a fusion reaction. This factor has not received sufficient attention to date. The researchers are studying nuclear fusion in supernovas as well as small-scale fusion reactions generated in the lab. A key part of fusion reactions in both the supernovas and in the lab is something called Rayleigh-Taylor mixing.
      When a star goes supernova, plasmas of elements such as iron, carbon, helium and hydrogen are hurled outward. Supernova remnant clouds are created by the dynamic mixing of plasmas with different densities which is called Rayleigh-Taylor instability.
      The U of M scientists have concluded that the methods that have been used to model the plasma mixing that takes place in a supernova are incomplete. Energy fluxes that cause heating in the cloud of plasma have an important affect on the mixing. In spite of this, Rayleigh-Taylor instability has not been taken into consideration in astrophysical modeling.
      Carolyn Kuranz, is the director of U-M’s CLAER and an associate research scientist of climate and space sciences and engineering. She recently said, “Rayleigh-Taylor has been studied for over 100 years. But the effects of these high energy fluxes, these mechanisms that cause heating, have never been studied.”
      The U of M team found that with the increase in energy fluxes and the resulting heating, the amount of mixing and the Rayleigh Taylor instability were reduced. Kuranz said, “These heating mechanisms reduce mixing and can have a dramatic effect on the evolution of a supernova. In our experiment, we found that mixing was reduced by 30 percent and that reduction could continue to increase over time.”
        To research the way that heating affects a fusion reaction, the U of M researchers booked time on the largest laser in the world at the National Ignition Facility in Lawrence, CA. This facility uses lasers and heat to create a momentary fusion reaction. This creates conditions that resemble those in the cloud left over from a supernova explosion. Kuranz said, “Rayleigh-Taylor is theorized to occur in all Type II supernovae and there is evidence that these stars are turning themselves ‘inside out’ when they explode. These experiments help us learn what’s going on inside.”
       It is believed that observation of supernovas and controlled nuclear fusion reactions in the laboratory will have wide applications in the quest for commercial nuclear fusion power generation. Among other things, this research should help maximize the efficiency of energy generation.
      Kuranz said, “Right now, all of our nuclear plants are fission plants. But fusion tends to be more efficient and yield less nuclear waste. Instead of using plutonium or uranium, as with fission, fusion can be generated using lighter elements such as hydrogen isotopes. We have a nearly unlimited source of fusion fuel on Earth.”

Ambient office  = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Crimini mushroom from Central Market = 65 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 131 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 121 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)

        The entire WWER is enclosed in a massive steel shell and hermetically sealed. A concrete containment building contains the reactor and containment vessel is strong enough to contain the pressure of an explosion of the core.

       The containment zone in a WWER is an advanced safety system. It is designed to withstand the enormous pressure in the reactor’s core in the event of an emergency. It is built to be able to survive an earthquake that registers eight on the Richter Scale, one hundred and twenty mile an hour winds, powerful explosions and a four-hundred-ton plane crashing into the reactor at four hundred and twenty miles per hour.

       There is a special sprinkler system in the WWER that can spread boronated chemicals in the containment zone which reduces neutron flow and slows down nuclear reactions. This system is one of the few systems that must have electrical power to operate. Emergency generators are located some distance from the reactor itself to protect them in case of a serious emergency.

       Four passive systems are installed in the containment zone of a WWER that can function without human intervention or electrical power. First, there are tanks of boric acid that can absorb neutrons which will stop nuclear reactions. The tanks are located above the reactor and the valves can open even if power to the building fails.

       Second, passive coolant systems in the containment zone absorb extra heat and transfer it outside of the zone. Third, hydrogen “re-combiners” prevent hydrogen from building up to dangerous levels which protects the containment zone from internal explosions. And finally, there is a “melt-trap” below the reactor that can trap any nuclear fuel that leaks out of the core in a meltdown. It is composed of ferrous oxide and boric acid which will stop any chain reactions from occurring.

        Currently, Rosatom, the Russian-owned nuclear company, is working on fault tolerant fuel which will reduce the possibility of uncontrolled chain reactions and will also increase the efficiency of the reactor. The Modernized International Reactor (MIR) is a version of the twelve hundred megawatt WWER is being designed to satisfy the requirements of the European Union.

       Russia is also working on a WWER-600 version of the WWER twelve hundred WWER for sale to smaller markets. The first one of these will be built by 2030 for the Kola Nuclear Power Plant in northwest Russia.

       Russia recently installed two WWER 1000 reactors based on an update of an older design in Taiwan. This power plant has ninety four percent of its system automated which means that the plant can run autonomously without needing human intervention most of the time. They still have five operators in the control room for safety.

        All these safety features are impressive but, unfortunately, they are only as good as the integrity of the components and the competence and conscientiousness of those who constructs the reactor.