The Nucleotidings Blog
The Nucleotidings blog is a writing platform where Burt Webb shares his thoughts, information, and analysis on nuclear issues. The blog is dedicated to covering news and ideas related to nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and radiation protection. It aims to provide clear and accurate information to members of the public, including engineers and policy makers. Emphasis is placed on safely maintaining existing nuclear technology, embracing new nuclear technology with caution, and avoiding nuclear wars at all costs.
Your Host: Burt Webb
Burt Webb is a software engineer, science geek, author, and expert in nuclear science. Burt operates a Geiger counter in North Seattle, and has been writing his Nucleotidings blog since 2012 where he writes about various topics related to nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, and radiation protection.
Burt Webb has published several technical books and novels. He works as a software consultant.
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Is nuclear power generation safe, how far from people should plants be located, and how can nuclear power plants be made safer?
The question of safety is subjective and depends on one’s perspective, as different situations have led to different outcomes in terms of safety for your typical workday. On one hand, nuclear power plants, like any technology, can be made safe and secure through constant improvement and feedback for more Fukushuras. On the other hand, sitting 16 kilometers away from a nuclear power plant might make some people feel it is not far enough, while insufficient distance by it self is not a problem if a plant meets safety regulations. Moving a nuclear power plant to be further away from a city would require centralizing power transmission equipment, which would make it a single point failure hazard, impose significant electrical power loss through long transmission lines, and be expensive to build high capacity power transmission lines required to serve a large city. Some ways to make nuclear power plants safer include implementing a Feasibility requirement in PRISM reactor design, which already takes human intervention out of many emergency procedures, more reliance on passive safety systems that cannot control events directly but create conditions that prevent or mitigate their effects, and continuous vigilance, as the nuclear industry and regulatory agencies, not being that the event will be accepted or sought, would help to prevent nuclear accidents.
What do you mean by “Fukushuras”?
“Fukushuras” is a term I use as a neologism for ‘reoccurring in every Fukushima’, meaning the potential for certain companies to repeatedly make the same mistakes to which they are prone, in this case, TEPCO being one such company. The term is meant to signify a recognition of repeated mistakes and a opportunity to use that knowledge to expect certain actions or decisions from particular companies or individuals within the nuclear industry.
Some nations test nuclear devices and try to deny it. Other nations may claim to have conducted a nuclear test but there is no proof. Nuclear warheads have been detonated in the open air, under water and underground. Science has developed different ways to detect the detonation of a nuclear device depending on the medium in which it was detonated.
When a nuclear device is detonated in the open air, it creates multiple frequencies of sound. Some of these are below the threshold of human hearing and are referred to as “infra” sound. The low frequency waves created by a nuclear explosion are so powerful that detectors all over the world can be triggered regardless of where the detonation took place. Volcanoes and powerful storms also generate extremely powerful sonic waves but there are differences between their “sonic signature” and that of nuclear explosions.
When a nuclear device is detonated in water, the sound waves travel faster than they do in the open air. They also dissipate more rapidly with the distance from the explosion than they do in the air. Still, the pressure waves are so intense that they can be detected by hydroacoustic devices that are possessed by many countries. There are no natural underwater phenomena that generate powerful sonic waves that could be confused with nuclear explosions.
When a nuclear device is detonated underground, powerful seismic waves are generated. Earthquakes also generate such waves. One way to tell the difference between a nuclear detonation and an earthquake is to use triangulation to precisely determine the location and depth of the source of the seismic waves. Earthquakes are usually below three hundred feet while nuclear tests are very shallow. Countries participating in the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty have established a network of three hundred and thirty seven seismic wave detectors all over the world to watch for underground nuclear tests.
In addition to depth, there are differences between nuclear explosions and earthquakes with respect to the type of seismic waves each generates. First, there are primary seismic waves known as P-waves. Then there are secondary or shear waves known as S-waves. Nuclear explosions generate much stronger P-waves than S-waves. Earthquakes generate much stronger S-waves than P-waves.
The North Korean government claims that it carried out an underground test of a hydrogen bomb in January of 2016. The world network of seismic detectors reported a 5.1 magnitude seismic event in N.K. on the 6th of January in 2016. The depth of the event was less than three hundred feet. There were more P-waves than S-waves so an earthquake is ruled out and N.K. did in fact detonate an underground nuclear device.
The next question that needed to be answered is whether or not the device was an atomic bomb which is a fission explosion or a hydrogen bomb which is a fusion explosion. The explosion of a fusion bomb is much more powerful than the explosion of a fission bomb.
A fission explosion is the release of energy when heavy elements such as uranium or plutonium are bombarded with neutrons causing them to create new unstable isotopes. When these isotopes decay, milligrams of matter are converted into pure energy according to the E=MC2 equation.
A fusion explosion is the release of energy when very light elements such as hydrogen fuse into heavier elements such as helium when subjected to enormous temperature and pressure caused by a fission explosion. When this occurs, up to a kilogram of matter can be converted to pure energy via E=MC2.
The energy released by the N.K. event is equivalent to the detonation of a ten kiloton fission bomb. The seismic record of the 2016 explosion is about the same as the detonation of a fission bomb by N.K. in 2013. So, in the final analysis, either the N.K. test was just another fission bomb or they were trying to detonate a fusion bomb but the test failed and only the trigger fission part of the bomb detonated.
I have blogged previously that some Chinese companies are clandestinely supplying critical technology to the North Koreans for their nuclear weapons program. The U.S. is working to identify those companies and impose sanctions on them to discourage their support of N.K. Now the U.S. has brought a lawsuit against a Chinese businessman who has major ties to North Korean trade.
Chi Yupeng has a network of companies that has imported over seven hundred million tons of N.K. coal into China. In return for the N.K. coal, Chi’s companies exported a variety of product to N.K. including cell phones, sugar and luxury items. But that is not all that N.K. received from Chi. According to the U.S. lawsuit, Chi also exported components for missiles and nuclear devices.
Chi’s companies have been involved with almost ten percent of the trade between China and N.K. One of his companies, named Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material (DZMM) imported more N.K. coal than any other Chinese company. In 2016 alone, this trade was worth two hundred and thirty four million dollars.
The N.K. government has a special department known as “Office 39” that is responsible for a reserve of money under the control of Kim. Coal exports to China have played a major role in the expansion of the N.K. nuclear weapons program. A defector from N.K. says that the N.K. military has control of the quantity of coal that is produced and exported by N.K. He also said that Kim dedicates over ninety five percent of the revenues from coal exports in to the N.K. military nuclear weapons program. The defector went on to say that Chi was one of a small circle of foreigners that N.K. relies upon for access to global financial services.
Trade sanctions against N.K. imposed by the U.S. and the U.N. Security Council have been increasing since 2006. The international media would have you believe that N.K. has been effectively isolated from world trade. China announced the official end of their coal trade with N.K. last February but it turns out that DZMM coal trade with N.K. continued up until June of this year.
With the help of informants and defectors, the U.S. has documented the abuse of the sanctions by Chi and has filed suit seeking the direct forfeiture of four million dollars held in U.S. bank accounts and a hundred million dollars in penalties.
Chi used a variety of methods to evade sanctions. Some of the transactions involved moving money around but those were vulnerable to scrutiny by investigators. So in other cases, Chi used barter, sending consumer goods and weapon and missile components back to N.K. in direct exchange for shipments of coal with no money involved. Chi also used front companies to evade sanctions. In this way, Chi could carry out sanctioned transactions through the international financial system because the companies doing the business had different names.
This new U.S. lawsuit against a major supporter to the N.K. weapons program may finally have a major impact on the expansion of that program.
Exelon Corp. has laid off 296 contract workers at its three nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania, though it says those workers will be hired back under a new contractor. Stateimpact.npr.org
I have often remarked that of all the arguments against nuclear power, in the end it will be its failure to be a competitive source of energy that will kill it. Not one single nuclear power project in the history of the U.S. nuclear industry was constructed on time and in budget. A new recent report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) provides more detail about the failure of nuclear energy to compete with other sources.
The BEFG states that over half of all the existing U.S. power plants are “bleeding cash.” Old plants are too expensive to operate and maintain and new plants are simply too expensive to construct without heavy subsidies from the federal and/or state governments.
This month, the construction of two nuclear power reactors in South Carolina at the V.C. Summer nuclear power plant was cancelled after eating up nine billion dollars. The original cost estimate was eleven and a half billion dollars. The intended start date for operations was 2018. When the project was cancelled, the estimated cost had more than doubled to twenty five million dollars and the earliest estimated operational date was in 2021. As is often the case with such cancelled projects, the rate payers will have to absorb some of the cost.
In George at the Vogtle nuclear power plant, the last two nuclear power reactors under construction in the U.S. are having serious problems. The original cost estimate for the project was fourteen billion dollars but now that estimate has swelled to twenty five billion dollars and the completion date has been push back by four years. The developers on the project are “are seeking more federal support for the project, potentially increasing a record $8.3 billion loan guarantee it has already been promised.” The Department of Energy has already denied a request from the South Carolina project for a three billion dollar subsidy so the prospects for federal support for the Vogtle project are dim.
Given the massive cost overruns of the V.C. Summer and the Vogtle projects, it is unlikely that any new nuclear power reactors will be built in the U.S. in the near future.
The owners of existing nuclear power reactors are struggling to pay for their continued operation and maintenance. They are trying to get states to subsidize their reactors on the basis of their low-carbon footprint which will help mitigate climate change. While New York and Illinois have chosen to provide requested support and some other states are considering it, there are states such as Ohio which have rejected such subsidies.
With the abundant cheap oil and natural gas as well as the falling cost of renewables such as wind and solar, the rising costs of maintenance and construction for nuclear power reactors would seem to spell doom for the U.S. nuclear industry.
The U.S. is not the only country struggling to keep its nuclear industry afloat. France gets about seventy five percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors although there are recommendations from the new president that that share be reduced to fifty percent. France has a major nuclear reactor construction firm that is partly government owed. Even with government support, a new reactor build project is behind schedule and over budget.
Russia and China have plans for the massive build up of domestic nuclear power reactors and plans to sell many nuclear power reactors abroad. However, recently both countries have begun to express doubts that they will be able to sell as many nuclear power reactors as had been planned. It appears that the global nuclear power industry is in decline.
V.C. Summers Nuclear Generating Station in South Carolina:
