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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Example Q&A with the Artificial Burt Webb
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.
The Labour party has said it still backs the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons after Jeremy Corbyn said “all aspects” of defence would be reviewed if he won power. Bbc.com
KIM Jong-un’s controversial nuclear weapons programme has been funded from a business being run out of a gated London home, it’s been reported. Thesun.co.uk
Nuclear energy is emerging as a live issue at the Pennsylvania statehouse in a way not seen since the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979 — nearly 40 years ago. Thetimes-tribune.com
I have blogged about the destruction that would be caused by a nuclear war before. Since there is currently grave concern that a nuclear conflict could break out between North Korea on one side and South Korea and the United States on the other side, I thought that I would revisit the subject.
Nuclear warheads are rated in terms of kilotons of TNT. The U.S. dropped a twelve kiloton nuclear bomb on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. It is estimated that it killed about one hundred thousand people and totally destroyed the city.
The U.S. currently has about seventeen hundred nuclear warheads deployed on intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine launch ballistic missiles and nuclear bombers. The U.S. has another four thousand nuclear warheads stockpiled. The warheads have yields from three to five hundred kilotons. Russia has nineteen hundred and fifty warheads deployed on intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine launch ballistic missiles and nuclear bombers and four thousand and three hundred stockpiled. These missiles have yields similar to the U.S. nuclear arsenal. France has about three hundred warheads with two hundred and eighty deployed. China has two hundred and seventy warheads with none currently deployed. The U.K. has a hundred and twenty deployed warheads with another ninety-five in reserve. Israel has about eighty warheads with none deployed. Pakistan has from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty warheads with none deployed. India has from one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty warheads with none deployed. It is estimated that North Korea has about twenty warheads with none deployed.
The detonation of a nuclear bomb results in five different types of destructive impacts. There is an initial blast wave that generates a supersonic wind that rushes out in all directions, destroying everything in its path. People who are not killed by the impact of the blast may be killed or injured by flying debris carried by the wind.
An electromagnetic pulse generated by the detonation can damage or destroy all electronic devices up to hundreds of miles away from ground zero. All electrical power systems and communication devices will be wiped out.
A thermal wave of intense heat up to millions of degrees Fahrenheit will instantly incinerate anything close to the site of the blast. Anyone within a few miles of the blast will suffer severe burns. If there are flammable objects such as buildings and trees in within a few miles of the blast, they will be ignited into ferocious fires. The intense flash of light created by the blast will blind anyone within a few miles.
After the initial effects of the blast, the radioactive material of the bomb, and contaminated dirt, water, smoke, and debris will rain back to the ground as radioactive fallout. This fallout will be spread by winds and flowing surface water far beyond the initial area of the blast. It will pose a threat of cancer and other diseases to anyone who consumes, drinks or inhales any of the radioactive material.
Following a nuclear attack, there will be little in the way of surviving hospitals and emergency assistance. There will be little safe food, water, or medical supplies available. Those who do survive the initial blast will be in danger of exposure, starvation and untreated injuries.
Even worse, it has been estimated if just one hundred nuclear warheads are detonated, it could throw up so much dirt and smoke into the atmosphere that it would alter the climate and cause years of “nuclear winter.” Temperatures would drop worldwide and there would be global crop failures. Billions of people who were not directly endangered by nuclear blasts would starve or die of exposure.
Even without the worst case of a nuclear winter, a nuclear war anywhere in the world would impact the entire world and might ultimately cause the crash of the global economic and social systems that comprise human civilization. In other words, no one will win even a limited nuclear war and billions of people may die.
MVM Paks II has received environmental approval to build two new units at the Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary. The company received an environmental licence from the Baranya County Government Office in late September, but this was challenged by Greenpeace Hungary and Energiaklub. The initial licence was then reviewed by Pest County Government Office, which gave statutory approval of the licence on 18 April. World-nuclear-new.org
Britain’s first new reactor since the 1990s takes shape in Somerset. Ft.com
I have blogged in the past about the possible peaceful use of nuclear bombs. Suggestions have been made that nuclear bombs could be used to dig canals and for other projects requiring the movement of a lot of soil. The idea has also been floated that nuclear bombs could be used for fracking to produce oil and gas. The problem with these and other suggestions for peaceful use is that radioactive contamination of the environment would be a probable result. There is, however, one possible use that would not result in any environmental problems and that is the use of nuclear bombs to destroy or divert an asteroid headed for the Earth.
Asteroids are minor astronomical bodies which are not big enough for gravity to pull into spherical shapes. There are three main types of asteroids. The E-type asteroids are composed of carbon compounds. The M-type asteroids contain metals such as iron and nickel. And the S-type asteroids are stone composed of silicate compounds.
There are millions of asteroids in the solar system. Many of these orbit between Mars and Jupiter in what is referred to as the Asteroid Belt. There also many asteroids in the inner solar system which cross the orbit of the earth. Once in a while, one of these near-Earth asteroids crashes into the Earth. The bigger the asteroid, the greater the destruction. A big enough asteroid could cause global firestorms, earthquakes, and tsunamis. The amount of water, dirt, and smoke ejected into the atmosphere by such a collision could cause global cooling by blocking sunlight, disrupting the climate for years. Such asteroid impacts have happened many times in the past with devastating results.
NASA is currently monitoring asteroids that could pose a threat to the Earth. Over 16,000 asteroids that regularly cross the orbit of the earth and may pose a threat in the future have been catalogued by NASA. NASA and its European counterparts are most concerned about asteroids that are 450 feet or larger because the impact of such an asteroid on Earth could destroy a large city. Although smaller asteroids are less of a threat their impact could still be quite serious depending on where they landed.
One of these smaller asteroids came within 30,000 miles of the earth back in February. Yesterday a large asteroid passed within 1 million miles of the earth which is about four times farther away than the orbit of the moon. This asteroid was about two thousand feet across and could’ve caused serious devastation if it had hit the Earth.
At this stage of our technological development, it would be difficult for the human race to do anything about an asteroid approaching on a collision course with the Earth. The best current option for deflecting an asteroid is the use of multiple existing nuclear warheads or the creation of special huge nuclear devices for this specific purpose.
The big issue with such a mission is how much time we would have to prepare. In some cases, we are able to identify and chart asteroids that are headed our way years ahead of a possible collision. In other cases, we might only have hours warning of an impending collision and too little time to prepare a response. There are estimates that it would take at least five years time to prepare a mission to destroy or divert a major asteroid with today’s technology. Another problem is that some asteroids are not single objects but lose conglomerations of many smaller objects. If an explosion was not sufficient to push all the smaller objects away from the Earth, it might just be a case of trading one single large impact for many smaller impacts.
The NASA Planetary Defense Office (PDO) and other organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have held simulations of asteroid strikes. If a major asteroid was found to be headed towards the Earth and an impact was inevitable, the NASA PDO, FEMA and other and other federal, state and local agencies would spring into action to prepare for the impact and to pick up the pieces afterward.
An additional danger of an unexpected impact of a major asteroid in a country armed with nuclear weapons is that such an impact might be mistaken for a nuclear attack and trigger a nuclear war with a nuclear-armed enemy.
It is ironic to consider that a device that has threatened the very existence of the human race for decades might ultimately be the Savior of human civilization.
Artist’s concept of a rocket sent to destroy an approaching asteroid:
