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.
I have posted blog stories about start-ups working on nuclear fusion reactors. Now there is a new start-up that is attempting to develop a hybrid fusion-fission power reactor. Mike Cassidy, formerly a Vice President at Alphabet’s (formerly Google) X research laboratory and now a consultant for Google, has started a new company called Apollo Fusion. It will not be connected with Alphabet and the founders of Google will not be investors in A.F.
Last Friday, a minimal web page for the new company added a vision statement. The A.F. vision statement said “We’re working on revolutionary hybrid reactor technology with fusion power to serve safe, clean, and affordable electricity to everyone. A.F. power plants are designed for zero-consequence outcomes to loss of cooling or loss of control scenarios and they cannot melt down.”
Claims being made for A.F. reactors echo the claims that have been heard from recent exclusively fusion start-ups. Apollo reactors will be inexpensive to construct and operate. They will be competitive with other current sources of electricity. The new reactors will provide scalable energy sources from five megawatts to one thousand megawatts.
Cassidy is working with Ben Longmier who founded a company called Aether Industries which was sold to Apple in 2015. Longmier has a PhD in plasma physics and advanced degrees in physics and nuclear engineering which will provide the expertise that Cassidy will need for his new company.
According to the A.F. website, the new reactors that they are designing are not pure fusion reactors where the power is provided by fusing atomic nuclei. Instead, the A.F. reactors will be hybrid fusion-fission devices. The fusion reaction will be used to generate neutrons for the fission reaction which will actually generate the power. A.F. claims that this approach is more fuel efficient than standard fission power reactors and there is no danger that the reactor will melt down in extreme circumstances.
Nuclear fission power reactors are fueled with either uranium or uranium and plutonium. Their fission reactions dependent on a steady supply of neutrons from disintegrating uranium or uranium and plutonium atoms. For uranium fueled reactors using fuel enriched with U-235, only about one percent of the U-235 is consumed before the fuel is poisoned with reaction by-products and can no longer generate the necessary flux of neutrons. This is extremely wasteful.
In a fusion-fission hybrid reactor such as those proposed by A.F., a fusion reaction is used to generate the neutrons required for the fission reaction. Because the uranium fuel does not have to be the source of the neutrons, most of the U-235 and some of the by-products can be burned. This is much more efficient, cheaper and it produces much less waste. And it allows the use of fusion technology before self-sustaining stand-alone fusion is achieved.
The problem with the A.F. claims is the fact that previous designs for fusion-fission hybrids were estimated to be as expensive as conventional reactors and would only be competitive if they were very large. This contradicts the A.F. claims of low cost and a wide range of potential sizes. A.F. has been very secretive about their design and has not answered these challenges. I hope they have solved the problems because the age of the standard nuclear fission power reactors is drawing to a close.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd has today signed an agreement provisionally accepting Kudankulam unit 2 from its Russian suppliers and thus marking the unit’s entry into commercial operation. world-nuclear-news.org
ARMZ, Atomflot and VostokCoal have signed an agreement to cooperate in the development of the Russian Arctic region. The document was signed on 29 March by ARMZ director-general Vladimir Verkhovtsev, Atomflot general director Vyacheslav Ruksha and VostokCoal chairman Dmitry Bosov during the International Arctic Forum held last week in Arkhangelsk.ARMZ is the uranium mining arm of Rosatom, while Atomflot is the Russian state nuclear corporation’s subsidiary responsible for the operation and maintenance of the country’s fleet of nuclear icebreakers. VostokCoal develops coal and anthracite production projects in Russia. world-nuclear-news.org
The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority yesterday issued the site licence required to build two new units at the Paks nuclear power plant, while the environmental licence is expected to be finalised within weeks. Attila Aszódi, the government commissioner responsible for the Paks II project, told World Nuclear News today that receiving the site licence is a “major milestone” and the target remains for the first unit to be completed in 2025 and the second in 2026. world-nuclear-news.org
A regulatory application was lodged today for a large used fuel storage facility in the US state of New Mexico. With a capacity of 10,000 canisters, Holtec’s Hi-Store Consolidated Interim Storage facility could store used fuel from any US nuclear power plant. world-nuclear-news.org
Saudi Arabia is been interested in acquiring nuclear weapons. They fear that if their archenemy Iran acquires nuclear weapons, the Saudis will be at a severe strategic disadvantage. The Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington D.C.-based organization that monitors global proliferation issues has just issued a new report about Saudi nuclear ambitions.
Even though the recently international agreement with Iran was intended to preclude the manufacture of nuclear weapons by Iran, Saudi Arabia’s concerns increased as the Iranian sophisticated nuclear power program proceeds. According to the report “Saudi Arabia is in the early stages of nuclear development and is expected to more actively seek nuclear weapons capabilities” to counter the perceived threat of Iranian nuclear weapons.
The United States hoped that the Iranian nuclear deal would ease tensions in the Middle East. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case. Iran continues to harass the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf and support terrorism in other countries.
Saudi Arabia has plans to construct sixteen nuclear power reactors. The Iran nuclear deal has reduced pressure on Saudi Arabia to develop their own nuclear arsenal in the near future. However, as the date of the end of the Iranian nuclear deal approaches, Saudi may feel the need to move forward on nuclear weapons development.
The reports says “There is little reason to doubt that Saudi Arabia will more actively seek nuclear weapons capabilities, motivated by its concerns about the ending of the [nuclear deal’s] major nuclear limitations starting after year 10 of the deal or sooner if the deal fails. If Iran expands its enrichment capabilities, as it states it will do, Tehran will reduce nuclear breakout times, or the time needed to produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon, to weeks and then days. With these concerns, the Kingdom is likely to seek nuclear weapons capabilities as a hedge.”
Since at least 2014, Saudi Arabia has been working on acquiring all the technical expertise and equipment necessary to develop and control their own nuclear fuel cycle. Ostensibly dedicated to their civilian nuclear power program, the same technology and equipment can be repurposed to develop nuclear weapons.
“At this point in time and at its current pace of nuclear development, Saudi Arabia would require years to create the nuclear infrastructure needed to launch a nuclear weapons effort,” the report says. The authors of the report add that “the intention to achieve such a capability seems clear.”
Saudi Arabia has been teaming up with other nations such as Russia, China and South Korea for assistance in developing its nuclear capabilities. They are also creating research programs for nuclear technology and developing educational programs to train their own nuclear engineers and scientists.
The report continues “Saudi Arabia appears genuinely committed to importing many nuclear reactors and has pursued numerous cooperation agreements with other countries. However, Saudi Arabia appears on a trajectory to create domestic appendages that could provide a nuclear weapons capability, even if for some time these capabilities would likely be under international safeguards.”
