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.
Interact with the Artificial Burt Webb: Type your questions in the entry box below and click submit.
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.
One of the key technical challenges of constructing a nuclear reactor is the choice of metal used to construct the core and to form the cladding on the fuel rods. The metal used in the reactor are subjected to high temperatures, high pressures and intense bombardment by radiation. When a neutron penetrates the metal in the core, it can displace an atom in the crystalline lattice. While the atom travels rapidly away from the point of impact, the cavity travels slowly, if at all. Repeated neutron impacts in the same area can lead to a consolidation of holes left by the impacts. These holes can form cracks that may propagate, weakening in the metal by making it more brittle and by making it less dense. Intense radiation damage can cause metals to swell to twice their original volumes.
Recent research has been aimed at reducing radiation damage by introducing micro and nano-sized particles into the metals in order to act as “absorbers” to prevent the spread of cavities caused by the neutron bombardment. Now researchers at the University of Michigan have been exploring new alloys that can help solve the radiation damage problem.
Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee created a number of different nickel alloys. Then researchers at the University of Tennessee bombarded the alloy samples with radiation at a temperature over nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit which would cause most popular nickel alloys to swell. Two different experimental set-ups caused radiation and temperature damage similar to a few years and a few decades of exposure.
The researchers at the University of Michigan used a transmission electron microscope at their Center for Material Characterization to examine in detail what damage was caused at the level of the crystalline lattice. The best alloys were what are referred to as solid solutions that contained crystals made of equal parts nickel, cobalt, and iron; or nickel, cobalt, iron, chromium, and manganese. Compared to pure nickel, the best alloys suffered less than one percent of the damage.
Another department at the U of M investigated the reason behind the radiation resistance in the new alloys. They created computer simulations of the alloys and found that the radiation resistance could be attributed to the way in which radiation damage propagated through the crystalline lattice of the new alloys. Because the different atoms in the lattice were different sizes, cavities which could propagate easily in the crystalline lattice of a pure metal such as nickel are blocked from easy movement in the lattice of the new alloys.
These new studies follow other studies of radiation resistant alloys. Other researchers have found that multi-metal alloys have elevated radiation resistance. Alloys with five metals are sometimes referred to as high-entropy alloys. The original article discussed in this blog post is titled “Enhancing radiation tolerance by controlling defect mobility and migration pathways in multi-component single phase alloys” and it appears in the publication Nature Communications. My earlier blog post on this subject can be found at Nuclear Reactors 345 – New High Entropy Alloys May Be Better Than Steel For Nuclear Reactor Construction
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominating former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as secretary of energy likely bodes well for the U.S. nuclear industry. dailycaller.com
Armenia’s only nuclear power plant has resumed power generation after being taken offline for repairs, the country’s energy ministry has said. powerengineeringint.com
Critics of the United Kingdom nuclear program point out that while the huge costs overruns of already expensive nuclear projects continue to be funded, important government programs such as healthcare and social welfare programs are underfunded and facing further cuts.
One example that is often cited is a new Evaporator at the Sellafield nuclear site in West Cumbria. The purpose of the Evaporator is to allow a reduction in volume of high level radioactive waste from nuclear fuel reprocessing by evaporating water in the waste. In 2007, the estimated cost of the new Evaporator was one hundred and twelve million dollars and it was supposed to go into service by 2011. As of September of 2015, the estimated cost had risen to nine hundred and twenty million dollars with completion by 2018. The new Evaporator is urgently needed at the Sellafield site because the three operational Evaporators there are becoming more and more unreliable as they age and wear out.
Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) was hired by the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in 2008 to oversee the Sellafield site. The National Audit Office (NAO) was highly critical of NDA and NMP in their management of Sellafield and NMP was eventually fired. The NAO reported that one of the contributing factors in the huge cost overruns was the incompetence of some of the subcontractors hired to do the actual work.
The Evaporator was too big to be built entirely on site so it was constructed offsite in modules and shipped to Sellafield for final assembly. This unorthodox method of construction contributed to delays and cost overruns. In addition, because of the delays, it turns out that it will only be used for a year for the purpose it was originally intended for.
Another target for the critics of the U.K. nuclear program is the Moorside nuclear power plant that is being constructed near Sellafield. NuGen, the developer for the new power plant intends to build three AP1000 nuclear reactors at the plant. Sixty percent of the project is owned by Japan’s Toshiba and forty percent is owned by France’s Engie. The funding model currently being applied to the project calls for private investment to pay for the plant while the U.K. government will guarantee a set price for electricity generated by the plant for thirty five years.
Toshiba and Engie are having problems finding the funds to carry out the project. NuGen is now asking the U.K. government to consider providing funding for “non-nuclear” parts of the project. NuGen is claiming that the seawater cooling system for the reactors is somehow “non-nuclear” and therefore should qualify for government support which is denied to nuclear projects.
In addition to these two examples of problems funding nuclear projects in the U.K. that might result in a heavy burden for U.K. taxpayers, there are now calls for the U.K. government to spend large sums on improving the transportation and power grid infrastructure in West Cumbria in the area around Sellafield and Moorside.
Needless to say, the public in West Cumbria which has seen reduced public services such as hospitals is not enthusiastic about spending taxes to building new roads and improve the grid to benefit the foreign owned nuclear power plant being constructed at Moorside.
Japan is one of the few countries that manufactures and exports components for nuclear reactors. The Japanese government is putting together an eight billion seven hundred million dollar aid package in support of a United Kingdom nuclear power project. Hitachi is spearheading the project.
The British government has signed a contract with the Hitachi unit Horizon Nuclear Power (HNP) for the construction and operation for two nuclear power reactors at Wylfa Newydd on the Welsh coast. The estimated cost of this project is about twenty four billion dollars. The U.K. is slated to cover about twenty five percent of the cost of the project. Hitachi was going to pick up ten percent of the cost. Officials from Japan and the U.K. are meeting with the hope of having a solid financing plan for the project in place by next year.
The new Japanese initiative calls for the Japanese government to supply loans to HNP through the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the Development Bank of Japan. Credit insurance will be provided by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance. Major financial institutions in the U.K. and Japan will be asked to provide addition capital. All together, this financial assistance should supply the eight billion seven hundred million dollars mentioned above. The U.K, and Japan hope that the involvement of their governments in financing the project will attract other investors.
David Cameron, the previous U.K. Prime Minister, was focused on China as the main partner for U.K. nuclear development projects. The Chinese have about a thirty percent stake in the two new power reactors being built for the Hinkley Point C project in Britain. Part of the deal included permission for the Chinese to build one of their reactors in Britain.
When the citizens of the U.K. voted to exit the European Union, a new Prime Minister, Theresa May, came to power. She called for a review of the Hinkley Point C project signaling that she was not as sold on Chinese involvement in the U.K. nuclear power industry as her predecessor. This change in U.K. international status and relations have prompted Japan to jump into taking a bigger stake in financing the Wylfa Newydd project.
Japanese Prime Minister Abe has made nuclear power and nuclear component exports a major part of his economic development plans for Japan. Japan is still struggling to restart all of its domestic power reactors after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March of 2011. Nuclear export prospects were looking up but recently Mitsubishi Heavy Industries lost a contract when Vietnam decide to cancel an order for a nuclear power reactor.
There have been estimates that the global nuclear industry will expand by sixty percent by 2030. Japan is hoping that its expanded involvement in Wylfa Newydd project in the U.K. will help it get contracts from other countries that are looking to build nuclear power reactors. On the other hand, complaints of substandard nuclear components in France included parts made by Japan Casting & Forging Corp. Although further investigation has not shown any problems with Japan Casting & Forging Corp parts, this incident could damage Japans international reputation as a source of reactor components.
