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.
Part Two of Two Parts (Please read Part One first)
Politicians who oppose the shipments are raising rejections in legislative bodies in the area and working to educate the public to the dangers. Paul Monaghan, the SNP MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, said that “We now know from these documents released by HIAL that the US company AECOM has estimated that there are significant deficiencies in the structure and surface of the runway at Wick, which is not considered sufficient for the safe operation of these aircraft. The NDA (Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) and the U.K. government are using Wick John O’Groats airport in circumstances that are completely inappropriate and highly unsafe. I have written again to the U.K. government asking why these uranium movements are necessary, and why safety is being compromised.”
John Finnie MSP, transport spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, asked that the shipments be suspended. He remarked that “The public will rightly be alarmed by this disclosure. It clearly suggests that no legitimate risk assessment has been undertaken and a lower standard is being applied simply because of what the cargo is. I intend raising this matter in the Scottish Parliament.”
Dr. Donald Dixon, the director of Friends of the Earth Scotland said that, “It is almost beyond belief that these flights are using a runway that is not fit for purpose. Gambling against the horrific consequences of one of these flights crashing is bad enough but vastly increasing the risk of a crash by using an unsuitable airport is almost too stupid to believe. Whoever thought this was an acceptable plan should lose their job and these flights should be banned immediately.”
Tor Justad, chairperson of the campaign group Highlands Against Nuclear Transport, has demanded an “absolute assurance” that the C-17 aircraft would not damage the runway or suffer an accident. “Safety standards are being compromised to allow the uranium flights to go ahead,” he said.
Highland and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) is a public company that is owned by Scottish ministers that operates the airport at Wick. To date, they have not directly answered questions about the ability of the runway there to handle C-17s. They have stated that “The runway at Wick complies with current industry standards and specific areas were strengthened in late summer 2016 specifically to accommodate a limited number of movements by large aircraft such as the C-17. Inspections are regularly carried out in accordance with normal airport operating procedures. No damage has been found. HIAL has no comment on specific aircraft movements. Safety has not been compromised in any way. All permitted movements at Wick John O’Groats Airport comply with the operating protocols and requirements of the airport.”
The NDA stated that it had commissioned a report on the suitability of the airport at Wick for the shipping of nuclear materials. They said that the report had pointed out needed improvements and that “These improvements were carried out successfully, and the airport now meets the required criteria for safe and secure transportation of nuclear material. The removal of nuclear material from Dounreay is ongoing, and it is the priority at all times to comply with regulations governing safety and security. This includes protecting information about ongoing operational activities.”
The citizens of Wick are justifiably concerned about the dangers posed to their community by these shipments. It does not appear that they will reap any practical benefit for the risks that they will suffer.
Wick John O’Groats Airport:
Part One of Two Parts:
One of the problems I keep returning to on this blog is the failure of companies and government agencies to adhere to laws and regulations governing the proper handling of nuclear materials. This problem is widespread in the global nuclear industry. Sometimes violations are not specifically a matter of nuclear safety but a more general problem that happens to involve the handling and transfer of nuclear materials.
Last March, David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the U.K., announced at the International Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. that fifteen hundred pounds of weapons grade highly enriched uranium (HEU) from the Dounreay Nuclear Facility in Caithness was going to be flown from the John O’Groats airport at Wick, Scotland to the state of Tennessee in the U.S. One shipment took place in September of this year and more shipments are expected next year.
This HEU has been stockpiled at Dounreay for possible use in nuclear weapons. It will be received by Nuclear Fuel Services, a subsidiary of BWX Technologies in Tennessee. It has been officially reported that in return for sending the HEU to the U.S., radioactive isotopes for use in medical procedures will be sent to Europe. Critics of the shipments of HEU say that there will be little connection between receiving U.K. HEU and shipments of medical isotopes to Europe.
Critics of the shipments have pointed out that the runway at Wick is too short for the C-17 cargo planes being used to carry the uranium. They also say that the fire-fighting and rescue capabilities at Wick are insufficient to handle any major accident that may occur with the shipments.
Detailed technical reports obtained by a newspaper in Wick earlier this year indicated that the runways may not be able to safely handle the C-17s. The report said that most of the runway at Wick cannot handle the weight of the big planes and that such planes should only land at Wick in serious emergencies. The report said that cracking of the asphalt covering the runway is expected to occur when planes as heavy as the C-17s land at Wick. Such landings are referred to as “overloading” the runway.
The C-17 making the first flight from the U.S. to pick up uranium at Wick first stopped at the airport at the RAF Lossiemouth base in Moray. They speculate that during that first stop, fuel may have been drained from the plane’s tanks because C-17s are too heavy to land at Wick without damaging the runway.
The authors of the report do not expect the landing of a C-17 to do permanently damage the integrity of the runway at Wick but they do recommend that the runway undergo a detailed inspection after every landing of a C-17. The report suggested that the main portion of Wick runway be upgraded before the shipments. Repairs of cracks and edges of the runway were undertaken between April and August of this year but the main part of the runway was not improved.
Please read Part Two.
Location of Wick, Scotland:
