“Highly Dangerous” Radioactive Material Stolen From US Company – Official Warns Of ISIS “Dirty Bomb.” activistpost.com

Seismologists have warned that North Korea’s repeated nuclear tests could cause its highest mountain Mount Paekdu to erupt – and they add that one of the volcano’s previous eruptions was “one of the largest explosive events in human history”. telegraph.co.uk

The Finnish regulator has given utility Fortum permission to start full operation of the liquid radioactive waste solidification facility at its Loviisa nuclear power plant. Commissioning of the waste facility began in 2006. world-nuclear-news.org

The Tennessee Valley Authority said Wednesday that would accept public comment for a month on the possible sale of its 1,600-acre construction site near Hollywood, Ala., which includes two partially-built Babcock and Wilcox pressurized light water reactor facilities. nuclearstreet.com

 

 

 

Part Two of Two Parts (Please read part One first.)

      Critics of the criticality study have said that there appears to be a number of faulty assumption in the study that call some of the conclusions into question. The study may have underestimated the probability of criticality in an underground repository.

(1) It is assumed that transuranics will have been degraded to a lower level of radioactivity BEFORE corrosion of the waste containers. There are thin walled waste containers made by the Holtec company that could easily corrode before degradation. This would release radioactive materials that could be deposited along with uranium in a depression and lead to a criticality.

( 2) There was an assumption that the temperature of an underground storages facility would be roughly 68 Fahrenheit. The temperature may be much higher. There is a research lab in Minnesota that is more than two thousand feet underground and the temperatures of the rock outside the lab may be as high as 86 degrees Fahrenheit .

(3) There was an assumption that container designs are sub-critical. The Holtec company has asked for and received exemptions from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency for the design and construction of their nuclear waste containers. The walls of the sealed part of the containers are only one half inch thick and the aluminum from which they are constructed is prone to corrosion from ground water. The neutron absorber Metamic that is used in the Holtec containers received exemptions from quality control. There are concerns about the welds in the fuel baskets. They could fail and allow a container to collapse into a geometry that may increase the risk of criticality. The baskets are aluminum and do not contain boron neutron absorbers which would reduce criticality risk.

(4) The report states that if two uranium depositions are more than two feet apart, the neutrons emitted by the two depositions will not influence each other. There is the danger of collapse by accident with respect to the Holtec waste containers that might shorten the separation distance. There are also waste repositories which are designed for the roof to collapse after the waste containers are sealed in. The collapsing roof of the chamber might also separate the distance between two containers of waste. If the distance between two depositions of uranium falls under the two foot limit, it might trigger a criticality.

       While it sounded like a good idea to bury nuclear waste deep underground, seal it in and forget about it, it turns out to be much more complex than originally thought. Geological repositories may be a workable solution to the need to dispose of many tons of nuclear waste. However, it appears that there is a lot more research than needs to be done before we can be confident that this disposal method is safe and permanent.

Holtec Hi-Storm Nuclear Waste Storage Container:

West Coast hit with 220,000,000 atoms per liter of Iodine-129 in rain after Fukushima. enenews.com

North Korea is capable of carrying out a fifth underground nuclear test “with little or no warning”, analysts warn, and may do so in response to sanctions presently being discussed by the United Nations Security Council. telegraph.co.uk

German utility Eon – the major shareholder in OKG – decided in October 2015 that units 1 and 2 of the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in Sweden will be shut down permanently. world-nuclear-news.org

The terror cell behind the November attacks in Paris was interested in the movements of the head of Belgium’s nuclear program, media in the country have reported. This could indicate that Islamic State is planning to target European nuclear facilities. rt.com

 

Part One of Two Parts:

        I have blogged before about permanent geological repositories for spent nuclear fuel and other nuclear wastes. There have  been some failed attempts to  build such repositories in the past. Germany built one and then had to close it because of unexpected migration of ground water in a salt formation. The U.S. was going to build one at Yucca Mountain but that project was cancelled in 2009, partly because of concerns over ground water movement in the salt formations. There are around a dozen underground laboratories, mainly in Europe, doing research on geological repositories for nuclear waste. Currently there are four underground nuclear waste repositories in operation, two in Finland, one in Sweden and one in the United States. Three more are under constructions, in Finland, Germany and Korea. Ten more are either under discussion, looking for sites, or applying for licenses.

        A recent research study on the behavior of ground water in salt deposits found that the earlier theories of ground water penetration were incorrect and the danger of ground water seeping  into underground repositories and carrying out radioactive materials was much higher than previously thought. A paper published in 2014 suggested that there is also another danger concerning ground water and underground nuclear waste dumps.

     In a paper titled “Conditions for criticality by uranium deposition in water-saturated geological formations,” three researchers explore the danger of a critical nuclear event in a nuclear waste repository. Some reviewers suggest that the researchers make assumptions that actually understate the danger. The paper was written under a contract with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry following the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in 2011. The purpose of the research was to aid Japan in crafting a policy for the permanent disposal of nuclear wastes in underground repositories.

      The research paper was concerned about a “critical” reaction in the uranium buried in an underground repository. A critical reaction occurs when there is a sufficient amount of uranium concentrated in a small volume. Neutrons emitted by the uranium cause other uranium atoms to fission so that a nuclear chain reaction starts and is self-perpetuating. Such a critical reaction will release a large amount of radiation in the local area which would be lethal to anyone near the reaction. There will not be a nuclear explosion such as that resulting from the detonation of a nuclear bomb but there will be a local expansion of nuclear materials which could blast apart waste containers and even breach the repository to release radioactive materials and steam into the atmosphere. With respect to the uranium in underground repository, the following factors affect the possibility of a critical event.

(1) The higher the density of a mass of uranium deposited in an underground repository, the lower the mass needed for a criticality.

(2) Smaller concentrations of neutron-absorbing materials in the host rock will increase the probability of criticality as more of the neutrons emitted by the uranium mass will trigger additional reactions in the uranium.

(3) larger porosity of the host rock will increase the probability of criticality by allowing more uranium to accumulate in the pores of the rock.

(4) The higher the temperature of the ground water the higher the  temperature of the  uranium which increases the speed of the neutrons emitted. The faster the neutrons, the less likely they are to trigger additional uranium reactions and lead to criticality.

(5)The closer that the shape of a mass of uranium is to a perfect sphere, the greater the risk of criticality. The more heterogeneous the geometry of the mass, the less likely it is that there will be a criticality.

(6) If there is a problem with corrosion or damage to waste containers, the uranium inside the containers could be leached out by groundwater. If the surface around the container(s) contains a depression, sufficient uranium could be deposited in the depression to form a critical mass.

Please read Part Two

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Diagram:

The company said today the scheduled closure dates for its Heysham 1 and Hartlepool plants had been extended by five years to 2024, while those of Heysham 2 and Torness had been extended by seven years to 2030. According to EDF Energy, the four plants together supply electricity to about one quarter of the UK’s homes. world-nuclear-news.org

French utility EDF announced its 2015 full-year results today, saying that it had met all its targets despite “unfavorable market conditions”. Strong performances from its French and UK reactors helped support the company. world-nuclear-news.org

A South Australia government royal commission study into economic opportunities provided by nuclear energy recommended the state forgo nuclear power for its residents, but claimed that building a nuclear waste repository to serve the international community could be enormously profitable. nuclearstreet.com

For the first time, technicians at the LaSalle County Generating Statoin in Marseilles, Illinois, are using a 360-degree virtual reality camera to assist with outage services preparation, which is superseding use of diagrams, photos and drawings, plant operator Exelon said. nuclearstreet.com

On 2/10/2016, NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority) announced they are going to abandon 2,500 of 3,600 radiation monitoring posts in Fukushima prefecture from April of 2017. fukushima-diary.com

France’s nuclear regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN), will get additional oversight powers under a number of decrees published by the French government last week. world-nuclear-news.org

In a report issued late last week, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) warns that closure of the R.E. Ginna and the James A. FizPatrick nuclear power plants, representing 614 MW and 882 MW, respectively, would create an energy deficit for the state when coupled with closure of two coal-fired and two gas turbine plants. nuclearstreet.com

South Korea’s leader says shutting an industrial zone is just the start of her response to Kim Jong-Un’s apparent nuclear test. news.sky.com