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 recent North Korean nuclear test got a lot of international press coverage. Regardless of whether or not it was actually a successful test of a hydrogen bomb, it aggravated concerns among the neighbors of N.K. over nuclear weapons in and around the Korean Peninsula. There are calls South Korea to start producing nuclear warheads to deter N.K. aggression.
S.K. has had nuclear scientists and engineers experimenting with nuclear warhead technology since 1970. In 1975, the United States pressured S.K. to sign the international Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). Since then the U.S. has pressured S.K. to abide by the terms of the treaty. However, a deal was reached by the U.S. and S.K. in 2015 to allow S.K. to enrich uranium to twenty percent which is far above the four percent enrichment needed for nuclear power which provides about twenty two percent of S.K.’s electricity. Twenty percent is still far below the ninety percent that is required for weapons grade uranium.
Following the January 6th nuclear test in N.K., powerful figures in S.K.’s ruling political party demanded that S.K. embark on its own program to develop nuclear warheads. Chung Mong-joon owns controlling shares of Hyundai Heavy Industries, the biggest ship building company in the world. He has been deeply involved in S.K. politics of many years. He said that “talks to get rid of nukes are possible only when there is a strong means corresponding to nukes.” He recently called for S.K. to withdraw from the NPT, adding that it is allowed for a signatory to withdraw from the NPT if “extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of this Treaty, have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country.” Another politician, Won Yoo-chel, said to the National Assembly that it was time “to peacefully arm ourselves with nukes from the perspective of self-defense to fight against North Korea’s terror and destruction.”
There are reports from S.K. that there is an emerging consensus among S.K. military and intelligence officials that S.K. must acquire nuclear weapons in order to establish a nuclear standoff with N.K. They believe that this will guarantee an balance of power and stability on the Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, U.S. military and intelligence sources fear that if S.K. does develop nuclear weapons, it would only increase the tensions on the Peninsula and possibly lead to nuclear war between S.K. and N.K.
The necessity for S.K. to have nuclear weapons is being discussed in public, at political events and in the national media. Chosun Ilbo is a widely read S.K. conservative newspaper. In a recent editorial, the paper claimed that China will not interfere with N.K. nuclear tests and missile launches. The editorial said that sanctions will not be effective in dampening N.K.’s nuclear ambitions. Opposition to nuclear weapons also has strong support in S.K. and the critics say that adding S.K. nuclear weapons to the situation will not lead to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
The situation on the Korean Peninsula is like two enemies standing five feet apart. One of them has a hand grenade and is threatening to throw it at the other one. Friend of the other one are urging him to get a hand grenade too to counter the threat of the first man. The big problem is that if either or both of them throw a hand grenade five feet to destroy an enemy, they will also be destroyed. The use of nuclear weapons by anyone on the Korean Peninsula will heavily impact everyone on the Korean Peninsula. Apart from the immediate destruct of cities and the death of millions resulting for nuclear detonations, the fallout will poison the land and water all over the Peninsula. A Korean nuclear war would result in a horrendous humanitarian crisis that would strain the resources of the entire world to deal with. Basically, the use of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula would be suicidal. It would be best for S.K. and the whole world for S.K. to abide by the NPT and not develop and deploy their own nuclear weapons.
Korean Peninsula:
One of the major concerns about nuclear power is who pays for accidents. Each country that uses nuclear power has its own laws about exactly who will pick up the cost of damage and recovery from a major nuclear accident. The U.S. has the Price-Anderson Act which caps the liability of nuclear power plant operators although there is a provision for Congressional action to assess further charges against responsible companies. India has been working on changing its strict liability laws for industrial accidents that would apply to a nuclear accident.
A gas leak in Bhopal that killed almost four thousand people in India in 1984 is considered to be the worst industrial accident in the world. Following the Bhopal industrial accident, India passed some of the most stringent industrial accident liability laws in the world. These laws have been an impediment for some companies seeking to build nuclear reactors in India and India has been working on changes to the laws and creating other mechanisms to make the supply of nuclear technology by foreign more attractive.
In most nuclear nations, liability for nuclear accidents is limited to the owners and operators of nuclear power plants. India was an exception because they also provided for the liability of suppliers of equipment to the power plant. In 2010, India passed the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act which gives the primary responsibility for accidents to the plant operators although it does leave the possibility of cost recovery from suppliers. That same year, India signed up to participate in the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC) under the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The CSC was established to create a fund from donations by signatories based on their installed nuclear capacity and a rate of assessment set by the United Nations. This fund will be available for damages caused by a nuclear accident beyond the borders of a country where the accident takes place. The CSC also established treaty relations between nations whether or not they are signatories to other nuclear liability conventions such as the 1968 Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy and the 1977 Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage. These conventions have been linked by a joint protocol in 1988.
The CSC was put forth in 1997 but required the ratification of five nuclear power states with a minimum of four hundred Gigawatts (thermal) of installed nuclear capacity before it could go into effect. (The electricity that is produced by a gigawatt of thermal energy is dependent on the efficiency of the conversion via steam turbine from heat to electricity. So a thirty percent efficiency which is commonly found at nuclear power plants would result in one hundred twenty gigawatts of electricity from four hundred gigawatts of thermal energy.)
In all, nineteen countries have signed the convention. The formal requirements for the CSC were satisfied in January 2015. Following the satisfaction of the requirements, the nations that have signed the convention must now formally ratify the convention. The convention will go into effect for India in May of 2016, ninety days after the formal submission of its ratification.
Participation in the CSC will quiet some of the international concern over supplying nuclear technology to India. The U.S. Secretary of Energy said, “I welcome India to the CSC and look forward to their deployment of civil nuclear energy technologies to help provide reliable, low-cost power to millions of Indians. These efforts will help spur a low-carbon economy to combat climate change. Additionally, we are eager to work with India, and all CSC member countries, to facilitate the use of advanced nuclear technologies developed in the United States.”
India submits ratification of CSC to IAEA:
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is located near Carlsbad, New Mexico. There was a serious accident there in February of 2014 during which a drum of nuclear waste from the U.S. nuclear weapons program burst and particles of plutonium and americium escaped through the waste facility’s ventilation system and were detect twenty miles away in Carlsbad. Investigation has shown that there are at least sixty more barrels of waste that might explode due to using the wrong material to solidify the waste. The storage rooms in the underground waste dump were supposed to be closed off with massive steel and concrete doors when they were full but this practice was abandoned and this contributed to the release of the radioactive materials. It may be several years and it will be millions of dollars before the WIPP is able to accept more nuclear weapons waste which is piling up in temporary storage facilities.
A resolution (referred to in N.M. as a memorial) was just presented to the Environmental and Natural Resource Committee of the New Mexico legislature which supported the construction of an interim facility for storing spent nuclear fuel assemblies. The resolution will also be presented to the New Mexico House of Representative in a few days. The resolution states that it “endorses and supports the efforts of the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance… to temporarily store the spent nuclear fuel generated by America’s nuclear power plants.”
The Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) is a company that is owned by the N.M. Eddy and Lea counties along with the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs. ELEA signed a memorandum of agreement with Holtec International in April of 2015 to ” to establish a facility to store commercial used nuclear fuel until a geologic repository for permanent disposal becomes available.”
The resolution also says that “the alliance site is ideal for a consolidated interim storage facility because of the technical criteria of the site.” The location for the facility is between Carlsbad and Hobbs. It is more than thirty five miles away from any population. There is no air traffic over the proposed site. Due to the nearby WIPP and other facilities, there is a scientific nuclear workforce already in the area. The resolution points out there will be one hundred and fifty well paying jobs at the facility as well as two hundred more jobs in the area related to the operation of the facility. Construction of the facility will require over a billion dollars of capital investment in southeast New Mexico.
With spent nuclear fuel piling up at nuclear power plants around the U.S., the facility would be a temporary solution to the problem of storing spent nuclear fuel. If the N.M. House votes to pass the resolution that would mean that the N.M. state government approves of the project. This would be viewed as a positive step in the permitting process for the new facility.
New Mexico State Rep. Cathrynn Brown said that she is hoping for a favorable vote on the resolution which is a way for the New Mexico legislature to express their support for the project. She said that ” A lot more has to be done before we see the facility constructed. It’s still in the early stages of development.” The licensing of the facility with the NRC will take at least three years.
John Heaton is the chair of the Mayor’s Nuclear Task Force for the city of Carlsbad, N.M. He said that the ELEA project has been under discussion for four years. He went on to say that passing the resolution in the N.M. House would be ” a very positive thing to happen.” The resolution lays out the intent of the facility and what it would mean for N.M.
I wonder how much support there is for the project in the general population in Carlsbad and Hobbs. Considering that they have already been subjected to incompetence at a nearby nuclear facility that released radioactive particles into the air they breathe, they may not be as excited about the project as the ELEA and its supporters.
