I have frequently blogged about the problem of disposal of nuclear waste. Spent nuclear fuel assemblies are filling up the cooling pools at nuclear power plants in the U.S. and other nuclear powered nations. The U.S. intended to have a deep geological repository by the year 2000 but in 2009, the Yucca Mountain repository project was cancelled by the U.S. government and there will not be a U.S. permanent disposal site for spent fuel until at least 2050. The high level radioactive waste being generated by the U.S. nuclear weapons program had its own geological repository called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico but a recent accident closed that facility and it may be years before it is reopened.

        In addition to spent fuel and weapons waste, there are low-level sources radioactive materials that need a safe storage method. This waste is from discarded radiation sources used by health care, construction, survey and other industrial facilities. Many countries now generate a hundred or more such used radiation sources per year but have no good way to move and dispose of them. When combined, this waste from a typical country would occupy less than thirty five cubic feet or about a cubic yard. Currently, most of these discarded radiation sources are temporarily stored on or near the surface without sufficient protection to prevent theft or leakage. (Recently a truck carrying discarded cobalt radiation sources from a medical facility in Mexico was hijacked and people were exposed to radiation before they realized exactly what was in the truck.)

         The International Atomic Energy Agency is working on tests of a new technology to assist in the movement and permanent disposal of small amounts of low-level radioactive waste. The IAEA has been collaborating with a radiation protection company in Croatia on testing a transportation system for moving low-level radioactive waste to a borehole that would be about a thousand feet deep. Each country could drill its own boreholes to take care of its own low-level wastes.

        The system consists of a metal platform and a mobile container referred to as a “transfer cask” that would be used to hold the material during transport to the borehole. The radiation sources will be treated and repackaged in a process called “conditioning”. Then combined and conditioned wastes will be placed in a specially designed canister which is sealed. The sealed container is loaded into the transfer cask. It will then be transported to the borehole and inserted.

         This system is simple and inexpensive. It can be easily be implemented across the world. In a world of growing international tension and terrorism, nuclear security is becoming more important.

         The borehole system could also be used to deal with spent nuclear fuel and weapons waste. First, a hole is drilled five miles down into stable bedrock. Containers of waste are inserted into the borehole until they reach three miles below the surface. Then the rest of the hole is filled with crushed rock, soil, asphalt and/or concrete. Once the landscape is restored above the repository, no one even needs to know what is buried below. The waste will not be bothered by ground water or escape from its hole. Boreholes could be drilled at reactor sites, laboratories or production facilities above the right type of geological configuration. The drilling rigs are mobile and could be easily moved from site to site. The cost would be reasonable and the approach much quicker and safer than building a single geological repository and transporting all the waste to it.

IAEA testing new disposal system:

Credit: L Gil Martínez/IAEA      

Russia will create three new military divisions on its Western flank in 2016 and bring five new strategic nuclear missile regiments into service, Sergei Shoigu, the country’s defense minister, was quoted as saying by news agencies on Tuesday. yahoo.com

Amphibious robots that can measure radiation levels underwater are to be developed through a joint project involving British and Japanese researchers. Such machines could help in clean-up and decommissioning activities at nuclear power facilities. world-nuclear-news.org

The State Assembly in Wisconsin approved a bill Tuesday that would effectively end the state’s moratorium on new nuclear power plant construction. nuclearstreet.com

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi defended the Iran nuclear deal even as tensions between Washington and Tehran flared over the detention of 10 American sailors, arguing that “this is proof that building a diplomatic relationship with Iran, at least in terms of the nuclear treaty, has served us well.” cnn.com

 

        Yesterday, I blogged about the effects of thermal pollution from nuclear power plant cooling water on marine ecosystems. Today, I am going to talk about a specific case of problems related to the cooling system of the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station in Florida that ultimately dumps cooling water into Biscayne Bay near Miami. I have blogged about Turkey Point before.)

       The Florida Power & Light owns and operates the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station in Miami-Dade County, about twenty five miles south of Miami, Florida. The plant has two nuclear power reactors and two generating units that burn oil or natural gas and one natural gas generating unit. The nuclear reactors are Westinghouse pressurized water reactors that generates about seven hundred megawatts each. The TPNGS supplies southern Florida with a combined capacity of over three thousand megawatts and is the sixth largest power plant in the U.S. Two additional nuclear reactors have been approved for construction which will begin in 2017.

       The Turkey Point plant has a network of canals that extend for one hundred and sixty eight miles. The canals act as a giant radiator to cool the water from the nuclear reactors. In 2012, the two reactors were upgraded to produce more power. In the three years since the upgrade, the water in the canals has been getting hotter and hotter. Over the summer of 2014, problems caused by thermal pollution increased in severity. There was a huge algae bloom which required the plant to power down the reactors twice.

       In response to the problems, the FP&L filed an emergency request with the South Florida Water Management District for permission to pump fresh water from L-31 Everglades project as well as water from the south Florida aquifer into the canal network. The also asked for permission to raise their operating temperature up to one hundred and four degrees Fahrenheit. This is the highest temperature for any nuclear power plant in the country. Critics of the request were concerned that drawing more water and dumping more heat into the canal system would put unacceptable stress on a water supply already being overused by increasing demands.

       Part of the arrangement to deal with the problems at the Turkey Point plant included a provision for increased water monitoring at the plant and the surrounding area. In September of 2014, the water sampling showed that the level of ammonia was beginning to rise. In November of 2015, the salinity of the water around Turkey point began rising and the ammonia content was still rising.

        Tropical Audubon, an environmental organization, had been complaining about Biscayne Bay needing more fresh water to deal with increasing salinity related to years of flood control projects. They lost a legal bid to stop more fresh water withdrawals from sources in the area. During the legal process, they came across the information about increasing ammonia levels. They claim that the increased demand for water had stirred up pollution and forced it to the surface of the network of canals in the area endangering Biscayne Bay.

        Critics of the theory of Tropical Audubon point out that the levels of ammonia in the water are higher near the Turkey Point power plant. They say that five years of monitoring water quality do not indicate that the canal system has impacted Biscayne Bay. TA responded that the canal system is now operating at a higher temperature than ever before and that is causing new problems. TA says that authorities have failed to thoroughly study the effect of the higher temperature on aquatic life around Turkey point and in the canals where crocodiles nesting has been declining.

       Authorities are calling for more water sampling and studies to determine exactly what is happening to the waterways and what is causing it. If the nearby nuclear power reactors are contributing significantly to the problems, perhaps it is time to reconsider the addition of two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point.

Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station:

 

CGN said development of its ACPR50S reactor design had recently been approved by China’s National Development and Reform Commission as part of the 13th Five-Year Plan for innovative energy technologies. world-nuclear-news.org

A US House of Representatives committee has approved a bipartisan bill to support federal research and development (R&D) and stimulate private investment in advanced nuclear reactor technologies. The approval came as President Barack Obama said the country must move away from “dirty energy”. world-nuclear-news.org

Energy Northwest, a multi-district energy agency in Washington State has retained Global Nuclear Fuel (GNF) to continue to supply fuel for the Columbia Generating Station in Richland, WA. nuclearstreet.com

South Korea warned North Korea on Wednesday that the United States and its allies were working on sanctions to inflict “bone-numbing pain” after its latest nuclear test, and called on China to do its part to rein in its isolated neighbor. reuters.com

        I have blogged a lot about the problems associated with nuclear power. One concern that I have not said much about is thermal pollution of waterways. A nuclear reactor requires a huge amount of water to cool the reaction process. This water is drawn from a lake, a river or an ocean. Once the water has served its purpose, it is returned to the body of water it was drawn from. This water can carry up to seventy percent of the heat generated by the nuclear fission processes in the plant. This can have an adverse effect on the ecosystem of the waterway.

        The ambient temperature of a body of water is critical to the health and well-being of the organisms that live in the water. Normally, bodies of water can absorb heat from natural sources without much influence on the average temperature. Because of this natural stability, most aquatic organisms evolved with biochemical systems that are suited for a narrow range of temperatures. Organisms can often adapt to small and/or gradual changes in temperature. However, if a large amount of heat is suddenly added to a body of water, the temperature can move out of the acceptable range for many of the organisms and they may die.

      One of the most critical variables for aquatic life is the dissolved oxygen in the water. As the temperature of a body of water increases, the dissolved oxygen content drops. A ten degree Celsius rise in the average temperature of a body of water can eliminate some species entirely. Assimilation of organic wastes by aquatic microorganisms in very sensitive to temperature and a big change can interfere with this assimilation.

       Thermal pollution can kill aquatic plants as well as fish and microorganisms. This can have a devastating impact on the entire web of living organisms that make up and depend on the food chain in the body of water. There is also the danger of the arrival of invasive foreign species that can tolerate the higher temperatures and replace the depleted native species.

       Small changes in water temperature within the acceptable range drive a variety of stages in the life cycles of aquatic life.  Migration and spawning are two of these important stages. If the temperature suddenly changes radically because of a the addition of a new source of heat, the interference in the life cycles of aquatic organisms can be devastating. Some species will migrate to a more accommodating environment and impact the ecosystem in their new home.

       Larvae and eggs of fish in rivers and lakes is sensitive to temperature. If there is a big change in temperature, they may not even hatch. Early development of immature aquatic organisms is also very sensitive to water temperature and the young creatures are the most affected by temperature differences. Thermal pollution can have serious impacts on the immune systems of juvenile aquatic organisms. Parasites, pathogens and toxins can have a greater impact than normal with raised temperatures.

       Long term elevated temperatures in bodies of water can result in huge growth of bacteria and plants which cause algae blooms that will deplete the dissolved oxygen even further with attendant negative effects.

        Thermal pollution from nuclear power plants does not get much press but it is real and having a serious impact on aquatic ecosystems. If more nuclear power plants are built, they will have an even greater negative impact on the life in bodies of water used for cooling. This does not seem to me to be a good way to fight climate change.

Aerial picture of an algae bloom:

CGN said development of its ACPR50S reactor design had recently been approved by China’s National Development and Reform Commission as part of the 13th Five-Year Plan for innovative energy technologies. world-nuclear-news.org

A US House of Representatives committee has approved a bipartisan bill to support federal research and development (R&D) and stimulate private investment in advanced nuclear reactor technologies. The approval came as President Barack Obama said the country must move away from “dirty energy”. world-nuclear-news.org

Energy Northwest, a multi-district energy agency in Washington State has retained Global Nuclear Fuel (GNF) to continue to supply fuel for the Columbia Generating Station in Richland, WA. nuclearstreet.com

South Korea warned North Korea on Wednesday that the United States and its allies were working on sanctions to inflict “bone-numbing pain” after its latest nuclear test, and called on China to do its part to rein in its isolated neighbor. reuters.com

 

         Yesterday, I blogged about President Obama’s plans to spend a trillion dollars in the next thirty years to upgrade and expand the U.S. nuclear arsenal in spite of his earlier support for nuclear disarmament. I am firmly convinced that even a small regional nuclear war could bring the collapse of civilization. A major nuclear exchange between the U.S. and Russia could push humanity to the brink of extinction. Even though it is obvious that a nuclear war would be disastrous for everyone, the U.S. Pentagon continues to plan for nuclear war. Russia, China, Iran, Syria and North Korea are all targets for a first strike pre-emptive nuclear attack.

       Russian international belligerences and Chinese expansionism in Southeast Asia are rationales for the new U.S. weapons program. They would say that U.S. weapons plans are triggering their military expansions. In any case, a new arms race is on. The U.S. defense industry has been lobbying hard for and is supporting  Obama’s plan to spend a trillion dollars. They will be the primary beneficiaries of that money. They will be tasked with building a new generation of nuclear weapons, nuclear bombers, nuclear armed submarines and nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. Russia and China will be the primary targets for these new weapons.

       Short of a all out World War III between the U.S. and Russia, planners on both sides are calling for serious consideration of the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia has publicly stated that if Russia was losing a ground war with NATO forces in Eastern Europe, he would consider using tactical nuclear weapons. In the U.S., Pentagon consultants have also endorsed the use of tactical nuclear weapons. These small nuclear devices have yields in the range of kilotons of TNT to tens of kilotons of TNT. (The nuclear warheads on the major nuclear weapons are in the megatons of TNT range.) The tactical weapons are said to be less dangerous to civil populations because they are intended for use of the battlefield. They have been cleared for use by the U.S. Senate and such use does not have to be approved by the Commander in Chief (the U.S. President.) This has the effect of making it more probable that they will be used.

        Pentagon sources have confirmed that they are considering the use of anti-nuclear missiles against launched Russian nuclear missiles. There are scenarios under consideration where we would use either conventional weapons or cruise missiles to hit missile launch facilities and other military installations inside Russia. The planners think that it would be possible to stop Russian aggression with a first strike against these military targets. Critics say that it is more likely that such an attack against Russia would result in the launch of ICBMS at U.S. and European targets. In other words, World War III and the end of civilization.

       The world has already come within minutes of World War III at least three times. Each time, a brave military man decided that he was unwilling to end civilization. With so many weapons poised on a hair trigger and possibilities of mistakes, it may only be a matter of time before the human race destroys itself in a nuclear war. The only way to prevent this is total nuclear disarmament.

The U.S. Pentagon: