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)
Setting all these questions and concerns aside, there is the big question of whether or not the electricity produced by Diablo Canyon will even be needed in the middle or the long term. California has about forty percent more electricity available than it currently needs. Some energy analysts say that the continued operation of Diablo Canyon will slow down the expansion of renewable energy sources in California. The output of Diablo Canyon is inflexible because it is very difficult to raise and lower. This base load supply reduces demand for alternative and more flexible low carbon energy sources. If PG&E delays a decision on relicensing, alternative sustainable energy sources may not be strongly supported. If PG&E then decides not to relicense, there could be a future shortfall of low carbon electricity available.
PG&E says that continued operation of Diablo Canyon for twenty years beyond current licensing would save the residents of the area as much as sixteen billion dollars. Such estimates are questionable at best in light of the rapidly changing energy market and the falling cost of renewable sustainable energy sources. In addition, critics of Diablo Canyon say that the cost of upgrading Diablo Canyon to meet environmental and seismic mandates may not be worth it. PG&E has been very quiet about its plans for Diablo Canyon. Some critics of the company think that it may be looking for an excuse to shut the plant down even before the current licenses expire.
In 2007, the California Public Utilities Commission demanded that PG&E make a decision about renewing the licenses at least ten years before the licenses expired. They said that this was necessary in order for energy planners to have time to figure out how to replace the two gigawatts that the plant generates in case PG&E decided to close it before the original licenses expired. Critics of PG&E have voiced suspicions that PG&E has deliberately held off making any decision as the ten year deadline passed because they hope to make opposition difficult when they do apply for license renewal. The shorter the time that planners have to find alternative energy sources, the easier it will be for PG&E to get their licenses renewed.
PG&E has countered with a statement that it was working on license renewal in 2010 but suspended those activities after the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and has not yet set a timeline for continuing with the licensing process.
In 2010, there was an explosion in a pipeline owned by PG&E that resulted in eight deaths and two billion in state fines. Dozens of criminal charges were filed by the federal government. This explosion and its aftermath called the competence of PG&E into question. Critics of the company fear that it has been less than rigorous in the management of Diablo Canyon and worry that extending the licenses may be an invitation to future serious accidents at the plant.
Perhaps it is time for the NRC and the people of California to make a decision independent to PG&E. There are a lot of good reasons shut down Diablo Canyon permanently even before their currently licenses expire. It would be best for California to end their use of nuclear power as soon as possible.
A prototype fuel assembly for China’s CAP1400 pressurized water reactor design has been produced at the Baotou fuel fabrication facility in Inner Mongolia. The fuel’s performance will now be verified. world-nuclear-news.org
Global nuclear generating capacity increased slightly in 2015 as 10 new reactors began supplying electricity and eight were permanently shut down, according to World Nuclear Association data. world-nuclear-news.org
Belgium’s Doel nuclear reactor went offline on Saturday, after it was restarted just three days ago, the plant’s spokesperson said. nuclear-news.net
The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is located on the coast of San Luis Obispo County in California. Since the closure of the San Onofre nuclear plant near San Diego because of damaging caused to piping by new turbines, Diablo Canyon has become the last nuclear power plant in California. Diablo Canyon is owned and operated by Pacific Gas & Electric. It has two nuclear power reactors. The original forty year license for one reactor runs out in 2024 and the other runs out in 2025. P G & E has not announced whether or not they will seek an extension for the licenses of the two reactors.
When the Diablo Canyon plant was constructed, it was known that there were major fault lines near the construction site. The plant was designed to be able to withstand quakes equal in intensity to what the historical record showed had happened around those faults in the past. Then, it was discovered that there was another fault called the Hosgri fault just three miles off the coast near the plant. The geological record showed that this fault had produced more powerful quakes than the other nearby faults. Modifications were ordered to the plant to take the possibility of more powerful quakes into account.
The seismic upgrades were finished in 1981 but it was later found that the contractors made a serious mistake. There were two reactors and both had to be upgraded. The reactors were based on the same design. One set of blueprints were used to make the changes to both reactor buildings. Unfortunately, the contractors failed to take into account that while the reactors were based on the same design, one of the reactors was a mirror image of the other. This meant that the changes made to the second reactor did not accomplish what they were intended to accomplish. The NRC allowed the plant to keep operating even though the mandated changes had not been successfully done.
In 2014, The Friends of the Earth filed a demand with the federal court to overturn the secret decision of the NRC to make changes to the way in which seismic risk was calculated in the PG&E operating license for Diablo Canyon. These changes made it possible for PG&E to continue to operate even though the original license provisions would have forced the NRC to revoke their license. The FoE claimed that there was criminal conspiracy between NRC and PG&E to allow PG&E to continue to operate the Diablo Canyon plant.
In addition to concerns over seismic safety, there are other problems for the PG&E operation of Diablo Canyon. This year, the California State Water Resources Control Board made the “once-through” cooling system in use at Diablo Canyon illegal because of its impact on marine wildlife. The FoE estimates that Diablo Canyon “causes 80% of all the serious harm to marine life from all of the coastal power plants” in California. If this rule is enforced for the Diablo Canyon plant, the cost to make necessary changes to the cooling system could rise to eleven billion dollars.
The California State Land Commission is currently considering whether or not to extend the leases for the structures that bring water into and discharge water from the plant. Currently, these licenses are set to expire in 2018 and 2019. The Lt. Governor of California has called for a detailed and complete environmental review of the Diablo Canyon operation before any action is take on the licenses.
Please read Part Two.
5,600 Bq/Kg of Cs-134/137 from vacuum cleaner dust accumulated from this September in Iwaki City, Japan. fukushima-diary.com
The Wisconsin state assembly will vote in January on legislation that could open the door for new nuclear power plants, a spokeswoman for Speaker Robin Vos said. nuclearstreet.com
