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.
I have been blogging a lot recently about nuclear weapons and nuclear war. After the end of the Cold War in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was hoped that nuclear disarmament would proceed and humanity could remove the dark cloud of nuclear war for its future. Unfortunately, although nuclear weapons have been reduced by about eighty percent in the U.S. and Russia, each still has thousands of war heads ready to launch. In addition, other countries have nuclear weapons and are in conflicts with their neighbors that could escalate. Since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, relations between Russia and the U.S. have deteriorated. Both countries are upgrading their nuclear arsenals. In addition, both are working on new nuclear weapons. Today I am going to discuss a new Russian weapons. Tomorrow I will talk about a new U.S. weapon.
The Pentagon has just reported that the Russians are building a drone submarine for the purpose of delivering megaton nuclear warheads to U.S. harbors and coastal cities. Primary targets would be key ports used by U.S. nuclear submarines such as Kings Bay in Geogia and Bremerton in Washington. They have given the Russia program a code name of “Kanyon.” While the Pentagon has reported the existence of the Russian program, they have shared little in the way of details. They have said that the new weapon would be an autonomous uncrewed submarine armed with a big enough nuclear warhead to do massive damage. This drone sub will have a high-speed and long-distance capability but it is years away from the prototype and testing phase.
Russian leaders announced a new maritime strategy this year that included calling for the development of innovative technologies such as unmanned underwater vehicles. This was reported in Jane’s 360 and was seen as a probable reference to the Kanyon program. A Russian military research vessel named the Yantar sailed along the east coast of the United States recently. The Pentagon said that the Yantar was carrying out underwater reconnaissance. It was gathering the sort of information that could be used to support an underwater drone sub such as the Kanyon. The Pentagon planners are very concerned about the Kanyon program and are going to have to develop counter measures against such autonomous underwater drones armed with nuclear weapons.
The Kanyon project is part of what the Pentagon refers to as “an aggressive strategic nuclear forces modernization” undertaken by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. The Russian nuclear buildup is seen as an attempt by Putin to gain a strategic nuclear advantage over the U.S. The U.S. has been trying to work with Russia to reduce the number of warheads and delivery platforms that each maintains but this new aggression on the part of Russia will definitely make further arms reduction treaties more difficult to achieve. Russia is not complying with the 1987 Intermediate-Range nuclear Forces Treaty at present and the new developments make it unlikely that Russia will return to compliance any time soon. Once again the specter of nuclear war rises.
Artist’s concept of Russian nuclear submarine drone:
It being Labor Day, I thought that I would take this opportunity to talk about labor as it relates to the nuclear industry, including mining, milling, enriching, nuclear fuel manufacture, nuclear plant operation, nuclear weapons production and nuclear waste handling. Most of the media attention on the nuclear labor force is focused on the highly trained nuclear technicians that carry out tasks in the international nuclear industry that require a high level of training and skills. There have been concerns recently about the fact that a lot of the regular skilled nuclear labor force is aging and retiring. With the uncertainties about the future of nuclear power, fewer students are entering training program for nuclear specialties. This in turn cast further shadows on the prospects for a robust nuclear industry in the future.
There is another side to the nuclear labor force that gets little publicity. The World Nuclear Association says that there is a transient workforce they refer to as “nuclear gypsies” who are casual workers employed by subcontractors that have been “part of the nuclear scene for at least four decades.” These transients often do the dirty, difficult and dangerous work that is avoided by the regular workforce. They are underpaid and exploited.They go by many different names around the world such as Nuclear Nomads, Bio-Robots, Lumnizers, Glow Boys, Radium Girls, the Fukushima 50, Liquidators, Atomic Gypsies, Gamma Sponges, Nuclear Gypsies, Genpatsu Gypsies, Nuclear Samurai and Jumpers. When one of these workers exceeds the limit of allowed radiation exposure at a particular nuclear site, they often move on to another site where their recorded radiation exposure starts at zero again. The global nuclear industry is fully aware of this practice but ignores it because it would not be possible to continue to profitably operate if not for these transients.
There have been reports of inadequate training, insufficient attention to standard procedures, inadequate safety protection, inadequate record keeping and reporting, and other problems for many nuclear workers in the international nuclear industry. Some of these individuals are exposed to radiation far in excess of the legal limits and suffer impacts on their health such as increased rates of cancer with little or no compensation.
I first heard of this practice years ago when I read a news item about poor people being recruited to clean up spilled nuclear fluids at a reactor in Japan. They were given mops and buckets but were paid little and not told of the danger. After Fukushima, I found out that the Japanese organized crime syndicate called the Yakuza was deeply involved in the staffing of nuclear power plants. Apparently there are two levels of employment. There are the regular highly trained technicians who are properly equipped and protected and then there are the second tier employees who are given cheaper and less effective equipment. An irony of Fukushima is that while many of the highly trained technicians fled when disaster hit, many of the second tier employees stayed and tried to help.
Labor Day is a good time to highlight this practice of exploiting the poor and desperate to do the jobs that the highly trained nuclear technicians won’t do. This situation is the kind of thing that led to the rise of labor unions in the first place. The damage done by this exploitation should be counted when the cost of nuclear power is discussed.
TEPCO workers at Fukushima without protective boots:
The evacuation order has been lifted for the town of Naraha in Fukushima prefecture, allowing residents to permanently return to their homes there. world-nuclear-news.org
World nuclear generating capacity is set to continue expanding over the coming decades, although at a slower pace than previously anticipated, according to newly published International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) projections. world-nuclear-news.org
