Repeating and clarifying my comments from last night, I am hoping that folks will begin to wake up to the fact that all of us are living in an irresponsible world of powerful self-aggrandizing maniacs with nuclear weapons and other nuclear toys that threatens virtually all life on planet Earth. The only way to stop it is to massively vocalize our objection all of it to the leaders of our own governments. They will pay no attention to small groups of dissenters, and, in fact may not pay any attention to the masses either. But we must try; otherwise our inability to survive something like a nuclear WWIII is a forgone conclusion.
From last night’s blog Post #634 (edited): “These same futile economic and safety issues, along with years of delay to engineer, construct, and receive governmental regulatory approval of any nuclear power facility anywhere on the planet apply globally. Many other serious concerns are, of course, never going to go away until the use of ‘all things nuclear’ is discontinued and all products, reactors, buildings and facilities are forever barred and buried deep in irretrievable vaults around the planet.
The issue of electricity cost for the middle classes around the world absolutely makes the cost of generating electricity for our day-to-day use absolutely prohibitive. So, even if you don’t care or worry about all those life-threatening issues about ‘all things nuclear’ that I write about every day trying to get your much-needed attention, at least you should be concerned about how you and your children’s futures can possibly afford to pay the cost of more and more proposed nuclear power plants coming online over the next three decades. The six times more expensive than now issue of your power bills, by the way, is, in my opinion, far understated, especially because of the coming availability of producing and providing nuclear fuel to such an impractical, useless, and probably impossible idea of what those who know the industry facetiously call the misleading formula “net zero”, intended to end increases in global warming and climate change caused by CO2 and the primary six other greenhouse gasses (GHG).
We must put a stop to this ridiculous propaganda that is being shoved down our throats clouding our minds with pretended optimism that just does not exist by the nuclear industry, along with the support of global governments. They know the mission is impossible, and it is only right that we should know, too, and demand that the right thing is done — meaning to destroy all nuclear products (bombs, first) and realize that earthlings will have to make do with naturally created electricity that is not only affordable, but breathable. Otherwise, we soon will not need any power plants of any kind at all, and we will take most other life on planet Earth with us to Her 6th Extinction. ~llaw
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To show it shares Saudi concerns about Iran’s nuclear … 3 days ago. Rising / 3 days ago. See all Hill.TV See all Video … things to know about Biden’s …
The country’s first nuclear power plant is being constructed at Rooppur in Pabna with the financial and technical support of Russia. The Atomic Energy …
Although this article was commissioned for Australia, the same economic, safety, and years of delay times to engineer, construct, and governmentally approve any nuclear power facility anywhere on the planet. Many other serious concerns are, of course, never going to go away until the use of ‘all things nuclear’ is discontinued and all products, buildings and facilities are forever barred and buried deep in irretrievable vaults on the planet.
But the issue of electricity cost for the middle classes around the world absolutely makes the cost of generating electricity for our day-to-day use absolutely prohibitive. So, even if you don’t care or worry about all those life-threatening issues about ‘all things nuclear that I write about every day trying to get your much-needed attention, at least you should be concerned about how you and your children’s futures can possibly afford to pay the cost of more and more nuclear power plants coming online over the next three decades. The six times more expensive than now issue of your power bills, by the way, is, in my opinion, well understated, especially because of the coming availability of producing and providing nuclear fuel to such an impractical, useless, and probably impossible idea of what we who know the industry intentionally call the misleading formula “net zero” for ending increases in global warming and climate change caused by CO2 and primary six other greenhouse gasses (GHG).
We must put a stop to this ridiculous propaganda that is being shoved down our throats clouding our minds with mindless optimism that just does not exist by the nuclear industry with the support of global governments. They know the mission is impossible, and it is only right that we should know, too, and demand the right things are done — meaning destroy all nuclear products (bombs, first) and find that earthlings will have to make do with naturally created electricity that is not only affordable, but breathable. Otherwise, we soon will not need any power plants of any kind at all, and we will take most other life on planet Earth with us to Her 6th Extinction. ~llaw
An independent report commissioned by the Clean Energy Council and conducted by Egis, a leading global consulting, construction and engineering firm, has confirmed that nuclear is the most expensive form of new energy in Australia.
The review analysed the CSIRO and Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)’s GenCost report against the Lazard Review and the Mineral Council of Australia (MCA)’s research into Small Modular Nuclear Reactors.
The report has these key findings:
The research confirmed that nuclear energy is up to six times more expensive than renewable energy and even on the most favourable reading for nuclear, renewables remain the cheapest form of new-build electricity.
The safe operation of nuclear power requires strong nuclear safety regulations and enforcement agencies, none of which exist in Australia. Establishing these frameworks and new bodies would take a long time and require significant government funding which would ultimately be borne by taxpayers.
Nuclear may be even higher cost than currently forecast as waste management and decommissioning of nuclear plants have been omitted by cost calculations in the relevant research available.
The economic viability of nuclear energy will further diminish as more wind, solar and battery storage enters the grid, in line with legislated targets. Put simply, nuclear plants are too heavy and too slow to compete with renewables and can’t survive on their own in Australian energy markets.
Clean Energy Council Chief Executive, Kane Thornton, said the Egis Review proved that households would need to pay a hefty price to subsidise a sub-optimal future powered by nuclear reactors.
“This report confirms the CSIRO’s findings that nuclear energy is six times the cost of renewable energy and that replacing renewables would cause power prices to explode,” Thornton said.
“Taxpayers also need to understand the costs that will be borne if they are forced to foot the bill for building a nuclear industry from scratch over a period of decades.
“Nuclear power is also a poor fit with our increasingly renewable power system. Nuclear power stations are expensive and have to run constantly in order to break even. But that doesn’t work in a world with an abundance of cheap renewables. Nuclear power stations aren’t designed to ramp up and down to match free energy from renewables – for that we need more energy storage.
“At the Clean Energy Council, we support a clear-eyed view of the costs and time required to decarbonise Australia and right now, nuclear simply doesn’t stack up.”
The Egis report also found the MCA’s research on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in the Australian context is already out of date and flawed, as it did not anticipate the current long delay in SMR projects around the world. The MCA research is also based on uncertain cost estimates for projects that have not yet begun construction, or academic research that has not been tested in the field.
The MCA’s research on the issue also considered the NuScale Power project, which has since been cancelled due to large cost overruns.
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
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Why do we continue on with the concept of building new nuclear power plants and rehabilitating old ones when we are at the same time faced with the possibility of a nuclear war in which nuclear power plants will inevitably be included as war weapons of mass destruction. The concept is happening already in the Russia/Ukraine war at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Are we really that ignorant and foolish that we would, “cut off our noses to spite our faces?” — to quote an old saying. There are much safer, quicker, easier, cheaper, and better ways to meet our electricity needs.
The following short article is remarkably understated (as might be expected by a go-between agency), but still the extreme danger is recognized. There have been dozens of critically dangerous attacks by Russian military for many months, some of them putting other European nations at risk of radiation poisoning. ~llaw
Read on . . .
IAEA staff observe emergency drill at Zaporizhzhia
17 May 2024
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The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi says that regular drills and exercises at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “are especially important in view of the extraordinary risks it is currently facing”.
In his latest update on the situation at the six-unit plant, which has been under Russian military control since early March 2022, IAEA Director General Grossi said: “The IAEA will remain present at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) for as long as it is needed. The nuclear safety and security situation at the plant remains extremely precarious and challenging. Thanks to our experts at the site, we can inform the world about developments there. We will continue to do everything in our power to keep this major nuclear facility safe and secure.”
Each team of IAEA staff spend roughly a month at a time there. The latest changeover – the 19th since the first team arrived in September 2022 – took place on Thursday, with the journey for those arriving and leaving involving crossing the frontline of Russian and Ukrainian forces.
Grossi said that over recent days the members of the team performed walks within the perimeter of the plant and other buildings to monitor adherence to the UN-backed principles that nuclear power plants should not be fired at, or from, or be used as a base for heavy military weaponry and equipment.
The update said: “They did not observe any heavy weapons or indications that drones could have been launched from the ZNPP. However, the IAEA experts are still not permitted to access all areas of the ZNPP.”
On Wednesday, the IAEA experts at the plant observed an emergency drill take place, based on the scenario of damage to a pipe connected to one of the sprinkler ponds providing cooling water to cool unit 1 and its safety systems. The exercise involved plant staff pumping water into the sprinkler pond and repairing the damaged pipe while also ensuring safety systems and back up generators remained operational. “The IAEA team’s opinion was that the exercise was well organised and that the personnel responded effectively,” the update said.
Grossi added: “It is essential for all nuclear facilities to have effective emergency preparedness and response arrangements. For this purpose, regular drills and exercises are necessary. Clearly, for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, they are especially important in view of the extraordinary risks it is currently facing.”
IAEA teams at the other nuclear power plants in Ukraine reported nuclear safety and security being maintained, although the team at Rivne NPP reported that attacks on the energy infrastructure elsewhere in Ukraine “had resulted in instability in the back-up power lines connected to the plant”.
Researched and written by World Nuclear News
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This is one of the best and easiest to understand definitions of our ridiculous reliance on something called ‘deterrence’ to permanently avoid nuclear war through the thin veil of ‘threats’ that, if acted upon, would without doubt lead to a nuclear WWIII. Given human nature we have long known that words (including written and signed legal agreements among nations) mean nothing to countries when potential war is involved. And ‘ nuclear deterrence’ means even less. Consider this description (borrowed rom the commentary below) of ‘deterrence’ between you and your neighbor: ~llaw
The problem is that threats with nuclear weapons are extreme, by their nature, promising massive and devastating harm. It is very difficult to use nuclear weapons without killing civilians and turning large areas into rubble. This triggers something in human nature. Such catastrophic threats cross a line; they create wariness, mistrust, and avoidance in the person being threatened. If your neighbour threatens to kill you and shoot your children and then burn down your house and strangle your dog, you will find it difficult to coexist with, trust, or work cooperatively with that person forever after. Extreme actions and extreme threats make normal relations problematic going forward. ~from the European Leadership Network
Commentary| 16 May 2024
The extreme nature of nuclear deterrence
Ward Wilson |Executive Director of RealistRevolt, former senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and BASIC
Paul Ingram |Research affiliate at the University of Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER)
The wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and Africa are raging in the context of rising great power competition on the one hand and, on the other, urgent issues that demand global cooperation, such as climate change and the crises in liberal democracies. Attitudes in Europe appear to have hardened significantly since the disastrous Russian invasion of Ukraine. Fearful of an aggressive Russia and believing that there is a need for a stronger European nuclear deterrent, Poland has been testing the waters to see whether it could host US nuclear weapons, and even recently, non-aligned Finland has also been considering nuclear deployments. Responding to the possibility of a new Trump Presidency and doubt over US commitments to Europe, debate has opened up in Germany over building a nuclear force of its own — a move that would irrevocably blow a hole in the global nonproliferation regime.
Looming over all is the shadow of nuclear conflict and talk of a possible Third World War. Confidence in the stability of nuclear deterrence is hitting a new low, yet states appear to be doubling down on their bets. Many states’ leadership profess a shared faith in nuclear deterrence as a contribution to stability (at least when they or their allies control it), but this is probably because they have no idea of any alternative.
There is no question that nuclear threats are so frightening that they can work in dissuading states from aggression (or joining a war). It is said that Russia has been deterred from attacking NATO members or supply lines into Ukraine, and NATO has been deterred from joining the war with boots on the ground or no-fly zones. But the risk is fearsome, and the deterrent effects can wane over time.
It is an obvious but inconvenient truth that nuclear deterrence demands the signalling and credible readiness to fight a nuclear war. The risk of nuclear war is, therefore, baked into nuclear deterrence. As a result, suggestions to reduce nuclear risk, for example, by issuing no-first-use declarations, consistently run up against objections that they’re not practical or undermine the credible threat at the heart of deterrence. Questions about whether or how often nuclear deterrence may fail catastrophically only serve to strengthen deterrence in the minds of advocates.
One additional core problem is often overlooked. Even when nuclear deterrence works, it leaves a residue of poison behind in international relationships, just as a detonated nuclear weapon leaves a trail of invisible radioactive fallout downwind.
The problem is that threats with nuclear weapons are extreme, by their nature, promising massive and devastating harm. It is very difficult to use nuclear weapons without killing civilians and turning large areas into rubble. This triggers something in human nature. Such catastrophic threats cross a line; they create wariness, mistrust, and avoidance in the person being threatened. If your neighbour threatens to kill you and shoot your children and then burn down your house and strangle your dog, you will find it difficult to coexist with, trust, or work cooperatively with that person forever after. Extreme actions and extreme threats make normal relations problematic going forward.
The consequences arising from the use of nuclear weapons are so extreme that the very threat dehumanises those on the receiving end and brutalises those making the threats. President Putin’s reminders of Russia’s nuclear capabilities in early 2022 were a shock, and appear to be the root cause of resentment many in Europe feel towards him, even in the face of his actual destruction in Ukraine. This is despite the fact that analysts find it challenging to articulate what it was about his exact words that departed from past implied nuclear threats supporting aggressive military action (such as UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon against non-nuclear Iraq in March 2002).
Nuclear deterrence harms cohesion within the international community. Yet the need for cooperation among the nations of the international community has never been more urgent. Rising hostility and confrontation are all but destroying the international community’s capacity to tackle the tremendous common challenges of our time: the weakening fabric of our societies and the rise of populism; responding to climate change; reversing the destruction of our planet’s ecosystems; and managing weapons of mass destruction and the terrifying destructive possibilities arising from disruptive technologies such as AI. Greater collaboration between governments across many activities is essential for our collective survival. Efforts by many states in the international community to isolate Russia have disrupted negotiations in international fora. One example was the 2022 NPT Review Conference, when there was an attempt to get a consensus agreement that all nuclear power facilities in Ukraine should be under the control of Ukrainians (a demand that Russia would clearly veto).
Although the practice of nuclear deterrence is generally thought of within nuclear-armed states as relatively benign – it carries with it often unnoticed adverse effects, diluting the soft power of those states that practice it. Ward Wilson and Paul Ingram
Although the practice of nuclear deterrence is generally thought of within nuclear-armed states as relatively benign – like an invisible shield that protects nations from harm – it carries with it often unnoticed adverse effects, diluting the soft power of those states that practice it. Nuclear-armed states threaten global security and drive arms-racing behaviour and are perenially criticised by other states at every nuclear nonproliferation conference. Evidence that the use of nuclear deterrence may be wearing thin within the majority world is the emergence of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons — which now has more than 80 signatories and has entered into force. States parties to the Treaty are engaged in a host of serious activities aimed at re-evaluating and replacing nuclear deterrence as a defining feature of global politics. The very nature of nuclear deterrence – the credible threat to annihilate the other – exacerbates the current high levels of tension and angry antagonism between the three largest nuclear powers: Russia, the United States, and China.
When nuclear weapons first arrived on the scene, they were hailed by those responsible for US nuclear doctrine as tools that could do virtually anything, but over time, a certain amount of reality has sunk in. Some believe a “nuclear taboo” has developed, but perhaps the more plausible explanation for their non-use since 1945 is that they are simply too big and too destructive for fighting wars. Our militaries keep hold of them in the belief that within their integrated deterrence strategies (in which nuclear-armed states propose a broad toolbox of capabilities to uphold deterrence), nuclear weapons have an irreplaceable role. But in a world where there are many ways to deliver strategic deterrence across a wide range of effects, ways that are likely to be more credible than the threat of a nuclear attack, it is time to reverse the slide into a new nuclear arms race and instead let go of the dangerous and doubtful belief that nuclear weapons are essential.
Of course, if other tools for effective strategic deterrence are more effective and credible, states could adopt them unilaterally. But this transformation is more likely if they come around to recognising these realities in tandem together. The N5 (formally misnamed P5) Process meeting of nuclear weapon states has continued to meet at the working level and has been discussing nuclear postures. In August, the Chair will be taken on by the Chinese, who rejuvenated the process when they last chaired five years ago. They are set to invite their fellow Nuclear Weapon States to consider the no-first-use doctrine. Still, perhaps they could also kick off a shared process that questions their received wisdom and explores the fundamental utility of nuclear deterrence itself.
The opinions articulated above represent the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Leadership Network or any of its members. The ELN’s aim is to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time.
Image: Shutterstock
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1. Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming · 2. Hawaii volcanoes, HI · 4. Mount Redoubt, Alaska · 5. Mount St. Helens, Washington · 6. Mount Shasta, California · 7.
What are we going to do about nuclear waste? Governments everywhere are finally beginning to realize that “folks we have a problem.” The recent story (see “LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #621 (05/05/2024)” that I posted about the iron-clad underground inner sanctum that Finland is constructing should be required of every country with nuclear waste of every kind from every source. That would be a beginning and a positive move to take all nuclear waste seriously. The following comprehensive recent article from “The Bulletin” tells us how serious this issue is and why it must be done . . . ~llaw
Spent nuclear fuel mismanagement poses a major threat to the United States and around the world. I have refrained from posting this article earlier, because it is frightening to read. (and, by the way, for our California and surrounding states, PG&E is mentioned in the story.):
Power transmission lines near Dixon, California on August 12, 2012. A widespread collapse of the US power grid system could threaten nuclear facilities, including overloaded spent fuel pools. (Credit: Photo by Wendell/intherough, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 via Flickr)
Irradiated fuel assemblies—essentially bundles of fuel rods with zirconium alloy cladding sheathing uranium dioxide fuel pellets—that have been removed from a nuclear reactor (spent fuel) generate a great deal of heat from the radioactive decay of the nuclear fuel’s unstable fission products. This heat source is termed decay heat. Spent fuel is so thermally hot and radioactive that it must be submerged in circulating water and cooled in a storage pool (spent fuel pool) for several years before it can be moved to dry storage.
The dangers of reactor meltdowns are well known. But spent fuel can also overheat and burn in a storage pool if its coolant water is lost, thereby potentially releasing large amounts of radioactive material into the air. This type of accident is known as a spent fuel pool fire or zirconium fire, named after the fuel cladding. All commercial nuclear power plants in the United States—and nearly all in the world—have at least one spent fuel pool on site. A fire at an overloaded pool (which exist at many US nuclear power plants) could release radiation that dwarfs what the Chernobyl nuclear accident emitted.
Many analysts see very rare, severe earthquakes as the greatest threat to spent fuel pools; however, another far more likely event could threaten US nuclear sites: a widespread collapse of the power grid system. Such a collapse could be triggered by a variety of events, including solar storms, physical attacks, and cyberattacks—all of which are known, documented possibilities. Safety experts have warned for decades about the dangers of overloading spent fuel pools, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Congress have refused to act.
The threat of overloaded spent fuel pools. Spent fuel pools at US nuclear plants are almost as densely packed with nuclear fuel as operating reactors—a hazard that has existed for decades and vastly increases the odds of having a major accident.
Spent fuel assemblies could ignite—starting a zirconium fire—if an overloaded pool were to lose a sizable portion or all of its coolant water. In a scenario in which coolant water boils off, uncovered zirconium cladding of fuel assemblies may overheat and chemically react with steam, generating explosive hydrogen gas. A substantial amount of hydrogen would almost certainly detonate, destroying the building that houses the spent fuel pool. (Only a small quantity of energy is required to ignite hydrogen gas, including electric sparks from equipment. It is speculated a ringing telephone initiated a hydrogen explosion that occurred during the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.)
A zirconium fire in an exposed spent fuel pool would have the potential to emit far more radioactive cesium 137 than the Chernobyl accident released. (The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has conducted analyses that found a zirconium fire at a densely packed pool could release as much as 24 megacuries of cesium 137; the Chernobyl accident is estimated to have released 2.3 megacuries of cesium 137.) Such a disaster could contaminate thousands of square miles of land in urban and rural areas, potentially exposing millions of people to large doses of ionizing radiation, many of whom could die from early or latent cancer.
In contrast, if a thinly packed pool were deprived of coolant water, its spent fuel assemblies would likely release about 1 percent of the radioactive material predicted to be released by a zirconium fire at a densely packed pool. A thinly packed pool has a much smaller inventory of radioactive material than a densely packed pool; it also contains much less zirconium. If such a limited amount of zirconium were to react with steam, most likely too little hydrogen would be generated to threaten the integrity of the spent fuel pool building.
After being cooled under water for a minimum of three years, spent fuel assemblies can be transferred from pools to giant, hermetically sealed canisters of reinforced steel and concrete that shield plant workers and the public from ionizing radiation. This liquid-free method of storage, which cools the spent fuel assemblies by passive air convection, is called “dry cask storage.”
A typical US storage pool for a 1,000-megawatt-electric reactor contains from 400 to 500 metric tons of spent fuel assemblies. (Dry casks can store 10 to 15 tons of spent fuel assemblies, so each cask contains a far lower amount of radioactive material than a storage pool.) Reducing the total inventories of spent fuel assemblies stored in US spent fuel pools by roughly 70 to 80 percent reduces their amount of radioactive cesium by about 50 percent. And the heat load in each pool drops by about 25 to 30 percent. With low-density storage, a pool’s spent fuel assemblies are separated from each other to an extent that greatly improves their ability to be cooled by air convection in the event that the pool loses its coolant water. Moreover, a dry cask storage area, which has passive cooling, is less vulnerable to either accidents or sabotage than a spent fuel pool.
In the aftermath of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan, in which there was a risk of spent fuel assemblies igniting, the NRC considered forcing US utilities to expedite the transfer of all sufficiently-cooled spent fuel assemblies stored in overloaded pools to dry cask storage. The NRC decided against implementing such a safety measure.
To help justify its decision, the NRC chose to analyze only one scenario that might lead to a zirconium fire: a severe earthquake. In 2014, the NRC claimed that a severe earthquake with a magnitude “expected to occur once in 60,000 years” is the prototypical initiating event that would lead to a zirconium fire in a boiling water reactor’s spent fuel pool.
The NRC’s 2014 study concluded that the type of earthquake it selected for its analyses would cause a zirconium fire and a large radiological release to occur at a densely packed spent fuel pool once every nine million years (or even less frequently). Restricting its analyses to a severe earthquake scenario allowed the NRC to help allay public fears over the dangers of spent fuel pool accidents. (At the time of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, the New York Times and other news outlets warned that a zirconium fire could break out in the plant’s Unit 4 spent fuel pool, causing global public concern.)
There is good reason to question whether severe earthquakes pose the greatest threat to spent fuel pools. A widespread collapse of the US power grid system that would last for a period of months to years—estimated to occur once in a century—may be far more likely to lead to a zirconium fire than a severe earthquake. The prospect that a widespread, long-term blackout will occur within the next 100 years should prompt US utilities to expedite the transfer of spent fuel from pools to dry cask storage. Utilities in other nations, including in Japan, that have overloaded pools should follow suit.
Solar storms, physical attacks, and cyberattacks have the potential to cause a nightmare scenario in which the US power grid collapses, along with other vital infrastructures—leading to reactor meltdowns and spent fuel pool fires, whose radioactive emissions would aggravate the disaster.
Vulnerability to solar storms. In 2012, the NRC issued a Federal Register notice stating that an extreme solar storm (with its accompanying geomagnetic storm at the Earth) could cause the failure of hundreds of extra-high voltage transformers—with a maximum voltage rating of at least 345 kilovolts—precipitating widespread, long-term blackouts. The NRC posited that such a solar storm might occur once in 153 years to once in 500 years and initiate “a series of events potentially leading to [reactor] core damage at multiple nuclear sites.”
The NRC’s Federal Register notice announced the agency had determined that the threat of prolonged power outages leading to at least one spent fuel pool fire must be addressed in its rulemaking process. The NRC decided to consider enacting regulations that Thomas Popik of the Foundation for Resilient Societies, a non-profit organization focusing on infrastructure reliability, requested in a petition for rulemaking. Popik asked the NRC to require plant owners to ensure spent fuel pools would have long-term cooling and a replenished supply of coolant water in the event that an extreme solar storm collapsed large portions of the US power grid for a period of months to years. Among other things, Popik was concerned that emergency diesel generators would not be able to supply the onsite electricity needed to cool the spent fuel pool for more than a few days.
Over the past 160 years, the Earth has been hit by two solar superstorms—the 1859 Carrington Event and the 1921 New York Railroad Superstorm—that would be powerful enough to disable large portions of today’s global power grids. Scientists estimate that such extreme solar storms may hit the Earth once in a century, so the odds are that the Earth will be hit by a solar superstorm at some point during this century. In July 2012, a solar superstorm, estimated to have been more intense than the Carrington Event, crossed the Earth’s orbit, missing the Earth by about 1.8 million miles, or by one week’s time.
Solar superstorms are caused by coronal mass ejections: Eruptions of billions of tons of electrically-charged particles spat from the Sun’s corona, which travel at velocities as fast as several million miles per hour and can reach the Earth within 24 hours. Most coronal mass ejections, however, miss the Earth because it is a relatively small point within the solar system.
When a solar superstorm’s electrically-charged particles envelop the Earth, they cause extreme geomagnetic storms—mostly affecting high northern and southern latitudes. In a geomagnetic storm, the Earth’s geomagnetic field varies in magnitude, creating electric fields in the ground that induce electric currents in the power grid. Extreme geomagnetic storms may induce electric currents strong enough to melt the copper windings of extra-high voltage transformers, which may become damaged beyond repair and need to be replaced.
Extra-high voltage transformers are mostly manufactured overseas and difficult to transport. (Such transformers weigh between 100 and 400 tons.) In the United States, only a small number of facilities build extra-high voltage transformers. They cost several million dollars to manufacture and install; each is custom made to fit the specifications of its substation. Different designs are not typically interchangeable with one another, and few spares are manufactured. Manufacturing and installing even one such massive transformer can take over one year.
Solar storms that were far less intense than the New York Railroad Superstorm have collapsed modern power grids. In the early hours of March 13, 1989, on a freezing night, a geomagnetic storm caused Canada’s Hydro-Québec grid to collapse within 90 seconds, leaving six million people without electric power for about 9 hours. (The magnitude of geomagnetic storms can be measured in nanoteslas per minute, where the tesla is a unit of magnetic flux density.) The New York Railroad Superstorm is estimated to have reached a magnitude of approximately 5,000 nanoteslas per minute, and the March 1989 Storm was one-tenth as intense, reaching approximately 480 nanoteslas per minute. In late October 2003, geomagnetic storms less intense than the March 1989 Storm caused a blackout in southern Sweden and permanently damaged 15 extra-high voltage transformers in South Africa by overheating them.
Solar storms can cause large geomagnetic field variations to suddenly materialize over vast geographic areas, precipitating multiple, near-simultaneous failures at different locations of the electric power grid system. Over the past half century, the United States and other nations have dramatically expanded their power grids—adding more long-distance transmission lines and high-voltage infrastructure—thereby increasing their vulnerability to geomagnetic storms. Moreover, the aging of vital power-grid infrastructures also increases the grid’s vulnerability.
Vulnerability to physical attacks. On April 16, 2013, gunmen attacked the Metcalf Transmission Substation in San Jose, California, rendering it out of service. The gunmen shot 120 rounds from semiautomatic rifles, hitting 17 extra-high voltage transformers. The transformers leaked more than 50,000 gallons of cooling oil. They overheated, without exploding, and shut down. According to Jon Wellinghoff, a former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Metcalf attack nearly caused a blackout in Silicon Valley; one that may have persisted for a period of several weeks.
In response to the assault on Metcalf, its owner—Pacific Gas and Electric—decided to spend $100 million over the course of three years to help fortify its substations. That did not prevent thieves, in August 2014, from cutting through a fence at Metcalf and pilfering construction equipment that was intended to bolster security. It took utility workers more than four hours to realize the substation had been burgled.
In January 2022, the Department of Homeland Security warned that domestic terrorists have been devising credible strategies for sabotaging the US power grid over the past few years. Protecting all 55,000 substations that make up the US grid, however, is a difficult task. In December 2022, at least one malefactor shot at and severely damaged two substations—owned by Duke Energy—in North Carolina’s Moore County, located about 90 miles east of Charlotte. Around 45,000 homes and businesses lost electricity as a result, and tens of thousands of customers got their power restored only after several days. Commenting on the Moore County attacks, Wellinghoff observed that “most [substations] don’t seem to be very well protected. Many of them still have chain link fences, like the one in North Carolina.”
In 2014, The Wall Street Journalreported that a US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission analysis had concluded that if saboteurs synchronized physical attacks and disabled as few as nine critical power substations, especially on a hot summer day, the entire US mainland could lose electric power for several months. Unfortunately, determining or simply procuring information about the locations of the most critical substations in the continental US is a relatively easy task.
Malefactors can also physically attack substations remotely. For instance, drones armed with improvised explosive devices could target US substations in synchronized swarms, potentially collapsing the power grid. In September 2022, Russia attacked civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, including the Ukrainian power grid, with waves of Iranian Shahed-136, “kamikaze” drones. These drones can carry up to 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of explosives over hundreds of miles. Kamikaze drones explode on impact. In October 2022, Russian kamikaze drones partly disrupted the delivery of electricity in the three major Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Lviv.
Vulnerability to cyberattacks. In December 2015, Russian hackers caused power outages in Ukraine by remotely opening circuit breakers, thereby cutting off the flow of electricity, at dozens of substations. It is the first confirmed instance, worldwide, that a cyberattack caused a blackout. Within minutes, the hackers targeted three energy utilities, causing outages that lasted six hours and affected nearly a quarter-million people. Fortunately, the Ukrainian power grid has the odd benefit of being partly antiquated. It is not completely dependent on computer control systems; that is, industrial control systems and supervisory control and data acquisition (also known as “SCADA”) systems, which monitor and command an electric grid’s physical equipment. Ukrainian grid operators were able to turn the power back on by bypassing their compromised control systems and manually closing circuit breakers at affected substations. One year later, in December 2016, another Russian cyberattack would cause a second blackout in Ukraine.
The 2016 cyberattack was more sophisticated than that of 2015. Power was restored after one hour; however, the hackers shut down a large Kyiv substation that handled a greater electric load (200 megawatts) than the total load handled by the dozens of substations that had been successfully targeted the previous year. The hackers deployed malware—later named “CrashOverride”—that analysts have characterized as “an automated, grid-killing weapon.”
CrashOverride was designed to communicate with the Ukrainian power grid’s particular computer control systems, enabling it to manipulate the behavior of physical equipment at substations. At a preset time, CrashOverride opened circuit breakers at targeted substations to precipitate the blackout, without requiring oversight from hackers.
Malware programs like CrashOverride can also be tailored to attack European and North American power grids. Some analysts have posited that Ukraine is “Russia’s test lab for cyberwar,” noting that “in the cyber world, what happens in Kiev almost never stays in Kiev.” The US power grid is more computerized and automated than Ukraine’s grid, providing many openings for cyber infiltration. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has warned that the interconnectivity of SCADA systems exposes the US power grid to cyberattacks.
Given enough time, hackers could penetrate US transmission networks and plant CrashOverride or another tailored malware at any number of desired locations. CrashOverride can automatically execute the task of scanning transmission networks and selecting multiple targets, including those that control automated on-off switches for circuit breakers. Once entrenched, CrashOverride is set “like a ticking bomb,” ready to sow chaos in power grid systems at any specified time.
Analysts at Dragos and Eset, two cyber-security companies for critical infrastructure, have pointed out that CrashOverride contains some code indicating it has the capacity to disable protective relays, which protect transmission lines and transformers against electric surges by opening circuit breakers. If hackers rendered protective relays inoperable while increasing local electric loads, they could cause transmission lines to melt and transformers to burn. Wide portions of the US grid could become disabled for months to years if hackers managed to destroy many extra-high voltage transformers.
In 2016, Idaho National Laboratory analysts came to similar conclusions as those at Dragos and Eset, warning that a major cyberattack on the US grid could seriously damage critical equipment, including extra-high voltage transformers, and lead to cascading blackouts. Some substations have networks that are incapable of detecting hackers’ intrusions and planted malware. INL analysts have cautioned that hackers could exploit such vulnerabilities to launch a coordinated cyberattack against multiple substations. Five years later, in June 2021, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm acknowledged that hackers have the capability to shut down the US power grid.
Insufficient public safety. After the Fukushima Daiichi accident, the US nuclear industry established the Diverse and Flexible Mitigation Capability (FLEX) strategy, which is intended to help workers at nuclear plants manage a severe accident. The FLEX strategy stipulates that plant sites store portable equipment, such as backup generators and battery packs that can provide emergency power and pumps that can inject coolant water into the reactor or spent fuel pool. Such equipment is also stored at two national response centers, located in Memphis, Tennessee and Phoenix, Arizona. The response centers must be capable of dispatching required equipment to any nuclear plant located in the United States within 24 hours. However, each center only houses five complete sets of FLEX equipment, not nearly enough equipment to simultaneously service the entire US nuclear reactor fleet.
In a long-term, nationwide blackout, US nuclear power plants would lose their supply of offsite electricity. Emergency diesel generators, which provide onsite electricity, are back-up systems designed to power cooling pumps and other safety equipment only for a relatively short period of time. Such generators would likely fail to operate continuously for a period of months to years. The longest loss-of-offsite power events in the United States all lasted less than a week.
Most US nuclear plants are required to have at least a seven-day onsite supply of fuel for emergency diesel generators, and many have arrangements to receive prompt deliveries of fuel. Yet amid the logistical challenges and social disruptions of a nationwide, long-term blackout, it appears unlikely that a steady fuel supply could be transported to and maintained at every nuclear plant in the US fleet.
Overloading spent fuel pools should be outlawed. Safety analysts have warned about the dangers of overloading spent fuel pools since the 1970s. For decades, experts and organizations have argued that in order to improve safety, sufficiently cooled spent fuel assemblies should be removed from high-density spent fuel pools and transferred to passively cooled dry cask storage. Sadly, the NRC has not heeded their advice.
In the face of the NRC’s inaction, Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts introduced The Dry Cask Storage Act in 2014, calling for the thinning out of spent fuel pools. The act, which Senator Markey has reintroduced in subsequent congressional sessions, has not passed into law.
The relatively high probability of a nationwide grid collapse, which would lead to multiple nuclear disasters, emphasizes the need to expedite the transfer of spent fuel to dry cask storage. According to Frank von Hippel, a professor of public and international affairs emeritus at Princeton University, the impact of a single accident at an overstocked spent fuel pool has the potential to be two orders of magnitude more devastating in terms of radiological releases than the three Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns combined. If the US grid collapses for a lengthy period of time, society would likely descend into chaos, as uncooled nuclear fuel burned at multiple sites and spewed radioactive plumes into the environment.
The value of preventing the destruction of US society and untold human suffering is incalculable. So, on the issue of protecting people and the environment from spent fuel pool fires, it is surprising when one learns that promptly transferring the nationwide inventories of spent fuel assemblies that have been cooled for at least five years from US pools to dry cask storage would be “relatively inexpensive”—less than (in 2012 dollars) a total of $4 billion ($5.4 billion in today’s dollars). That is far, far less than the monetary toll of losing vast tracts of urban and rural land for generations to come because of radioactive contamination.
One should also consider that plant owners are required, as part of the decommissioning process, to transfer spent fuel assemblies from storage pools to dry cask storage after nuclear plants are permanently shut down. So, in accordance with industry protocols, all spent fuel assemblies at plant sites are intended to eventually be placed in dry cask storage (before ultimately being transported to a long-term surface storage site or a permanent geologic repository).
If the NRC continues to allow the industry’s mismanagement of spent fuel to pose an existential threat to the United States, Congress must be compelled to pass legislation requiring utilities to swiftly thin out spent fuel pools.
Editor’s note: The author thanks David Lochbaum, Frank von Hippel, and M.V. Ramana for their review ofandcomments on an earlier version of this article.
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Now that President Joe Biden has made it illegal to buy nuclear uranium fuel from Russia, which controls the market with about 83% of global control (about a quarter of even our nuclear fuel comes from Russia today), I can’t help but wonder why we would begin a tainted rabid hunger to keep the dangerous current nuclear power plants operating, build new dangerous nuclear power plants and activate dangerous old nuclear power plants based on a blind international ambition proposed by the U.S. to triple nuclear power by 2050. Even I know that automobiles don’t run without their own special kinds of fuel. In my view we are wasting our time and money as well as putting the population of human and other life on planet Earth at risk at the same time. It is the story of the “Emperor’s New Clothes” all over yet again.
Obviously, the nuclear corporate industry uranium miners and nuclear plant operators have assured our ignorant federal government that they will have plenty of nuclear fuel by the time new nuclear plants are ready to produce electricity. If I was in government I wouldn’t believe that for a New York minute. I am surprised that the nuclear governmental watchdogs such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or the Department of Energy (DOE) and others have not warned the U.S. against passing this law. There is that old saying, never put the cart before the horse, and this is a perfect example. But for me, personally I would rather see all nuclear power plants become ‘white elephants’, never to be functional, that to see them fire up. ~llaw
Following is a story from Reuters about the new law against buying Russian formula nuclear fuel, which is already not available, because Russia says it isn’t, for at least one of the new SMR plants for at least a year (and probably never), so that a new SMR under construction nuclear plant in Wyoming cannot even be demonstrated . . .
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Biden signs into law ban on Russian nuclear reactor fuel imports
WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden signed into law a ban on Russian enriched uranium on Monday, the White House said, in the latest effort by Washington to disrupt President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The ban on imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants begins in about 90 days, although it allows the Department of Energy to issue waivers in case of supply concerns.
Russia is the world’s top supplier of enriched uranium, and about 24% of the enriched uranium used by U.S. nuclear power plants come from the country.
The law also unlocks about $2.7 billion in funding in previous legislation to build out the U.S. uranium fuel industry.
“Today, President Biden signed into law a historic series of actions that will strengthen our nation’s energy and economic security by reducing, and ultimately eliminating, our reliance on Russia for civilian nuclear power,” Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said in a statement.
Sullivan said the law “delivers on multilateral goals we have set with our allies and partners,” including a pledge last December with Canada, France, Japan and the United Kingdom to collectively invest $4.2 billion to expand enrichment and conversion capacity of uranium.
The waivers, if implemented by the Energy Department, allow all the Russian uranium imports the U.S. normally imports through 2027.
Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, said that Washington’s decision is leading to shocks in global economic relations, but will not bring the desired results.
“The delicate balance between exporters and importers of uranium products is being disrupted,” the Russian embassy in Washington cited Antonov as saying in a post on its Telegram messaging channel.
“Life has confirmed that the Russian economy is ready for any challenges and quickly responds to emerging difficulties, even extracting dividends from the situation. It will be so this time too.”
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Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jacqueline Wong
Timothy reports on energy and environment policy and is based in Washington, D.C. His coverage ranges from the latest in nuclear power, to environment regulations, to U.S. sanctions and geopolitics. He has been a member of three teams in the past two years that have won Reuters best journalism of the year awards. As a cyclist he is happiest outside.
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Well, is there any other news that means anything at all today? U.S senator Lindsey Graham urged Israel to drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza to end the war there. This man should be removed from office immediately. He is demonstrating his long known ignorance and utter stupidity . . .
I simply cannot play this You Tube video myself, but I know what it says and am posting it here for its hoped-for reaction relative to how dangerous ‘all things nuclear’ are. It is not so much nuclear itself as it is the incompetence and derangement of certain leaders in certain places.
But also, human beings at all levels of responsibility are not intelligent nor humanitarian, nor even mature enough to be trusted with anything nuclear. All things nuclear must be destroyed forever in underground vaults that can never be recovered in the future. This is proof positive. ~llaw
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Chapter 4 (Original 1st Draft: Abridged and Unedited)
The short flight from Casper, less than 50 air miles to Pathfinder was uneventful. We landed into the usual light southwest wind using about half the runway and taxied on to the apron and hangers that housed the other Gulfstream, a four-seat Sikorsky helicopter, and two Piper Cubs – four hangers in all.
“Oh my, what a beautiful place you have here,” Sabrisse said looking out to the northwest landscape and buildings as we went on past the hangars to the apron in front of the main ranchhouse and the large sprawling two-story office/laboratory facility about 100 yards behind the ranchhouse. The huge white and gray satellite dishes and other communications towers and towering metal poles were spread haphazardly at short distances on the ascending slope behind the house and the workplace.
“Yes, we are proud of the buildings and facilities we have here, and both their appearance and their purposes. And we have the naturally beautiful scenery and two nearby rivers. I have often wished I could spend more time here than in California, but I do manage to split my time between the two places pretty much evenly, with Pathfinder, I believe, holding a small advantage.”
“How many people actually live and work here?” Sabrisse asked. “The home is huge – larger than the office and lab buildings.”
“Well, Sabrisse, counting me, there are the two pilots you’ve just met, Mariah and Davy, the two environmental lawyers I mentioned, and then there is Hannah, who, like me, splits her time between here and elsewhere, Tina, Aste, Pussy, Kelly, Jeannie, and a half dozen others who you will soon get to know along with our staff, most of whom bunk out here during the week rather than commute all the way from and to Casper every day.”
“Those are all female names; are you and Davy the only guys who live around here?” Sabrisse laughed, her eyes twinkling, dancing curiously into my eyes.
“Pretty much, and the others you will meet today are mostly all of the feminine persuasion, too. I find working with the feminine way is the way to get stuff done quickly and accurately and do so without egos getting in the way.” Sabrisse’s smile widened just a little, and she offered a small nod my way, lowering her face and eyes to a more level look.
Mariah steered the Gulfstream onto a concrete parking area closest to a long walkway that led up a slope to the front porch of the huge house located about 50 yards up a wide concrete walkway with two steep sections of several steps of the ascent, with iron handrails the entire length of the walkway, but with center rails where the steps were located. Sabrisse noticed that there was no one outside waiting for them and that there were no automobiles in the parking area to the west of the apron for the airplanes, which seemed odd. And then she remembered that this mission was a secret mission, and the only people who would know where they all were now would be the two military generals and the pilots who would have escorted them to their original destination in Juneau, Alaska. Even the two replacement pilots taking the military jet to is Juneau destination would not know exactly where they had all disappeared to. She had been anxious to see Juneau, but now her thoughts about the opportunity had entirely escaped from her mind.
When the stairwell ladder began to open and descend to the tarmac apron, both Mariah and Davey emerged from the pilot cabin and motioned, uplifting her forearms with open hands, to Albert and all the rest of us that we could arise and deplane. I stood up first in order to lead my newly acquired entourage off the airplane and on up to the ranchhouse while Marah and Davey would take care of the Gulfstream and park it next to its appointed hangar. Sabrisse realized that the ranchhouse would be accommodating five new faces, including her own in a group that would substantially increase the male population of Pathfinder, if she guessed right, to seven.
As they reached the flat concrete apron with two steps at the entrance, the double doors suddenly burst open and two beautiful young women emerged on the run and flew over the two steps, rushing into my awaiting arms, and for the first time I realized that no one at Pathfinder except Mariah and Davy had any idea that I would be returning to Pathfinder for lord-knows-how-long, if ever. Embracing them, their eyes took in the faces of the five, all dressed in military uniforms of different ranks and styles.
“Why are you back, and where is Caroline, anyway?” I saw the concern and confusion in the eyes of Annie and Ranae. I felt guilty for not letting them know by phone earlier, but the opportunities had been rare.
“We all heard the Gulfstream coming in, and we had no idea why. Mariah and Davy told us they had to make a trip into Casper to pick up some new people who would be coming back here with them later today or tomorrow. But they never said anything about you. We all thought you and Caroline and the others were on your way by boat to Alaska somewhere. What happened, anyway?”, Ranae blurted out without stopping to take a breath. Annie nodded alongside her.
Annie is Caroline’s and my adopted daughter. Ranae is a girl we rescued a few years ago from a serious life and death situation in Utah and she has become one of our closest family members. I turned around and put my arms around their backs on either side of me.
“Okay,” I said looking from one of the girls to the other, “let me introduce you to our new people, as you referred to them. It’s a good time, because the introductions will get more confusing to everyone once we go into the house.”
But just at that moment, Kelly, Jeannie, Leah, and Juice walked out together to greet us. I knew the introductions had just become much more difficult to mean much of anything. At least the newcomers would probably remember Ranae’ and Caroline’s names for a few minutes at least.
I introduced all of them without difficulty, and the girls were all polite and attentive. I motioned toward the ranchhouse. “Well, then, now that we all know one another, let’s go on in and figure out how to get you all settled in.”
As we assembled to walk through the open doors I noted that all six of the girls had quickly taken to Sabrisse and that the generals and pilots would have to simply follow the crowd, so I took over the process of making the newly arrived men comfortable, taking care of educating them about the place. Then there was still the necessary introduction of household help and anyone from the the office/lab who might be inside, followed up by the layout of the entire ranchhouse and room locations, and finally assigning the private bedrooms with baths for the five new arrivals. Fortunately for all of us, space and privacy would not be a problem. As for other introductions, I wondered where our two Airedale dogs were off to because they had not returned from wherever as I would have expected when the Gulfstream was getting ready to land. But then, this was not unusual because they often went to the river to play and swim or off to hang out with the buffalo that roamed the ranch.
For a brief moment my thoughts turned to Caroline, hoping that she would adjust easily to my absence from the planned stay, no doubt a long one, in Juneau that was now for logistical sake split into two separate functions that we all now knew should have been set up earlier rather than the ad hoc later ‘kidnapping’ of me on Vancouver Island leaving Caroline and me with just a brief part of that one short night before I was flying back to California on my way to our Pathfinder ranch in Wyoming and she traveled north to Juneau along with our scientific cadre and friends from the Bay Area. I could have used her organizational skills right about now, but those same abilities were sorely needed in the process of saving lives all across the North American continent from the west coast to the east coast.
Pathfinder would be the command center of the entire operation because the ranch and its communication continental, global and even orbiting spacecraft including the moon could be reached in places where there would be no one to communicate with, but would provide meteorological, global radiation, and solar activity that could affect both communications and weather all around planet Earth more than simply duplicating and complementing Spaceweather and NASA, but providing atmospheric, inner and outer space activity of all kinds, rocket and missile tracking data that might not be available from other sources making the limited meteorological data at Juneau fit into the global and, indeed, the entire solar system’s irregular and problematic conditions and the necessary data to go with it and provide it all from a centrally specific source. There was nowhere else on the planet that brought it all together yet could divide the massive data collection into the smallest and most meaningful localized pieces, allowing fast, accurate, and responsible decisions and exacting protective measures to be accomplished one hundred percent of the time, I there was the slightest possibility at all.
Although the name Pathfinder, popularly originated in 1840 by author James Fenimore Cooper, with its purpose and its name, dated back to the old West during the days of Lewis and Clark and other exploration it had retained its value from exploration of unknown North American territory to grow up to be a solar system exploration system that more than earned its credentials today. And today global exploration of a nuclear radiated world was needed and necessary to save the Earth from nuclear armageddon. Saving North America would be the first step to save the entire planet . . .
End Chapter 4 (Original, Abridged and Unedited) ~llaw
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Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
“Because we are sending a very clear message to Putin: If you threaten us, we will back down.” Russia’s nuclear threats. Russian leader Vladimir Putin …
From the horse’s mouth in Wyoming this evening! It is true that there is nothing we can do to avoid what would happen if Yellowstone were to erupt, so we Wyoming born folks don’t worry about the future demise of us or the planet from that source. (Although I have read that NASA is studying a way to relieved pressure from the caldera, and one way to help do so is to harness steam for non-nuclear power plants, which might save ourselves and other life from extinction.)
Unlike nuclear war and nuclear plants there is nothing we can do to control the danger lurking in the old caldera of Yellowstone. (But I thought this Post would give me and other readers a break from my daily “All Things Nuclear” blog of possible impending disaster with a different kind of twist!) Don’t forget to click on the link below about ‘Find Out What Happens If Wyoming’s Super Volcano Blows| after you read the short article by Drew Kirby. ~llaw
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One question people who don’t live in Wyoming have asked me, way more than they should, is, “Are you worried about the super volcano erupting?”
My answer is always…” nope, it won’t matter anyway.”
Then I automatically start wondering what would happen if the super volcano erupted.
So, I went to YouTube to see what would happen if the super volcano under Yellowstone decided to rear its ugly head and erupt. The video I found from Koranos reminded me a bit of the movie Armageddon, without Bruce Willis becoming an Astronaut and saving the planet.
I can tell you that the science of volcanoes is fascinating, and the research that’s gone into something that may not happen in many lifetimes is quite detailed.
I discovered that the Yellowstone caldera is one of the few in the world capable of super-eruptions. I also found that if the super volcano were going to cause a super eruption, we would know about it in advance. It could be days, weeks, or years, but we will probably have some warning.
The warnings could also come from interesting places, like outer space. Satellites may be able to see ground deformations. Seismographs will detect steadily growing earthquakes, and the ground may leak with steam or gases in some areas.
If the pressure underground becomes too great, massive explosions will begin, and a vast amount of volcanic material will shoot into the air. The velocity of the explosion could be so high that it could reach the stratosphere, spreading the volcanic material to areas across the country.
As we all know, what goes up must come down. As the volcanic material starts to cool, large rocks, like volcanic bombs, could fall to the earth.
Ash could enter the air and cause parts of the country to become toxic and inhabitable. Communications and air travel could be affected. The volcanic ash could spread over roads, buildings, and land, damaging cars, buildings, and farmland and destroying thousands of acres of crops.
The explosions could end up being the loudest sounds ever recorded and able to be heard thousands of miles away. The energy created from the blast could send pressure waves at the speed of sound worldwide multiple times, causing extreme changes in weather patterns.
It’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of people would die on the day of the blast and hundreds of thousands in the days after. The explosion would also change the climate worldwide for years to come.
The 11-minute, 25-second video was like watching one of the worst ‘end-of-the-world’ movies you’ve ever seen, but it was so fascinating I couldn’t stop watching. It made me think about living life one day at a time and making every day the best I can.
I recommend watching the video if you have a few minutes to spare and aren’t scared of the end-of-the-world talk.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… all kinds of things. It’s not unanticipated … Well, so let’s be honest about nuclear power first. … 100% of the world’s economy, 100% of every product …
Located near Waynesboro, Georga, Plant Vogtle is home to four nuclear reactors with a total generating capacity of 4,664 megawatts (MW). The plant is …
Russia is reacting to the increasingly direct NATO war preparations with the threat of counterattacks. Moscow has also announced military exercises in …
I discovered that the Yellowstone caldera is one of the few in the world capable of super-eruptions. I also found that if the super volcano were going …
Volcano · Yellowstone Caldera · Volcanic rock · Basalt rock · Sedimentary rock. Story Source: Materials provided by Imperial College London. Original …
The human world(s) are playing a very dangerous game of “Russian Roulette”, shooting ourselves and/or nuking ourselves to death. It’s like we have our pistols drawn from their holsters, pointed directly at both ears, tense but ready to pull both triggers at once. With one pistol there is an 83.3:1 chance that we will die; with both six-shooters there is is a 87.5:1 chance that we will die. So the chances are we will likely die and it really doesn’t matter much about how may pistols we draw on ourselves assuming the odds are the same with each weapon whether we have just one weapon for our demise or both of them, but multiple weapons do slightly increase our chances of dying.
We are betting that neither threat happens, allowing us to live our lives in comfort without nuclear war and nuclear power pulling the trigger, leaving us alone during our lifetimes. But with “Russian Roulette” we have only a 12.5% chance. And the odds are even worse if we include CO2’s climate change/global warming. You may doubt my ‘Russian Roulette’ theory, and you may be right to do so, but why on Earth are we so nonchalant about caring that it could happen — and at any time — and we may well, in fact, be using a single-shot pistol, unfortunately. We are no doubt coming closer every day of our lives by believing that nuclear ‘deterrence’ as defined by our nuclear-powered countries’ leaders in the war situation, and by “clean, safe, and necessary’ as defined by the nuclear industry and politicians in the nuclear power case. Both are all about greed, worshipping money more than life, willful ignorance, and thoughtless inattention. Yes, that’s right; collectively we don’t seem to even care, which is the root of all evil. Einstein, Plato, and many others in between them have been quoted as saying something like, “it doesn’t matter that we allow evil men to lead us, but they’re not the problem — we are the problem for doing nothing about it.”
Each and every day for 85% of my most recent two years of life (coincidentally much like the ‘Russian Roulette’ odds), every evening I have been pleading for the everyday people, like you and me, to band together and tell our leaders, “We ain’t gonna take it any more!” With the cyber world we have these days, using the Internet and just one Social Media network (Facebook, with 3 billion plus Monthly Active Users (MAUs) could handle the majority of the effort), we could tell our world leaders in every country to “cease and desist”. All we have to do is know how to reach them in our own country (there are dozens of ways to do that, including Google) and tell them in ‘so many words’ to STOP IT! (All of it — both Nuclear War and Nuclear Energy).
There is no way we can rely on either nuclear war deterrence nor commercial nuclear power to resolve our world-wide problems. The fact is, we are all, including other innocent life, on a one-way highway to self-destruction, creating the 6th Extinction on a dead planet Earth. ~llaw
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 6 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives, as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links in each category about the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
5 THINGS five-things-logo · logo … Oklo’s business model is based on commercializing nuclear fission, the reaction that fuels all nuclear power plants …
These reactors, from tiny ones of the type that power nuclear submarines, to scaled-up versions that can, in theory, be factory produced and built in …
Speaking on Moscow’s Red Square on May 9 to mark Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War … nuclear forces as well. … The threats to leave the …
