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Walter2 kirjutas:Teslapoiss võiks neid mõõduka tasu eest kosmosesse saata - mingile Alpha Kentauri orbiidile.

Walter2 kirjutas:Teslapoiss võiks neid mõõduka tasu eest kosmosesse saata - mingile Alpha Kentauri orbiidile.

Lääne-Harju vald algatas eriplaneeringu uurimaks, kas Paldiskis võiks olla radioaktsiivsete jäätmete matmiskoht. Praegu on Paldiskis ajutine hoidla, kuid aastaks 2040 tahab riik leida püsiva lahenduse.

22 /23 June 2020, RN #IMS station SEP63 #SwedenFlag of Sweden detected 3isotopes; Cs-134, Cs-137 & Ru-103 associated w/Nuclear fission @ higher[ ] than usual levels (but not harmful for human health). The possible source region in the 72h preceding detection is shown in orange on the map.

On 19 june evening, in the far north of russia, beta particles and x-rays were ten times higher than normal, not good - but not terrible.

First, in week 23 (June 2-8), iodine-131 was measured at the two air filter stations Svanhovd and Viksjøfjell near Kirkenes in short distance from Norway’s border to Russia’s Kola Peninsula. The same days, on June 7 and 8, the CTBTO-station at Svalbard measured tiny levels of the same isotope.

CTBTO is the global network of radiological and seismic monitoring under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.

Norway’s nuclear watchdog, the DSA, underlines that the levels are very small.

“We are currently keeping an extra good eye on our air-monitoring system,” says Bredo Møller with DSA’s Emergency Preparedness unit at Svanhovd.

While iodine-131 is only measured in the north, in the Kirkenes area and at Svalbard, Swedish and Finnish radiation authorities inform about other isotopes blowing in the skies over southern Scandinavia.

Bredo Møller says to the Barents Observer that his agency can’t conclude there is a connection between what is measured up north and what his Scandinavian colleagues measured in week 24.

“As part of our good Nordic cooperation we are currently exchanging data,” he says.

Møller tells about radiation just above detectable levels. “We found 0,9 microBq/m3 at Svanhovd and 1,3 microBq/m3 at Viksjøfjell.”

Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) detected on June 16 and 17 small amounts of the radioactive isotopes cobalt, ruthenium and cesium (Co-60, Ru-103, Cs-134 and Cs-137).

STUK says the measurements were made in Helsinki where analysis is available on the same day. “At other stations, samples are collected during the week, so results from last week will be ready later.”

Likely from a reactor

All these isotopes indicate that the release comes from a nuclear-reactor. Iodine-131 has a half-life of 8 days, and given the small amount measured in the north, this isotope could be gone before the radioactive cloud reached the southern parts of Finland and Sweden a week after the first measurements in the north. That be, if the release was somewhere in the Arctic or northwestern Russia and winds were blowing south or southwest.

Neither of the Scandinavian radiation agencies will speculate about the origin.

“It is not possible now to say what could be the source of the increased levels,” writes the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority in a statement. Also the Swedes underline that the levels are low and do not pose any danger to people or the environment.

In the Netherlands, though, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has analyzed the data from Scandinavia and made calculations to find out what may have been the origin of the detected radionuclides.

“These calculations show that the radionuclides came from the direction of Western Russia,” RIVM concludes.

Calls for info-exchange

Senior Nuclear Campaigner with Greenpeace Russia, Rashid Alimov, says to the Barents Observer that the composition of the isotopes strongly indicates that the source is a nuclear reactor or a spent fuel element from a reactor.

“The Russian monitoring systems have not reported any unusual levels of radioactivity in June,” Alimov says, emphasizing that could be due to delayed publication of data.

Greenpeace calls for rapid international cooperation that includes Russia.

“We think information exchange is crucial,” Rashid Alimov says.

Jaanus2 kirjutas:... , pole ka eriti ohtu, et järeltulevad põlved kogemata üles kaevavad.

Kriku kirjutas:Muretsetakse selle pärast, et üles võidakse kaevata näiteks 5000 või 10 000 aasta pärast. Semiootikud murravad pead, et kas praegused ohutähistused võiksid ka siis arusaadavad olla. Viidet ei pole aega otsida, igaüks leiab ise.

Closed Fuel Cycle


Figure 2. A closed fuel cycle. Here nuclear material is recycled.

Closing the fuel cycle involves recycling the nuclear waste as new fuel. Since the main component of nuclear waste is Uranium-238 (which can be transmuted to Plutonium, especially with advanced breeder reactors), we can get more energy out of the waste than in a once-through cycle (see factoid 2 to see how much). The recycling plant separates the good stuff from the bad stuff. The bad stuff is mostly fission products, the atoms that a Uranium atom becomes after it splits in the fission process. These fission products mostly decay to safe levels within 300-500 years, which is significantly shorter than standard nuclear waste. So, by closing the fuel cycle with standard reactors, we address the issue of nuclear waste identified in the once-through cycle. In this case, nuclear waste is a tractable problem. But most of the reactivity is coming from the mine, since standard reactors burn most of the fissile nuclide, U-235. Also, the reprocessing technology is expensive and separates out pure Plutonium, which could possibly be stolen, bringing a rogue entity closer to having a nuclear weapon. For these reasons, the USA does not currently recycle. There are ways to solve these issues.

Breeder Fuel Cycle


Figure 3. A closed fuel cycle with breeding. More fissile material is created from breeding than is used to make energy.

Breeder reactors can create as much or more fissile material (atoms that readily split) than they use. These special reactors are designed to have extra neutrons flying around, so that some can convert U-238 to Pu-239 (see above) and the others can run the reactor. Often, these special reactors are deemed "fast" reactors because the neutrons are moving through the reactor at higher speeds, on average. In a full breeder fuel cycle, we get the maximum use of the Uranium resources on Earth, and what we already know exists can last tens of thousands of years. The cycle has cost and proliferation concerns associated with any closed cycle. Additionally, we have significantly less operational experience with breeder reactors, so we would need to train builders and operators for such a machine. Using a Thorium cycle instead of a Uranium-Plutonium cycle may allow breeding in less exotic reactors. Using this kind of fuel cycle, nuclear power can truly be considered sustainable.