All Things Nuclear

The PBS program Frontline aired an interesting program called “Nuclear Aftershocks” on January 17 that looks at nuclear power safety issues and whether an accident like Fukushima could happen in the US.

Dave Lochbaum was one of the people interviewed for the program. Some of it appears in the video, but PBS transcribed the full interview with Dave and posted it online.

To see the full program, click on the image below.

For more information on nuclear power safety, click here.

Last week, I was in DC for a briefing on space by Ambassador Greg Schulte, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, and Frank Rose, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Space and Defense Policy. They were elaborating on the announcement by Secretary Clinton that the United States, in lieu of signing on to the European Union (EU) Code of Conduct for outer space activities, would be partnering with the EU to develop an International Code of Conduct.

On the face of it, this is good news. Clarifying and codifying practical rules-of-the-road for space makes a lot of sense for protecting U.S. satellites as the number of satellites and space-faring countries increase. I was certainly concerned about what was apparently a stumble by Sec. Tauscher in a press conference, when she said the U.S. would not be signing the EU Code, and had never intended to, because it was “too restrictive.”

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Agatha Christie was born in England on September 15, 1890. This author received international acclaim for whodunnit mystery novels featuring sleuths like Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. One hundred years later, a mystery at Beaver Valley Unit 2 outside Pittsburgh, PA was a less entertaining whodunnit.

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In the early 1990s, the engineering department at the Susquehanna nuclear plant near Berwick, PA issued a procedure prohibiting the application of a certain coating to components and structures inside the Susquehanna reactor containment building. During a subsequent refueling outage, workers dismantled a component inside the reactor containment building, lugged it outside, and applied the subject coating. They then lugged the re-coated component back into the reactor containment building and reinstalled it.

They successfully satisfied the letter of the procedural requirement, but missed its spirit by a country mile.

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I have a guest post on the Scientific American website that looks at the historical trends and recent events in the growth of space debris.

The end of the post talks about the enormous quantity of debris that would result from the breakup of a large satellite—the kind of thing that could result from an anti-satellite attack on a large spy satellite. It notes that destruction of a single 10-ton satellite could double or triple the amount of large debris (greater than 1 centimeter) in low Earth orbit. Such an event could therefore swamp all the efforts being made to mitigate debris production.

Here are the numbers that statement is based on:

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Press reports today suggest the United States may have missed a critical opportunity to protect its future in space.

Bloomberg reports that Ellen Tauscher, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, told reporters this morning that the Obama administration has decided not to sign the European-proposed Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities because it is “too restrictive.”

If true, this would be a disappointing mistake—and would run counter to the security of the United States and the administration’s own statements about the value of developing practical rules-of-the-road for space.

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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) an operating license for its Shoreham nuclear plant near Brookhaven, New York on April 20, 1989. The New York Daily News said the NRC’s action was like “throwing a bon voyage party for the Titanic six weeks after it hit the iceberg.”

Why was issuance of the plant’s operating license greeted with such acclaim?

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The U.S. “space plane” is in the news again. This time, a poorly researched article in Spaceflight, the journal of the British Interplanetary Society, claimed that the X-37B was likely being used to spy on the Chinese Tiangong spacecraft from a nearly matching orbit. 

The claim was based on an incomplete understanding of celestial mechanics and was thoroughly debunked—the spacecraft cross orbits only twice a day, and even then at very high speeds.

This claim is yet another effort to make sense of the X-37B. The Air Force is secretive about its purpose and budget, and observers have made vigorous efforts to come up with some mission that fits. The unique capability of the space plane—what makes it a “space plane” rather than a satellite or space capsule—is its ability to return to earth in a controlled manner and land on a runway.  

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          Long-Range Bombers at the Ukrainka Air Base in Russia’s Far East
                                                51 10N 128 27E

The Obama administration is updating the guidance that will lead to the creation of a new U.S. nuclear war plan and determine the size and structure of U.S. nuclear forces. Here is the state of play. Coming up, look for what the new guidance should say.

Background and Status

In April 2010, the Obama administration completed its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). Now, after numerous delays, it has begun the process that will implement the NPR’s decisions. This is being done via a two-part approach that is unlike the ones used by previous administrations. The first step has been described as developing the President’s “vision,” elaborating on the NPR. The second step is revising the employment policy for nuclear weapons (the war plans) and the force structure.

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We recently posted some new fact sheets related to nuclear power safety, including:

     -Fire protection

     -Emergency planning

     -Potassium Iodide

     -Spent fuel storage

      -Nuclear Power and Water Use

We also continue to update the Nuclear Power Information Tracker—our interactive map that allows you to search for reactors by location, reactor type, operational status, and safety concerns, and gives in-depth information about each reactor, including past and present safety issues.

For additional information, see the UCS Nuclear Power Safety web page.