Would you take a nuclear-powered shower? Russia is now heating homes with a 'floating Chernobyl' power plant as part of an experiment to minimise climate change (but at least it doesn't involve a heat pump!)

Nuclear home heating: Russia is now experimenting with the use of nuclear-warmed water that is being pumped from a floating reactor into people's homes in a remote Siberian town.

The graphic above shows how the concept makes use of heat that's vented as steam through the cooling towers of the barge's nuclear fission plants, before hot water is transferred to houses

 

From DailyMail by Jonathan Chadwick

• Nuclear residential heating has been introduced in the Siberian town of Pevek
• It's providing the local residents with heat from a nearby floating power plant
• Nuclear power plant sits aboard barge that critics dubbed 'floating Chernobyl'
• Some experts say it's dangerous but others think it could limit climate change

Russia is now experimenting with the use of nuclear-warmed water that is being pumped from a floating reactor into people's homes in a remote Siberian town.

Nuclear residential heating has been introduced in the Arctic port community of Pevek, using energy generated on a nearby barge in the Arctic Ocean – previously dubbed Russia's 'floating Chernobyl' by Greenpeace.

Developed by Russian state nuclear company Rosatom, it makes use of heat that's vented as steam through the cooling towers of the barge's nuclear fission plants, which would otherwise be wasted.

Some experts believe the concept could help minimise climate change by reducing the use of greenhouse gas-emitting options like coal and gas, and firms in the US, China and France are now considering building similar reactors.

However, Pevek residents cannot opt out of getting nuclear-powered heat, even if they have safety concerns.
One resident, when asked about the risk of a radiation leak or explosion, said 'we try not to think about it'.

Another resident said he had been showering and bathing his three children in nuclear-warmed water.

Nuclear is one option being considered by Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson as part of his government's Net Zero drive, which will see gas boilers in new homes banned from 2025.

 

The floating power unit (FPU) Akademik Lomonosov is pictured here being towed from the Arctic port of Murmansk, northwestern Russia.

This floating nuclear power plant aboard Akademik Lomonosov is now supplying energy to heat water for residential homes in the remote Siberian town of Pevek

By 2050, all UK households should be using a low-carbon alternative – meaning that heat pumps, whether air or ground-sourced, are likely to be the common alternative.
Ground source heat pumps use pipes buried in the garden to extract heat from the ground, which can then heat radiators, warm air heating systems and hot water.

But right now, the cost of installing them can range from £14,000 to £19,000, and running costs depend on the size of the home and its insulation.
Nuclear fission, however, involves a heavy nucleus splitting spontaneously or on impact with another particle, resulting in the release of energy.

As well as homes in Pevek, the town’s community steam bath will also be nuclear-powered.
It could even be used to warm greenhouses or provide heat for industrial purposes, too.

'It’s very exciting,' Jacopo Buongiorno, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) told the New York Times.

'Decarbonising the electrical grid will only get you one quarter of the way,' he said.
'The rest comes from all these other things.
'Obviously this is not going to work if people don’t feel comfortable with the technology.'
Some figures are concerned of the potential risks of using nuclear power to heat water for public consumption.

'It is nuclear technology, and the starting point needs to be that it is dangerous,' Andrei Zolotkov, a researcher at Norwegian environmental group Bellona.
'That is the only way to think about it.'
Pevek residents have mostly welcomed the new plant, according to the New York Times – which is fortunate seeing as they can't opt out of its heated water.

Maksim Zhurbin, Pevek's deputy mayor, said none of the town's residents complained at public hearings before the barge arrived.
'We explained to the population what would happen, and there were no objections,' he said.

Russia is pushing the environmental benefits of the system, despite the fact it's one the world's heaviest polluters.

Nuclear residential heating has been introduced in the remote Siberian town of Pevek, using power from a nearby barge floating in the Arctic Ocean

The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26 summit is currently taking place in Glasgow, but Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t attended in person.

Rosatom started to connect power from the floating power plant to Pevek heating pipes in June 2020.

The 472-foot vessel that carries two 35-megawatt nuclear reactors arrived at its permanent location in September 2019 after a perilous sea voyage of almost 3,000 miles.
The plant's two nuclear reactors are cooled by a series of water loops.
This is the start of the process of making use of waste heat.

In each reactor, the first water loop is contaminated with radioactive particles, but because this water is radioactive, it never leaves the plant.
Instead, the first water loop transfers heat – but not contaminated water – to other loops.
One of these loops is the system of pipes that leave the plant, branch out and supply hot water to resident homes in Pevek.

Pavel Rozhkov, the Pevek resident using nuclear-powered water for baths and showers for his family – including his three children – said he's 'personally not worried'.
He and his wife can see the floating power plant about a mile away from his kitchen window.
'There are things we cannot control,' Rozhkov told New York Times.
'I can only pray for our safety, for the safety of our town.
I say, "God, it is in your hands."'

Named the Akademik Lomonosov, the 472ft vessel carries two 35-megawatt nuclear reactors, and had been under construction since 2006 before it reached Pevek in 2019

Nuclear reactors split atoms of uranium.
Energy released from the atoms is used to boil water.
A reactor core contains the uranium pellets and a 1000 megawatts (MWe) facility would have about 75 tonnes of enriched uranium.
Uranium-235 is bombarded with neutrons to split the atom, which then creates different elements or another isotope of Uranium.
Either way, it releases energy.
These often also undergo radioactive decay and a chain reaction is triggered contributing to the net energy output.
Steam is produced, condensed and then recycled so the only waste products are often the radioactive compounds created from the fission.
Control rods can be added or removed from the reactor core to increase or decrease the rate of reaction.
These are made of stable elements such as boron, silver, indium and cadmium that are capable of absorbing many neutrons without undergoing fission.

Luckily, Akademik Lomonosov has been designed with a number of safety features to prevent a nuclear disaster.
For one it can withstand a crash by a small aircraft.
Also, the vessel that holds the plant doubles as a containment structure.
Differences in pressure between the water circulating through buildings and the cooling loops also prevent radiation from spreading through the town.

 Technicians loading the first reactor aboard the Akademik Lomonosov, Russia's floating nuclear power plant.

Credit: Rosenergoatom

 

Although nuclear energy is considered clean energy its inclusion in the renewable energy list is a subject of major debate.
Nuclear energy itself is a renewable energy source, but the material used in nuclear power plants – uranium – is a non-renewable.

Links :

• The Guardian : Fears of 'Chernobyl on ice' as Russia prepares floating nuclear plant
• Russia beyond : Green tradeoff? Russian Arctic town gets clean with NUCLEAR-powered showers (PHOTOS)

Oil spill: How often should NOAA map ocean floor? Last look off Orange County was in 2013

The pipeline that leaked oil into the ocean off Orange County in early October 2021 may have been damaged in more than one incident, and as early as months ago, U.S. Coast Guard investigators said. (Photo from video taken by Petty Officer 1st Class Richard Brahm, U.S. Coast Guard)

From The OCR by Brooke Staggs

With a ship anchor suspected in the oil spill off Huntington Beach, and with record volumes of traffic in San Pedro Bay, some local leaders demand a new offshore survey.

More than four decades ago, Shell Oil Company submitted blueprints for a 17-mile-long pipeline to connect its oil processing platform off the coast of Huntington Beach with a pumping station at the Port of Long Beach.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took Shell’s drawings and used them to add the pipeline to the nautical charts all vessels still use when navigating coastal waters.

The last time NOAA surveyed the waters off the coast of Southern California — to verify that the now 41-year-old pipeline and other possible hazards, including ocean depths, is accurate on nautical charts — was in 2013.

 

NASA/NOAA Marine Pollution Response Report, Sentinel 1B Imagery (October 3, 2021)

Since then, per NOAA, no surveys have been ordered and no changes have been made to the local nautical charts.

But initial U.S. Coast Guard investigations suggest that in January a ship’s anchor dragged Shell’s pipeline, now operated by a subsidiary of Amplify Energy, more than 100 feet, meaning that pipeline’s location isn’t listed accurately on any existing chart.

That event might have triggered damage that eventually caused the pipeline to rupture and spill an estimated 25,000 gallons into the ocean in early October.

There also are a record number of ships anchoring and loitering in the San Pedro Bay this year due to gridlock at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

Those ships can’t all fit at approved anchorage spots.

They also move massive volumes of water as they come in and out of the bay — a phenomenon that according to James Fawcett, an environmental studies professor at USC who specializes in maritime policy, can shift enough sediment to change ocean depths.

That’s why Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach, whose 48th District includes beaches most affected by the October oil spill, sent a letter Oct. 14 calling for NOAA and the Coast Guard to immediately survey waters off the coast of Orange County and make any necessary updates to nautical charts.

A bipartisan group of 10 state, county and local leaders, plus three coastal cities, signed on in support of Steel’s letter, which also asked for additional resources to address the effects of the oil spill.

“Any moment wasted is a moment too long if existing pipelines are mapped improperly or moved,” Steel said during an Oct. 22 hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee.

As of Friday, Steel’s office said they hadn’t yet received any response from NOAA or the Coast Guard.

 

Localization of the incident with the GeoGarage platfom (NOAA raster chart)

While the investigation into the cause of the spill continues, the incident has sparked debate about whether offshore waters should be surveyed more often, whether federal authorities are overly reliant on oil companies to self-report potential problems, and if larger buffers between pipelines and anchor spots are needed.
How do offshore pipelines, including the one that leaked off Huntington Beach last month, end up on nautical charts?

 

Satellite view California Oil Spill (NASA)

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey uses final construction drawings from pipeline owners to add pipeline locations to navigation charts, according to the agency. NOAA regularly reviews permit requests submitted to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement for new and modified pipelines, then updates charts based on drawings submitted by the pipeline owner.

During the Oct. 22 Transportation and Infrastructure hearing, Vice Admiral Scott Buschman with the U.S. Coast Guard said they confirmed that the pipeline that leaked in early October was included on nautical charts.

 

No pipeline location on NOAA ENC

 

Relying on oil companies to supply pipeline locations for nautical charts doesn’t worry Fawcett.

The process of installing pipelines is intricate, and requires the company to work with multiple federal agencies, the USC professor noted.

Plus, he said, pipelines are only allowed in areas believed to be safe from marine traffic and other hazards.

Pipeline owners don’t want to put them outside of safe zones because of the risk of potentially expensive damage.
Does anyone verify the location of those pipelines and check on them over time?

NOAA generally checks pipeline locations only when they lie within an area otherwise approved for a hydrographic survey, the agency said.

There is no set schedule for NOAA to conduct new surveys.

The agency’s Office of Coast Survey generally conducts them in response to requests when there’s heightened concern about risks due to issues such as dense traffic or reported ship groundings.

And they prioritize requests based on a variety of conditions, such as proximity to marine sanctuaries and what models show about likelihood of changes on the sea floor.

Everyone seems to agree that more frequent surveys would be helpful.

But the process is pricey, and so, under the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 1998, NOAA is required to get such data from the private sector “to the greatest extent practicable and cost-effective.”

Earlier this year — prior to the spill off Orange County — the agency announced a matching funds program to encourage private entities to help expand coastal survey efforts.

The last time NOAA surveyed the San Pedro Bay was in 2013 after the agency said it received requests “from the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach and the pilots who maneuver increasing large oil tankers and cargo ships through the area’s crowded shipping lanes.”

Before that, a survey was conducted in 2010.

In 2013, the agency said NOAA Ship Fairweather confirmed the San Pedro Bay pipeline was charted in the location that matched the chart.

And NOAA said it recently reviewed charts off Orange County, comparing them with BSEE pipeline permits and hydrographic survey data from 2013, and said the pipelines have been accurately charted to current standards.

NOAA declined to say how much it would cost to conduct a new survey offshore Orange County, but estimated it would take 12 hours with three survey launches to complete.

But while NOAA surveys don’t happen often, Fawcett said pipelines and most other underwater hazards don’t typically move much, and anchor drags by large ships aren’t common.

He noted there also are other ways that authorities might still learn about a pipeline moving from its charted location.

“Generally — especially in this area, where there is a lot of marine traffic — there is a lot of underwater surveillance for one reason or another,” Fawcett said. With this pipeline on the surface of the ocean floor, he said, “You can see it on sonar if anybody is looking for it.”

Inspection is a separate issue.

Oil companies are required to inspect their pipelines on dictated schedules. In the case of the local line that ruptured, pipeline owner Amplify has alternated internal and external inspections annually, each no more than 13 months apart.

The last external inspection of the line was conducted in October 2020, perhaps three months before a ship struck the pipe and a full year before the rupture that caused the spill.
What happens if a pipeline moves?

How are maps updated?

If a pipeline is found to have moved from its original location during an NOAA survey, that new information is reported to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

And “if the change poses a threat to navigational safety, NOAA will update its nautical chart.”

If an oil company or anyone else detects a change in the pipeline at any point, NOAA said the information should be reported to them and they’ll update electronic navigational charts of the area accordingly.

“We have not received new information that would indicate that the pipelines have moved,” NOAA told the Register last week.

“If a new survey is soon required,” NOAA said, “this would likely be done by the pipeline owner.”

The agency said it would then use that information provided by Amplify Energy to update its nautical charts.

But when asked about notifying NOAA of its moved pipeline, Amplify Energy spokesmen said the estimated 100 feet of movement is still well within a 200-foot-wide right-of-way federal authorities permitted in 1998, so they don’t believe the shift triggered reporting requirements.

The company, which already is the target of multiple lawsuits over the spill, also pointed out the responsibility ships face in these situations.
How do ships navigate around pipelines in coastal waters?

And are larger buffers needed?

All large vessels, like those waiting to enter the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, are required to refer to electronic navigational charts maintained by NOAA that include pipeline locations.

When it comes to anchoring offshore, the Marine Exchange of Southern California assigns ships particular anchorage points that have long been designated as safe.

Ships are required to drop anchor — and, more importantly, volumes of heavy chain fixed to that anchor — in the dead center of these anchorage points, Fawcett explained.

The weight of the chain and anchor then allows the ship to drift only in a fixed circle and stay within the designated safety zone.

But with global supply chain issues this year creating delayed cargo traffic — and dozens of huge ships unable to get into local ports — some vessels have been directed to anchor in non-typical locations. That’s where accuracy of NOAA’s nautical maps becomes key, so everyone can be sure ships steer clear of pipelines and other hazards.

It’s not clear if there’s a specific fixed distance that’s required between oil pipelines and permitted anchorage points. Federal agencies didn’t respond to requests for that information.

Still, early investigations suggest it wasn’t a problem with nautical maps or anchor placement that might have triggered the October oil spill.

Instead, Coast Guard investigations suggest one or more ships dragged anchor during unusually strong winds in January, eventually moving a 4000-foot section of Amplify Energy’s pipeline out of place by 100 to 150 feet.

They believe that an anchor damaged a concrete casing around the pipe, which started leaking Oct. 1.

It’s not common for ships to drag anchor.

Fawcett said it generally only happens during strong winds. And ships are required to have a crew member on watch at all times and to quickly report incidents where they’ve dragged anchor and crossed into pipeline rights of way.

With those investigations ongoing, Fawcett said it’s tough to know whether larger buffers between anchor points and pipelines — or any other changes to maritime policy — could have prevented the spill.

“I suspect there will be recommendations once the reports come out,” he said. 

“But right now I think it’s premature.”

Links :

• CBS : Huntington Beach Oil Spill: Section Of Pipeline Found Damaged, Moved More Than 100 Feet Along Ocean Floor
• NOAA : Update on NOAA Support for California Oil Spill
• NPR : The California oil spill was about 25,000 gallons — one-fifth what officials feared 
• CNN : In pictures: Oil spill in Southern California 
• The Guardian : Why California’s enormous oil spill won’t be its last / California justice department to investigate enormous oil spill
• LA Times : Will those responsible for O.C. oil spill pay for the damage? It could be a battle 

Why do in-flight maps show shipwrecks?

 

Five historical shipwrecks pepper the map of an American Airlines flight’s final approach to Philadelphia International. (Credit: Thomas Weber / Twitter)

From Big Think by Frank Jacobs

On long-haul flights, some airlines show shipwrecks on their in-flight maps.

The aim is to entertain; the result is often to horrify.

• Some in-flight maps show the locations of famous shipwrecks.
• The information is offered as education and entertainment, but some find it a bit morbid.
• The company offering the info is phasing out the shipwrecks. Wrong move !
  

As his flight approached Philadelphia International Airport one September day in 2018, American Airline passenger Thomas Weber noticed something strange about the live map of his journey, and he tweeted this about it: “Dear American Air, are you including shipwreck locations on your in-flight locations to make your customers feel more at ease about the safety of international travel?”

The airline hastened to reply: “We always want you to have a relaxing trip, but we appreciate your feedback. Many customers find the historical sites interesting.”

Mr Weber, who is a historian himself, agreed: “My tweet was (merely) meant as a tongue in cheek comment,” he said.

But the five shipwrecks on the picture he included in his original tweet do raise a pertinent question: why?

 

Seen all the movies, played all the games? Dynamic route maps offer another take on in-flight entertainment — especially if they include shipwreck locations.

(Credit: Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Other air passengers too started tweeting pictures of in-flight maps showing the location (and sometimes also the date) of shipwrecks, some infamous enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine.

Like that dot halfway across the Atlantic, marked Titanic, 1912.

Or the RMS Lusitania, which someone saw popping up in the Atlantic just south of Ireland.

In 1915, a German U-boat sank that British ocean liner, killing almost 1,200 passengers and crew, including 128 Americans. The massacre was instrumental in turning U.S. public opinion in favor of the Allied cause in WWI.

All of which may be historically accurate and very educational, but it is also quite unnerving, remarked Wendy Fulton, as the flight tracker map on her Emirates flight pointed out the locations of the Thresherand Andrea Doria shipwrecks, among others. 

“This is deeply weird (…) Who wants to think about deadly transportation disasters during a flight?”

 

“This flight map shows the locations of famous shipwrecks in history and like… really not inspiring confidence here buddy.” (Credit: Laurel / Twitter)

Flying is safer than floating?

Soon after take-off, Florian Nicklaus, a passenger on a Swiss Air flight from JFK New York to Zürich, spotted the watery graves of the Thresherand the Titanic on his in-flight map.

“Pointing out these catastrophic events while being mid-air made me a bit uncomfortable. Or is this a way to reaffirm that flying is safer than crossing the Atlantic by ship?”

A map of shipwrecks as a not-so-subtle advertisement for the safety of air travel?

Sadly, we can’t test the obvious corollary of that theory.

If any of the old ocean liners were left today, would their on-board entertainment systems show dynamic maps that include the location of the world’s worst air disasters?

The shipwreck maps can be traced back to Collins Aerospace, one of the world’s largest suppliers of the aerospace and defense industries.

It supplies airlines with everything from airplane seats to biometric security systems, and it also produces Airshow, the software for those in-flight maps, including — if the airline wants — all those shipwrecks.

The reason, apparently, is an old and familiar one for cartographers: horror vacui.

On long, transatlantic flights, the vast emptiness of the ocean cries out to be filled with something, anything.

So instead of “Here be monsters,” they mention seamounts, ocean floor canyons, and other features of underwater geography.

Shipwrecks offer another means to keep in-flight map fans entertained and informed.

In a 2017 article in Condé Nast Traveller, a spokesman for Collins Aerospace (then still called Rockwell Collins) said the company is working to refine the information provided by Airshow, looking to add geological content and “moving away” from shipwrecks.

Wrong decision! The in-flight maps should go in the opposite direction and offer more information on the wrecks. Tragic histories, for sure; but they are great stories.

As proof, here are the nutshell histories of the five ships shown on Mr. Weber’s map.

 

 

The Hunley some time before its third and final sinking. The sub’s inventor is seen leaning against its rudder. (Credit: “Submarine Torpedo Boat H.L. Hunley, Dec. 6, 1863,” oil on panel, by Conrad Wise Chapman / Public domain)

De Braak (1798)

Built in Rotterdam in 1781, the Dutch cutter De Braak was seized by the Royal Navy when it sailed into the Cornish port of Falmouth, its crew unaware that the Netherlands had just become a client state of Napoleonic France.

During its short career in British service, it captured a Spanish vessel in the Atlantic, but it capsized and sank in Delaware Bay on May 25, 1798.

The inconsiderate salvaging efforts of this ship in the early 1980s contributed to the passage of the Abandoned Shipwrecks Act (1987) by the U.S. Congress, which laid down some rules for salvaging shipwrecks in American waters.

Hunley (1864)

The CSS H.L. Hunley was a Confederate submarine, at a time when they were new enough also to be known as “fish boats.

 During its short career toward the end of the Civil War, the Hunley was sunk no less than three times, with a loss of 21 crewmen in total, including its inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley. In its last action before its final disappearance, it sank the USS Housatonic, then blockading Charleston harbor.

This is the first time ever that a warship was sunk by a submarine.

The wreck of the Hunley was located only in 1995 and was raised in 2000.

Tulip (1864)

Built in New York in 1862 for service in China, the Zheijang was sold to the U.S. Navy instead. Renamed Tulip and fitted with heavy guns, it served several purposes during the Civil War: helping to maintain the Union’s blockade of Confederate ports, protecting the maritime connections between Washington, DC and other Union ports, and participating in naval attacks on the South.

On November 11, 1864, its defective starboard boiler exploded, instantly killing 47 crew.

Two of the ten survivors later also died of their injuries.

Empress of Ireland (1914)

Having learned from the Titanic disaster two years previously, the RMS Empress of Ireland had plenty of lifeboats when it sailed from Québec City to Liverpool on May 28, 1914.

One day later, in thick fog near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, it collided with a Norwegian collier.

It sank in just 14 minutes, too fast for most of the nearly 1,500 passengers and crew to reach those lifeboats.

More than 1,000 people died. It remains Canada’s worst peacetime marine disaster.

Thresher (1963)

Designed to hunt and destroy enemy subs, the nuclear-powered USS Thresher was the fastest, quietest, and most advanced submarine of its time. 

t sank on April 10, 1963 during training off Cape Cod, with the loss of all 129 crew and personnel aboard.

This is the second deadliest submarine disaster on record, after the sinking of the French sub Surcouf (killing 130 in 1942) but ahead of the Kursk disaster, which killed 119 Russian sailors in 2000.

Being lost at sea, the Thresher has not been decommissioned; it remains “on eternal patrol”.

Links :

• DailyMail : Eagle-eyed airline passengers have noticed that some in-flight maps reveal the locations of shipwrecks

Le chant du large

Aurélien Ducroz onboard Crosscall

If solitude is often accompanied by silence,

the skippers' solitude is punctuated by the sounds that surround them.
Embark with them in a timeless sound universe.

Building of the cruising ship 'Wonder of the Seas', Chantiers de l'Atlantique

On the occasion of her departure from Saint-Nazaire this Friday, November 5, discover in 12 minutes the construction of the Wonder of the Seas, the world's new largest cruise ship.
Ordered in December 2016 by the American shipowner Royal Caribbean Group, the C34 saw its first sheet officially cut in April 2019, with the ship's lay-up taking place in October 2019 and its launch in September 2020.
After successfully completing her sea trials at the end of August, the Wonder of the Seas was delivered on October 29.
With a length of 362 meters and a width of 64 meters, she has a tonnage of 236,857 GT, with 2807 cabins and 64 suites on board. 

 

Links :

• Euronews : "Wonder of the Seas", world's largest cruise ship, leaves port of Saint-Nazaire