US INVESTS IN UNIVERSITY-LEVEL NUCLEAR RESEARCH!

AS-C

Election Season!

Hey, you should vote.  You know you should!  We'll talk in class about what elections (national and local) might mean in terms of nuclear issues.  But here are a few resources to get us started:

1) list of the offices up for election this fall in Cook County Illinois.  Navigate from this page to get more basic info on voting in Chicago.  If you are voting elsewhere, it's a simple Google search to find your local government elections information. 

2) party platforms for the 2012 presidential election and past elections, hosted by UCSB.  This is a great place to review what the two major parties claim as their core values and policy ideas, and to look at how they have evolved over time.   Fascinating!

3) President Obama's campaign website (they are trying to get your email address when you click on this, but there is a way to navigate to the page without giving it - just look).  Under "Get the Facts" there is information about Obama's views on Energy policy and National Security, two areas of relevance for this class.  

4) Mitt Romney's campaign website (has the same issue - look for the link at the bottom of the page that lets you skip giving your email address).  If you navigate to the "all issues" page you can read Romney's position on topics such as what to do about Iran as well as on energy issues.

Checking in with the Iran situation

AP photo/Richard Drew

The image above is Israeli Prime Minister Netenyahu arguing to the U.N. that the world needs to draw a "red line" for Iran before they proceed to the final stages of making a bomb.  In his estimation, Iran is maybe 6 months or so from that point.  See this AP article for the details.  Also, there's a video version of this where you can see him drawing the red line in marker on his graphic, at this Washington Post site. 


Meanwhile, it seems that every week Iran claims there are new attempts to sabotage its nuclear program, by disrupting the electrical power grids that supply its uranium enrichment plants or, more recently, by packaging explosives in technical equipment shipped to those sites.  Here's a video from CNN about some of these claims, that also talks about some of the recent history.  While it's difficult to know if the latest claims are true, it is certainly true that assassinations and high-level cyberattacks aimed at the Iranian nuclear program have happened regularly over the last few years.

Japan Nuclear Plan

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/japan-nuclear-phase-out_n_1897452.html

This article says that the government of Japan did not fully commit to the plan to get rid of all nuclear reactors by 2040.  The Japanese public support getting rid of nuclear reactors by 2040, but businesses do not.

Nick K.

Time Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945

"Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto's time-lapse map of 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project's "Trinity" test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan's nuclear tests in May of 1998, leaving out North Korea's two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade."
(text taken from YouTube Blurb)

-Kimmie

Iran, Missile Defense, and Russia - sparks fly!

(graphic by Nicholas Blechman from the New York Times)

Earlier this week there was an extremely interesting editorial by Bill Keller in the New York Times called "Nuclear Mullahs."  It essentially argues that accepting a nuclear-armed Iran might be preferable to beginning another war to prevent it.  He claims that having nuclear weapons has actually historically made nations more cautious about engaging militarily with others rather than more bold, so perhaps a nuclear Iran would even be weirdly stabilizing.   So many interesting points are made in this opinion piece it will probably be assigned later in the semester, but read it now if you're curious!

The editors of the New York Observer reacted strongly to that New York Times piece with an editorial that claims that Iran is unlike other nations that may have acquired nuclear weapons in the past, and truly does have the intent to wipe Israel off the map.  Here's that piece. 

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is also furious with the Obama administration for failing to specify under what conditions the U.S. would consider attacking Iran.  He had some harsh words about this recently, which you can read about in this AP piece published by the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, a non-partisan expert report drafted for Congress this week pointed out that the U.S. does not have the technology currently in place to successfully defend against long-range missile threats from Iran.  Read about this in this USA Today piece.

And if that's not enough excitement for one week, candidate Mitt Romney's latest gaffe referring to Russia as our "biggest foe" also turns out to play into debates over nuclear missile defense... Read more on this ABC News blog.  

We'll touch on all these topics in class this week - lots to pay attention to in the news!

Nuclear Inspections of Iran

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443696604577647860298054608.html

The U.N. Security Council is stating that Iran must allow inspections of its nuclear sites.  If Iran does not obeying the order, it would be a violation of a treaty, which could weaken its international relations.

Nick K.

Readings for next week - Ionizing Radiation Doses

For next week, there are just two short readings I'd like you to look at.  Both deal with describing "ionizing radiation" sources, and introduce the concept of a "radiation dose."  Both are also "propaganda" in the sense of being educational materials produced by the nuclear industry.  As you read them, do you see any places where the authors are trying to persuade you of anything?

1)  Radiation dose chart and information brochure from the American Nuclear Society

2) Ionizing Radiation brochure from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization

Note that there are special units for measuring ionizing radiation doses, and that these two publications use different versions of them.  The ANS brochure uses "millirem" and the ANSTO brochure uses "microseiverts."  We will untangle these terms in class, but they are two units for measuring the same thing, much like how feet and meters are both units for length. 

how to buy nukes on the black market

Returning To Fukushima Area

http://world-nuclear-news.org/RS-Restoration_plans_for_Fukushima_area-0409124.html

According to World Nuclear News, Japan’s Reconstruction Agency stated that those who lived in parts of Fukushima may be allowed to return in two years, with jobs in decontamination. The article also states that the people of Naraha can return home during the day, but it does not explain why they can’t return home at night.  What makes this town safe in the day, but dangerous at night, if there is not much radioactive contamination?

Nick

Debunking the whole "cell phones and popcorn" thing

Well, OK... so, it's true that cell phones operate on microwaves...

And, it's true that microwaves (in microwave ovens) can internally heat up popcorn enough that it pops. 

However... it's not the case that you can use a set of cell phones to pop popcorn.  There seems to be a history of viral videos claiming to show this, and there is actually a claim that these were made or promoted by a company marketing cell-phone headsets.  I don't know?

Here are a few websites debunking this whole idea:

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/06/cellphones-cant/
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/cellphones-cant-really-pop-popcorn/
http://www.snopes.com/science/cookegg.asp

The last one also debunks a similar hoax involving cooking eggs. I'm not really sure what to make of this whole phenomenon... I guess people enjoy tricking other people with videos? 

Cell Phone Radiation//Popcorn

If nothing else, I think this is a pretty good visual.. although not completely sure how accurate the experiment is.

-Emily

http://xkcd.com/radiation/

Chart on the amounts of ionizing radiation a person can absorb from various sources.


http://www.terrapower.com/Technology/TravelingWaveReactor.aspx

Traveling Wave Reactor:  A reactor that uses the uranium waste from other reactors, and can go 50-60 years before needing to be refueled.


-Anne