Re: YOU SHOULD READ THIS

Below is the letter to the editor from last week's article that Kathryn posted from the nytimes (the YOU SHOULD READ THIS post)... this time written by an antinuclear advocate. I tend to agree with this one and felt like the last article totally had a not-so-hidden agenda (but, then again most things too). This one does too as you will see, but seems to mirror more of the things we have learned in class. What do you think? Who is (more) right?

Do you feel like you are dealing/struggling with the same issues in your own papers? I know I am.

Radiation Fears are Real

-Stephanie 

Japanese artist made maps of nuclear explosion around the world

I think here is potencial new art movement..

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-07/6/japanese-artist-nuclear-weapons

- Mosey

radiation protective underwear?

I have no idea whether to take this seriously or not.  From a CNET article:





 


This is produced by Yamamoto, supposedly to protect radiation workers cleaning up Fukushima.  ???

YOU SHOULD READ THIS!

Since we have been talking in class about how the human response to risk involves all kinds of things that aren't strictly about the degree of risk, this is an extremely relevant article from the New York Times:
"Fear vs. Radiation" by David Ropeik
It is an opinion essay arguing that the fear of radiation is more harmful than the radiation itself.  The arguments are really interesting and thought provoking, particularly in light of what we've discussed in class.

Tokyo Rising ; short film about 3/11 Disaster

http://www.palladiumboots.com/video/tokyo-rising#part8

- Mosey

Algae Haus

Last class we talked about wind, solar and nuclear energy sources. I found an article in Sierra magazine for a building in Germany powered by bioreactors of panels of algae. Slime walls. Very cool.

The last two steps seem a lot like what happens in a nuclear reactor, even in step four when they are like "???what??? do we do with this stuff??" Like nuclear waste, there are ways to recycle the waste, but, in this instance, it is costly and doesn't serve the cause of lowering carbon emissions. Its nice that the heat produced by the algae can safely be used for the apt building.

Here is a picture of the actual goo-wall

I scanned the images from the mag because the image in the Sierra source kinda sucks. Click them to make them bigger. The first image shows the first part of the process and the second image the last part of the process.

How it works:

1. BIQ's bioreactors are bolted to the south-facing sides of the building and are designed to work with barely any human intervention or cleaning. Each bioreactor is three inches thick, more than eight feet high, and holds about six gallons of water between panels of laminated safety glass.
2. A complex circulatory system keeps the algae alive and pushes water, phosphorous, and nitrogen through the bioreactors. The food supply—carbon dioxide—comes from the exhaust pipe of a ground-floor generator. (In future installations, the algae might gobble CO2 emitted from other buildings.) Blasts of compressed air prevent the algae from growing too thick, while tiny beads scrape the glass and keep the organisms from clinging to it.
3. When algae reproduce, they give off heat, meaning that on a sunny day the water in the bioreactor can hit 100°F. That water courses through an exchanger and heats up a second supply of water, which circulates through pipes embedded in the floors to warm the rooms—or to preheat the water used in showers and kitchens. Excess hot water is stored in eight 260-plus-foot-deep boreholes under the building. Altogether, the algae from the bioreactors produce enough calories to heat four apartments year-round.
4. At least every week, the algae are filtered from the water and trucked three miles to a university, where they are processed for methane and hydrogen. If they were burned, they could be used to generate electricity—though this may be a costly and ineffective way to negate carbon emissions.
   
   -Stephanie
   Source
   Source
   

Update on Iran

You may have heard about recent talks between Iran and other nations concerning their nuclear program.  What's the status, and how does this fit into the big picture?  Here's an interesting FAQ from the New York Times.  Something to note from this piece is that (while opinions on this vary a lot), experts believe Iran could make enough highly-enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb by the middle of next year, if that's what they intend to do.

UV radiation turned all the American flags on the moon white!

According to lunar scientist Paul Spudis:

For forty-odd years, the flags have been exposed to the full fury of the Moon's environment – alternating 14 days of searing sunlight and 100° C heat with 14 days of numbing-cold -150° C darkness. But even more damaging is the intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the pure unfiltered sunlight on the cloth (modal) from which the Apollo flags were made. Even on Earth, the colors of a cloth flag flown in bright sunlight for many years will eventually fade and need to be replaced. So it is likely that these symbols of American achievement have been rendered blank, bleached white by the UV radiation of unfiltered sunlight on the lunar surface. Some of them may even have begun to physically disintegrate under the intense flux.



http://gizmodo.com/5930450/all-the-american-flags-on-the-moon-are-now-white


http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon/2011/07/faded-flags-on-the-moon/

-Mosey

Resources for Nuclear Energy and Waste Debates

Here's a set of resources that might be useful for your first paper, which should be an opinion piece on some specific current topic related to nuclear energy or nuclear waste. These resources are good for background information, highlighting current debates, and getting source material for your arguments.


1) Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI): U.S. nuclear industry group. Website has lots of "fact sheets" and analysis of current issues from the pro-nuclear-energy standpoint.

 2) World Nuclear Association: global nuclear industry group. Website has tons of statistics on nuclear energy around the world, safety information, etc., all from the pro-nuclear-energy standpoint.

3) Greenpeace: Runs one of the largest worldwide campaigns against nuclear energy.  Has lots of fact sheets and news stories from an anti-nuclear standpoint.

4) Nuclear Energy Information Service:  an Illinois public watchdog group with an anti-nuclear stance.  Good place to find out what local nuclear issues are being discussed.

5) Union of Concerned Scientists:  a non-profit and non-partisan group that does not formally take a "pro" or "anti" stance towards nuclear energy, but highlights safety failures and problems with the current nuclear energy and nuclear waste practices in the U.S.

6) Nuclear Regulatory Commission:  main site of the government agency responsible for licensing and regulating nuclear energy facilities (basically, their job is to ensure safety). 

7) Presidential Blue Ribbon Commission on Nuclear Waste:  go here to find out what Obama's commission to review the nuclear waste problem recommended, and what the current status is of nuclear waste policy.

Watch for more upcoming posts highlighting a few current debates that might be good topics for your paper, but you should definitely do your own research to find something that you feel strongly about!

Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough

We were just talking about the lack of progress on nuclear fusion in class, and I found this article about the first time a human produced fusion reaction produced more energy then was put into it. And, surprisingly enough, it happened in the USA! And during the shutdown too!

Here's the link to the BBC article

Now, I'm sure we should take this with a grain of salt. It's a significant milestone, but it's in no way indicative of widespread fusion energy anytime soon. I was honestly surprised that the article didn't quote one of the scientists saying that we would have perfected fusion in 10 years maximum.

Ben Roy

A missing nuclear bomb

This isn't really a current news article, more of a daily newsletter with interesting facts, and this is one of them. It details how the Air Force lost a nuclear bomb back in the 50s. Here's the link:

http://nowiknow.com/bombs-away/

Enjoy,
-Miles

Jellyfish shut down reactor in Sweden!

Here's a weird article - about a Swedish nuclear reactor that has had to shut down recently due to jellyfish clogging up the cooling system:

http://news.discovery.com/animals/jellyfish-shut-down-swedish-nuclear-reactor-131002.htm

Scotch Tape Source Article

Hi everyone

Last week in class I mentioned tape being used as a source for X-rays. So, I thought I would post the NY times article which talks about the discovery. What a great discovery for the future of low cost medical imaging!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/science/28xray.html?_r=0

Best,
Mady Berry