Stories tagged nuclear

It's a new day in America: Where should our energy come from now?
Courtesy timsamoffOn January 21, 2009, there’s going to be a brand new administration in the White house. Defining the energy policy of the United States is going to be a big issue, and one that’s likely to get tackled early on.

The members of the Obama Administration are going to have their own ideas about how our country should get its energy, but what do you think?

Is green energy your one and only? Are you a coal man? A nuclear gal? Or do you fall asleep murmuring “drill, baby, drill”?

Some options are going to be more expensive than others, each will affect the environment differently, and some are going to take more time before they’re ready. So what’s it going to be?

Voice your opinion in Science Buzz’s new poll: Energy and the Obama Administration.

You might not have been able to vote on November 4, but you can vote now, and you can let everyone know why you think what you think.

Tags : energy, power, poll, nuclear, coal, green, oil, policy

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Defense against deadly doses of radiation

Radiation defense
Courtesy Fibonacci Whether by nuclear accident, radiation treatment, or a dirty bomb, exposure to formerly deadly doses of radiation now might be survivable. Cleveland Biolabs, Inc. (CBLI) has a compound called Protectan that has rescued mammals from lethal doses of radiation. The effectiveness of Protectans whether injected before or after radiation exposure indicates that these compounds have great potential as practical, as well as effective and non-toxic, biodefense measures.

Why is radiation deadly?

The lethality of high dose ionizing radiation is largely due to development of Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) caused by massive apoptosis in radiosensitive organs, including:

• intestinal cells (leading to nausea)
• hair follicles (leading to hair loss)
• spermatocytes (leading to male infertility)
• hematopoietic (HP) cells (leading to immunosuppression)

How antiradiation pharmaceuticals work

Cleveland Biolabs, Inc. is currently developing derivatives of microbial factors that are natural regulators of apoptosis. Click here for a more complete discussion of how Protactan's work as radiation antidotes.

• Protectan CBLB502 is a rationally designed recombinant derivative of the bacterial protein, flagellin, which binds and activates the mammalian TLR5 cell surface receptor. Moreover, TLR5 is expressed on the endothelial cells of the small intestine lamina propria, the most radiosensitive part of the GI tract
• CBLB600 Series Protectans are synthetic derivatives of mycoplasma lipopeptide, which promote activation of the anti-apoptotic NF-kappaB pathway associated with acute radiation syndrome

Here is a link to the research paper in Science titled
An Agonist of Toll-Like Receptor 5 Has Radioprotective Activity in Mouse and Primate Models
More research papers can be accessed at CBLI Publications

Tags : radiation treatment, radiation antidote, Protectan, nuclear, Inc., health, Cleveland Biolabs, Burdelya, apoptosis

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Renewed hope for nuclear fusion

Magnetized Target Fusion
Courtesy Los Alamos fusion energy sciences Nuclear fusion has been "just around the corner" for more than 50 years. Fusion reactions occur in the sun and in hydrogen bombs. Tremendous quantities of energy can result from the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium.

VCs bet big money on fusion power futures

Wealthy investors in California are betting hundreds of millions of dollars that the difficulties of producing power with fusion may soon be solved. The CEO of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital thinks that "Within five years, large companies will start to think about building fusion reactors." Chrysalix invested in General Fusion, a Canadian company that says it has found a way to hurdle many of the technical problems surrounding fusion.

The company's ultimate plan is to build small fusion reactors that can produce around 100 megawatts of power. The plants would cost around $50 million. That could allow the company to generate electricity at about 4 cents per kilowatt hour, making it competitive with conventional electricity.c/net News.com

Magnetized Target Fusion

Using a technique called Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF), a current within a plasma containing lithium creates a magnetic field which allows it to be squeezed . The resulting temperature spike breaks down

the lithium into helium and tritium. Tritium, an unstable form of hydrogen, is separated and then mixed with deuterium, another form of hydrogen. The two fuse and make helium, a reaction that releases energy that can be harvested.

For updates check this General Fusion Inc. wiki.

Tags : tritium, nuclear, magnetic target fusion, helium, General Fusion Inc, fusion, energy, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital

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Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century

Want to know what to do with your life. A diverse committee of experts from around the world, at the request of the U.S. National Science Foundation, identified 14 challenges that, if met, would improve how we live.

Here is their list in no particular order. You can learn more about each challenge by clicking on it.

• Make solar energy economical
• Provide energy from fusion
• Develop carbon sequestration methods
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
• Provide access to clean water
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
• Advance health informatics
• Engineer better medicines
• Reverse-engineer the brain
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Enhance virtual reality
• Advance personalized learning
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

You can vote for which is most important

The committee decided not to rank the challenges. NAE is offering the public an opportunity to vote on which one they think is most important and to provide comments at the Engineering Challenges website

Tags : water, vr, urban renewal, solar energy, nuclear, nitrogen cycle, medicine, learning, informatics, health, fusion, engineering challenges, engineering, carbon sequestration

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Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment

Xcel donates multi-millions to Renewable Development Fund.

What would you do if you were given $16 million each year to develop renewable energy? Minnesota Statute 216B.2423 requires Xcel Energy to donate $500,000 annually for each dry cask containing spent nuclear fuel to a renewables development fund.
To date Xcel Energy has committed to funding nearly $53 million for projects to identify and develop new or emerging renewable energy sources. A third round of funding is to begin by March 2007. A one-time payment of $10 million was made to the University of Minnesota's Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment on July 1, 2003.

University of Minnesota creates Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment (IREE).

The mission of IREE is

to promote statewide economic development, sustainable, healthy, and diverse ecosystems, and national energy security through development of bio-based and other renewable resources and processes.

In fiscal year 2005 alone, IREE awarded nearly $11.5M to renewable energy research and demonstration projects at the University of Minnesota. These funds were used to support 67 projects and leveraged an additional $9.3M from state, federal and business and industry partners.

IREE's Third Annual Research Symposium is Tuesday

Want to talk to researchers about what they are doing with millions of dollars in grant moneys. University of Minnesota faculty and researchers will showcase groundbreaking new work in the areas of renewable energy and the environment next Tuesday, Nov. 28, at the McNamara Alumni Center.

Don Shelby, news anchor for WCCO TV, and Edward Garvey, Deputy Commissioner for the Energy and Telecommunications Division with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, are scheduled to give the keynote addresses. University of Minnesota Regents Professor David Tilman will give the capnote address at the conclusion of this year's conference.
A poster session featuring IREE-funded projects will also take place throughout the day in the main hall.

I attended last year's symposium and plan to go again this Tuesday. My favorite experience last year was talking to the U of M Solar Vehicle team about their car and their experiences racing it cross-country. Here is a link to the Research Symposium schedule. Online registration is now closed but IREE will be accepting walk-up registrations at the door the day of the conference.

Read more about IREE and their funded projects

IREE funded projects 2005, 2004, 2003.
IREE website index.
IREE objectives and activities.

Tags : energy, David Tilman, University of Minnesota, Xcel, nuclear, Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment, IREE, Minnesota Statute 216B.2423, Don Shelby, Edward Garvey

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Nuclear test detection: photo from wikimedia

Was N. Korean nuclear test a dud?

James Acton of Vertic, an independent non-governmental organisation (NGO) in London that specialises in verification research, noted enormous discrepancies in the estimated size of the blast.

“I’ve heard from three different sources that it (the North Korean blast) was less than one kilotonne,” “If it turns out to be less than a kilotonne, it could look very much like a fizzle,” a bomb that failed to detonate properly and achieve a full chain reaction," said Acton, a nuclear physicist by training. Kahleej Times.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, however, has been quoted as saying that the nuclear device tested by North Korea ranged between five and 15 kilotons. That is the normal size of a successful test.

What data, besides seismic, can be used?

• In addition to seismic sensors run by national governments, the UN’s Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CBTO) in Vienna also has a network of 189 seismic and hydroacoustic monitoring stations designed to detect nuclear tests.
• Radioactive particles and gases that can vent from an underground nuclear blast are also a telltale, providing clues as to the type of material (uranium or plutonium) that was used and to the size of the weapon.
• A third monitoring technique is to use satellites with ground-scanning radars, which record the topography of a test site before and after an event. Movement or subsidence of the soil is the sign of a big blast.

How do we tell if it was a nuclear explosion?

Like earthquakes, large explosions send out shockwaves that can be detected on seismographs. Big nuclear bombs make big waves, with clear signatures that make them fairly easy to detect, analyze and confirm that they were caused by splitting atoms. But smaller blasts - as North Korea's appears to have been - are trickier to break down. York Daily Record

A nuclear explosion has a more instant shockwave than a chemical one. The differences between regular bombs and a nuclear explosion are very fine and subtle, and you need time to analyse the signatures.

"People have different way of cross cutting the data and interpreting them,"
The CTBTO's stations are more extensive than those used by most countries. They monitor seismic events but also underwater data, radioactive particles in the air and radiowaves.
"Within 72 hours we will have full data. Then all this will be available to member states," said Lassina Zerbo, director of the International Data Center at the CTBTO, which is based in Vienna, Austria.

While the North Korean explosion was small, potentially complicating monitoring efforts, sensors in South Korea were likely close enough to categorize it as nuclear, if that is what is was, said Friedrich Steinhaeusler, professor of physics at Salzburg University.

A nuclear blast also gives off a clear signature - a clear graph of peaks and curves - that differentiates it from other kinds of shocks, he added.

"We'll have the confirmation soon," he said.

Additional reading can be found on Rueters.
For updates I recommend this Wikipedia page

Tags : test, monitoring, military, nuclear, detection, CTBTO, North Korea, bombs, explosions

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