"safety, security, safeguard"

title:  "Safety, Security, Safeguard"

date: Monday, 8th August 2011

time: 2:00-4:00pm

venue: BL Lecture Theater 

One intresting thing that i obtained from the talk is the approach that they took to make people to accept nuclear energy. First of all, create a powerful positive public opinion about nuclear so that it will affect the government decision making. Hence, the government will proceed in considering the nuclear as one of the future alternative energy resource. Then, to make this happen we need to educate people to be comfort with nuclear power. Try to change the misconception of nuclear power since they only see the after math of the nuclear disaster. By using, the current technologies and precautions, nuclear incident such in Three Mile Island and Chernobyl can be avoid. 

People tend to scare of what they can't understand for example of what happen when the electricity was first found. People still prefer of using lantern because they thought that electricity would bring harm but with proper handling it can really improve human's living. However, the decision is still depend on the majority. Keep on trying to open their mind so that they can see the picture clearly and not just rejecting the nuclear power blindly. In the end, eventhough the nuclear is being refuse but at least we have tried.

NUCLEAR FIX YOU

THANKS FOR ABDUL RAHMAN AND FAHMI FOR SHARING THIS VIDEO.

Fission and Fusion

Check out Fission and Fusion and find out how we can get energy both from splitting an atom and from joining them together!

NUCLEAR RADIATION

Nuclear radiation arises from hundreds of different kinds of unstable atoms. While many exist in nature, the majority are created in nuclear reactions. Ionizing radiation which can damage living tissue is emitted as the unstable atoms (radionuclides) change ('decay') spontaneously to become different kinds of atoms.

The principal kinds of ionizing radiation are:

Alpha particles

These are helium nuclei consisting of two protons and two neutrons and are emitted from naturally-occurring heavy elements such as uranium and radium, as well as from some man-made transuranic elements. They are intensely ionizing but cannot penetrate the skin, so are dangerous only if emitted inside the body.

Beta particles

These are fast-moving electrons emitted by many radioactive elements. They are more penetrating than alpha particles, but easily shielded – they can be stopped by a few millimetres of wood or aluminium. They can penetrate a little way into human flesh but are generally less dangerous to people than gamma radiation. Exposure produces an effect like sunburn, but which is slower to heal. Beta-radioactive substances are also safe if kept in appropriate sealed containers.

Gamma rays

These are high-energy beams much the same as X-rays. They are emitted in many radioactive decays and are very penetrating, so require more substantial shielding. Gamma rays are the main hazard to people dealing with sealed radioactive materials used, for example, in industrial gauges and radiotherapy machines. Radiation dose badges are worn by workers in exposed situations to detect them and hence monitor exposure. All of us receive about 0.5-1 mSv per year of gamma radiation from cosmic rays and from rocks, and in some places, much more. Gamma activity in a substance  can be measured with a scintillometer or Geiger counter.

SOURCE

The Facts on Nuclear Energy

In the era of $4-a-gallon gas, nuclear energy is getting new scrutiny. Depending on which side you listen to, nuclear power is either the fresh, young, can-do face of the future or the tired, old, ticking time bomb of the past. Although the United States gets almost 20 percent of its energy from nuclear power plants, no new reactors have been built since the meltdown at Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1979.

 After three decades of exile-during which Europe and Asia left U.S. nuclear technology in the coal dust-nuclear plants are applying for permits to build new reactors (nine permits are in the pipeline), pushing for a national nuclear-waste dump, and forging international partnerships that make the once unattainable goal of recycling spent nuclear fuel look inevitable. Given the spate of brownouts and blackouts, perhaps it’s not surprising that 63 percent of Americans favor nuclear energy as one way to provide electricity.

The antinuke chorus hasn’t given up; in fact, it’s been joined by several states worried about the relicensing of old nuclear plants. But with the population surging, fossil fuel prices soaring, and climate change scaring just about everyone, the prospect of clean, cheap nuclear energy is clouding those meltdown memories. To critics’ cries of nuclear proliferation and radiation leaks, proponents gently whisper, “Zero carbon footprint.” Oddly, the nuclear rebirth comes when planet-friendly energy sources like the sun and wind are making strides of their own, advances that could make them competitive with nuclear energy.

The Time Line

1945 – United States drops nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively ending World War II.

1950s — Desert tests in Nevada clear way for commercial nuclear industry. First U.S. reactor (Shippingport, in Pennsylvania) goes online, in 1957.

1979 – March 16 The China Syndrome (Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas), about lax safety at nuclear power plants, is released.

March 28 — Three Mile Island meltdown. No fatalities; studies show “negligible” health risk.

1983 – Silkwood (Cher, Meryl Streep), about nuclear skulduggery, is released.

1986 – Chernobyl disaster in the U.S.S.R. kills 31 and spews massive amounts of radioactive dust into the atmosphere. Ultimate death toll from cancer: 4,000 (estimate).

1987 – Congress authorizes national nuclear- waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, set to start in 1998.

1996 – Last reactor added to U.S. power grid (Watts Bar, in Tennessee).

1997 – Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) waylays plans to open Yucca Mountain in his state.

2005 – Energy Policy Act authorizes $18.5 billion in loan guarantees for clean energy plants, including nuclear ones.

2007 – First new application to build a nuclear reactor in 30 years.

2015 — Earliest date new nuclear reactor could be brought online.

2020 — Latest estimated opening of Yucca Mountain repository.

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Video of Japanese Nuclear Plant Explosion

Shortly after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake on Friday that shook Japan and generated tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean, reports emerged of damage at one of Japan’s nuclear power plants. On Saturday, Japanese authorities began evacuating residents nearby the Fukushima nuclear power plant due to the release of radioactive elements into the environment, signs of a possible meltdown at one of the reactors.

As officials worked to repair damage Saturday afternoon, an explosion occurred at the nuclear power plant, damaging one of the buildings.

The English-language news service Russia Today posted video of the explosion as it occurred to its YouTube channel.

IS MALAYSIA PREPARED FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY?

YAB Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Najib Tun Razak and the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui had announced on 11 January 2011 as follows:

The government is studying the possibility of deploying nuclear energy to meet future demand and diversify the energy mix for Peninsular Malaysia. The formation of the Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation to be headed by Dr Mohd Zamzam bin Jaafar as its CEO to lead the planning based on the current development timeline of 11 to 12 years, from pre-project to commissioning;

NOW look at Japan, what had happen today (bear in mind Japan is a developed country)

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is this the nuclear fusion breakthrough?

Sceptics and environmentalists may be locked into endless arguments around global warming, but there's little debate that an energy crisis looms large.

A Florida based research team, however, may have found a solution to the world's energy woes that could provide a clean and near limitless supply of energy in as little as a decade.

The Energy Crisis

Global energy production and consumption is a complex beast and many nations remain heavily reliant on a lethal mix of oil and coal, both of which are finite, and have huge impacts on the environment.

While there is much conjecture on just how long oil and coal reserves will last, the stark reality is that they will both eventually run out.

In the 1950s, many thought atomic energy would allow humanity to dodge the energy crisis, with newly nuclear fission reactors providing an affordable and near limitless supply of energy.

More recently however, incidents such as the Chernobyl meltdown, the growing pile of incredibly toxic nuclear waste and the spectre of rogue nations manufacturing weapons- grade plutonium have taken the shine off nuclear fission.

With the energy requirements of developed nations continuing to grow, and developing nations gaining a serious appetite for energy consumption, demand will soon outstrip supply, and many predict that massive economic and social impacts are probable.

The fusion magic bullet?

Thankfully, a new type of nuclear fusion energy generation technology holds the potential to provide a cheap and clean source of energy without toxic radioactive waste or the environmental impacts of oil or coal.

Unlike nuclear fission, where the nucleus of an atom is split to release energy, nuclear fusion uses the same process as our sun and works by fusing atoms together to release of large amounts of energy.

Nuclear fusion generates energy leaving little to nothing in the way of by-products, and uses fuels that are plentiful but far less dangerous than the uranium used with conventional nuclear fission reactors.

Whilst physicists have generated nuclear fusion reactions, doing has involved creating the earthbound equivalent of a small star, which in turn has required ultra-strong magnetic fields to contain superheated gases many times hotter than the surface of the sun.

Unfortunately, doing so has tended to consume almost as much energy as was being generated by the fusion reaction. Creating a nuclear fusion reactor that is commercially viable and able to output surplus energy beyond sustaining its own reaction was thought to be at least 20-30 years away.

Thanks to work being done by a group of physicists at the University of Florida, all things fusion related could however be set to change in as little as a decade.

Where conventional fission reactors use uranium which can be refined to make nuclear weapons, the University of Florida's concept uses hydrogen and an isotope of boron called Boron 11, both of which are abundant on earth and can't be used to make atomic weapons.

When fusion reactions occur in the heart of a star such as our sun, atoms are subject to intense heat and pressure which stops the atoms from repelling each other, allowing them to fuse.

To date, experimental fusion projects have largely been focused on generating intense heat so they can fuse, and containing the super hot gases from this reaction consumes most if not all of the energy being produced by the fusion reaction.

The University of Florida have taken a different tack, by putting hydrogen and boron fuel into an accelerator that fires them towards each other at incredibly high velocities. When the hydrogen and boron 11 atoms smash into each other, they fuse, producing fast moving helium nuclei whose motion is converted into electricity.

This new process is clean, highly efficient and most important of all, simple. The output of the new reactor is electricity with its by-product being the same helium gas used to make voices squeaky and party balloons float, so there's no toxic radioactive waste to dispose of.

Initial calculations also show that this new type of fusion generation could produce clean electricity at similar levels but far more cheaply than oil or coal.

Because the reactor also operates using relatively simple engineering principles (especially compared to the current crop of fusion reactors), commercialising it is likely to involve significantly shorter time-frames than other fusion technologies.

Although technology is still however very experimental and has yet to be fully proven, a feasibility study into this new fusion process has been kicked off, and if it is found to be viable, it could become commercially available in as little as a decade, here's hoping.

nuclear fusion in the future perhaps?

Physicists may be one step closer to achieving a form of clean energy known as nuclear fusion, which is what happens deep inside the cores of stars.

A recent experiment with a giant levitating magnet was able to coax matter in the lab to extremely high densities — a necessary step for nuclear fusion.

When the density is high enough, atomic nuclei — the protons and neutrons of atoms — literally fuse together, creating a heavier element. And if the conditions are right that fusion can release loads of energy.

Depending on the mass of this element, energy could be created by fusion without any greenhouse gas emissions. So it could present a tantalizing clean power source, if scientists could achieve it.

"Fusion energy could provide a long-term solution to the planet’s energy needs without contributing to global warming," said Columbia University physicist Michael Mauel, co-leader of the recent study.

Such a power source would produce far less radioactive waste than current nuclear energy plants, which involve splitting atoms apart — called fission — the opposite of fusion.

For the new study scientists built a Levitated Dipole Experiment, or LDX, which involves suspending a giant donut-shaped magnet in midair using an electromagnetic field.

The magnet weighs about a half-ton, and is made of superconducting wire coiled inside a stainless steel container about the size and shape of a large truck tire. The researchers used the magnet to control the motion of an extremely hot gas of charged particles, called a plasma, contained within its outer chamber.

The doughnut-shaped magnet creates a turbulence that causes the plasma to condense, instead of becoming more spread out, as usually happens with turbulence. Such "turbulent pinching" has been observed with space plasma in the magnetic fields of Earth and Jupiter, but never before in the lab.

The approach "could produce an alternative path to fusion," said co-leader Jay Kesner of MIT, but to reach the density levels needed for commercial fusion, scientists would have to build a much larger version of the experiment.

A key to the device is the fact that the LDX magnet is levitating, rather than suspended by any struts, because the magnetic field used to confine the plasma would be disturbed by any objects in its way.

In the experiment, the doughnut magnet was held aloft by a magnetic field from an electromagnet overhead, which is controlled by a computer based on readings from laser beam sensors. This set-up can adjust the position of the giant magnet to within half a millimeter.

Just in case the magnetic levitating system fails, the experiment included a cone-shaped support with springs underneath the magnet to catch it if need be.

TEPCO Detects Highest Radiation Level From Fukushima No 1 Plant

FUKUSHIMA, Aug 2 (Bernama) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on Monday that it has detected the highest level of radiation from a facility of the Fukushima No 1 power plant since the nuclear crisis began in March, reported Japan's Jiji Press.The reading stood at 10 sieverts per hour on the surface of an exhaust 

stack between the No 1 and No 2 reactor buildings.

Read More

Malaysia says to go ahead with nuclear plans, to learn from Japan crisis

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/malaysia-says-to-go-ahead-with-nuclear-plans/

PUTRAJAYA March 15 — Malaysia is taking note of the Japan nuclear crisis when implementing its plan to build two nuclear power plants in the future Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today He hat while the government is concerned about public safety and is watching developments in Japan he remained confident that Malaysia would “implement what is the best” for the country The deputy prime minister stressed that the government would learn from Japan to ensure public safety “I think it is something which every country in the world is taking note of what is happening in Japan There are many things that we can learn but what is important is the safety of the country and the people “In this matter we have an agency that is responsible and they know what they are doing and we are confident that they will implement what is the best ” he told reporters during a press conference today Energy Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin had also said that the “government will not do it secretly without informing the public” Chin added that the Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation had opened a tender to international consultants to conduct a study on the location suitability and safety of the location type of technology and public acceptance of the proposal However MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek yesterday had called on the government to reconsider building a nuclear plant following the explosions to nuclear reactors in Japan after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country He said the government must re-evaluate nuclear power in the country Reuters reported today that Japan’s Prime Minister Naota Kan has warned that radioactive level in the vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi plant had become high and that the risk of more radioactive leakage was increasing.