"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.

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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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