Blog #15: Pandora’s Promise

Pandora’s Promise is a 2013 documentary film that discusses the nuclear power debate. It goes into detail of why or why not nuclear power should be used. There is still opposition of nuclear power, but it is a clean energy source which can help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and better the climate change situation.

MV5BMTgyNDYxMzQxM15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODQ0NTY0OQ@@._V1_SY317_CR0,0,214,317_AL_The director Robert Stone presents this film as a way to show both sides of the argument, like interviewing Helen Caldicott, an anti-nuclear advocate. She talks about the health impacts that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster had. Nuclear energy is an energy source that many people fear especially after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, but it can also be the energy source we need to save the planet from climate change. The documentary was very informative and it showed the stories of five people who went from anti-nuclear to pro-nuclear energy-Stewart Brand, Richard Rhodes, Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas, and Michael Shellenberger.

Throughout the film, they talk about the myths and fears people have about nuclear energy such as the disasters that have happened before. The film ultimately argues in support of nuclear power, but it also explains the risks like disasters and radiation. They also talk about plutonium which is a byproduct of uranium fission, which could be used to create weapons. The anti-nuclear activists such as Caldicott call nuclear power evil, but they are not given time to argue against it.

Overall, Pandora’s Promise was an interesting film to watch. Even though, I would have liked if they had more arguments against nuclear energy, however, I did like how they addressed the problems and fears some may have with nuclear energy. They explained how disasters like Fukushima and Chernobyl could be avoided and how radiation is not a big problem like other make it out to be.

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Blog #14: MIT Nuclear Reactor Lab Tour

Visiting the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory was very interesting because we got to see the things

MIT_Nuclear_Reactor_Laboratory_-_Tower_Tech_Cooling_Towerwe had learned in class and through our blogs in person. The radiation checking for the lab was very serious, which surprised me. Our tour guide even asked us if we had ever taken nuclear medicine and went on to tell us about a lady who had had nuclear medicine and the reactor had sensed it. Our tour guide was very informative and was willing to answer all our questions. We got to see the Geiger counter in action again tested against different objects like we learned in the Tom Vales demo. It was interesting to hear that radiation was used in treatments of cancer such as melanoma. They had tested this on patients and they were helped by the radiation, but it is based on funding which was not readily available. They also had many posters that had much more information on how it was tested on cancer patients.

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It was really cool to see the all different machines that were used and connect that with what we had talked about in class such as the fission process. Near the end of the tour, we went into the control room which I thought was interesting because it looked like something out of a movie with the old fashioned buttons and lights. Our tour guide told us that they were trying to go digital with the screens and were testing out new systems for the reactor. It surprised me because the school and the rest of the facility was very technical and modern and the control room looked old-fashioned.

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Overall, the tour was very informative. I liked looking at all the machines used in the facility and the precautions taken by the people working there. Our tour guide was very engaging and was able to keep us interested throughout the tour.

Blog #13: Fukushima Nuclear Accident

On March 11, 2011 following a major earthquake, a tsunami disabled the cooling a power supply of three Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in Japan causing the reactors to melt and release large amounts of radioactive materials. These radioactive materials from the three reactor contaminated the water and it caused over 100,000 people to evacuate their homes. The contaminated water problem, brought up again in August 2013 affected the clean up process which could take decades.  20110318.180618_mar1811_fukushima

When the earthquake hit, all the nuclear reactors shut down. After a few seconds into the earthquake, the controls rods within the core and the nuclear chain reaction stopped as well. The earthquake also destroyed the external power supply of the reactors so the plant could not produce electricity on its own. When the tsunami hit, it flooded the diesel generators, which caused them to fail. The emergency diesel generators kicked in after that, but they were only designed to provide power for eight hours. When the eight hours were up, everyone was afraid that the reactors would melt, and they would but that would take a couple days. Many things were used to try to cool down the plants such as venting the steam and other gases out or injecting sea water mixed with boric acid to make sure the rods remained covered with water.

This disaster in Japan was the most extensive release of radioactivity since the Chernobyl accident in 1986, however unlike Chernobyl, Japan was hit by natural disasters. The radioactive contamination hit communities 25 miles away forcing thousands of people to evacuate. Even though deaths and illnesses from the radioactive materials were unlikely, long-term health effects and even cancer remain possible.fukushima-daichi-explosion

On December 19, 2011, Japan’s environment minister announced that 15 billion dollars were distributed for the decontamination and cleaning of the area around the Fukushima Daiichi plant. He also announced that it was expected that it would take up to 40 years to decontaminate everything completely and it would cost the Japanese government about 75 billion dollars.

In a Bloomberg article, it states that on April 11, 2014, Japan’s cabinet designated coal as an important electricity source, while giving nuclear power the same importance in Japan’s new energy strategy. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for the coal industry, while many hoped he’d use the Fukushima accident to switch to renewables.

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References:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-13/post-fukushima-japan-chooses-coal-over-renewable-energy.html

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Fukushima-Accident/

Fukushima Nuclear Accident – a simple and accurate explanation

http://fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/R41694.pdf

 

Blog #12: Tom Vales Demo

Tom Vales’s demonstration on radiation was very interesting especially learning about how radiation is all around us, even in our homes in our smoke detectors. Even though it is not dangerous, I was surprised to hear about that. I learned

Gthat radiation is all around us and it is part of our environment. I also learned about radon which is a radioactive gas. It can be found in decay or minerals in the ground, which can all contain uranium and radium. As I mentioned before, radon is also found in smoke detectors in homes.

Then, he talked about the characteristics of a radioactive element. It is constantly decaying and it is unstable. It is made up of alpha particles, which is made up of two protons and two neutrons and has the least amount of penetration. There is also the beta particle which is made up of electrons and it penetrates deeper than the alpha particle. Lastly, there is the gamma ray which signals high energy waves and will go through anything.

After that, he showed us a Geiger counter which was used to measure radiation in different products. Radioactivity in these products were caused by radium. If radium was to accidentally go into someone’s eyes, it would cause cataracts, so it can be very dangerous. The first item he showed us was a candle stick that was made up of uranium glass. He would put it up to the geiger counter and it would start making a beeping sound. He also showed us a UV flashlight, a pocket watch, and a camera lens. He also showed us a Fiestaware bowl that used to be called “radioactive red” because of the color of the paint. Natural radiation can also be found in the soil, rocks, air, water, and cosmic rays.

The demonstration was interesting because we got to see everything that he was talking about like the radioactive items on the Geiger counter. It was very informative especially right before the visit to the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory.

Blog #11: Geothermal Energy 10.17.14

Geothermal Energy in Iceland:

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According nea.is, or the National Authority of Iceland, geothermal power facilities currently generate 25% of the country’s total electricity production. The use of geothermal energy in Iceland has grown significantly over the years and the country has been named the pioneer in  the use of geothermal energy.

Even though Iceland is the pioneer for using it, geothermal energy has been used for thousands of years in some countries for things like cooking and heating up a home. Geothermal energy is power from the Earth’s internal heat. The thermal energy is found in rocks and fluids deep below the Earth’s crust. Many countries use underground reservoirs of steam and hot water to generate electricity directly to homes. Some thermal energy can be found many miles below the surface while some is farther up.

Wells, sometimes a mile deep, are drilled into an underground reservoirs to tap steam and hot water to produce geothermal electricity. The steam and hot water is used to drive turbines connected to electricity generators. There are three types of geothermal power plants: dry steam, flash, and binary. Geothermal energy can be extracted without burning fossil fuels and produce less carbon dioxide than natural gas.

2009070211153201In Iceland, geothermal energy has always been important to Icelanders since ancient times. Reykjavik, the capital, is an important place because the steam an hot water is derived from there. Geothermal energy was only used for washing and bathing before but now it is being used for space heating.

 The “blue lagoon” is located about 40 minutes from the capital. This geothermal sea that is rich in minerals is located in the middle of a lava field. A geothermal power plant is situated right next to it, in to which they pump the water into.

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References:

http://www.nea.is/geothermal/

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/geothermal-profile/

http://www.icelandgeothermal.is/iceland-geothermal/geothermal-development/

http://iceland.ednet.ns.ca/schedule.htm

Blog #10: Stirling Engine and Peltier Device 10.17.14

Stirling Heat Engine:

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The Stirling engine, invented by Robert Stirling in 1816, can be more efficient than a gasoline or a diesel engine and it is very much different than the internal combustion engine in your car. The engine uses the Stirling cycle, which uses gas as working substance. The fixed amount of gas is transferred back and forth between cold and hot ends of a cylinder. The hot end is heated

by an external heat such as fire while the other side is cooled with ice. The gas chambers of each cylinder are connected and there are pistons also connected to each other. The pistons are connected mechanically by a linkage that will determine how they will move.

First, heat is added to the gas on the heated end causing pressure to build up and forces the piston to move down. The left piston moves up while the right on is down. The gas is pushed from the heated end to the cooled end, lowering the pressure. The piston on the cool end starts to compress the gas and heat is generated by this. The right piston moves up while the left piston moves down and this causes the gas to be pushed  into the heated end, repeating the cycle.

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Other types of Stirling engines are:

-Displacer-type Stirling Engine (a displacer controls when the gas chamber is heated or cooled)

-Two-Piston Stirling Engine (The heated cylinder is heated by an external flame. A rod comes out of each piston and is connected to a small disc, which is connected to a large flywheel.)

Most Stirling engines are invisible to us today, however they are used in machines such as submarines, cryocoolers, auxiliary power generators in yachts, and there are stirling engines used in classrooms as well.

 

 

Peltier Device:

A Peltier thermo-element is a device that uses the Peltier effect to activate a heat pump. The Peltier is made of semi

Peltier_(detail)_LMBconductive material so it as many positive-negative contacts connected in the series. It has two plates, a cold and a hot plate, and in between there are several thermo couples. The thermo couples are connected together with two wires sticking out of it. Voltage is applied to the wires and the heat is transferred from one plate to another.

This device is also called a Peltier heat pump, solid state refrigerator, or thermoelectric cooler. It can be used for cooling or for heating, although it is more commonly used for cooling. It is used in drink coolers  and computers use this to keep the device cool. Even though, not many computers use it now, if you have an old computer it is likely to use it.

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References:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine.htm

http://www.stirlingengine.com/faq/#5

http://pcbheaven.com/wikipages/The_Peltier_Thermo-Element/

http://www.survival-manual.com/electricity/peltier-elements.php

Blog #9: Solar Energy Lab 10.10.14

For the Solar Energy Lab, we were measuring the voltage output of the solar cell and light intensity output of the light sensor. We used a NXT with a light sensor, a voltage probe, a flashlight (light source), the computer program Labview, a ruler, and colored film filters.

Trials:

1. No light

2. Direct Light: 0 m

3.  0.03 m

4.  0.06 m

5.  0.09 m

6.  0.12 m

The Labview program would record the voltage output with each light intensity. We plotted a graph on the relationship between the voltage and the light intensity.

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Then, we took the film filters, blue, green, pink, and yellow, and put them directly on the voltage probe. This helped us explain the impact of the color to the wavelength to the energy received by the solar cell.

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Blog #8: Solar Energy Efforts 10.10.14

Solar Energy:

The Sun provides a powerful source of energy to the Earth and we must continue to increase the use of solar energy because of the harmful effects of fossil fuels. Using solar energy will decrease the dependence on fossil fuels which are expensive and hazardous. Many countries are now looking to increase the use of solar energy because of its many advantages such as being

cheaper-solar-panels-scientists_921812cheaper than burning fossil fuels and not producing as much pollution as other forms do. The biggest and most important factor of solar energy is that it is renewable and all countries will never run out of it.

Germany:

The leading country, when it comes to using solar energy, is Germany. In May of 2014, Germany set a new record of using renewable energy in 74% of its power generation. The country aims to power the country with renewable energy by 2050, which will be a huge accomplishment and hopefully have other countries trying to do the same. Their growth of solar PV (photovoltaic) has been mostly fueled by the policies that favor clean energy like the simple feed-in tariff which pays renewable energy producers a certain amount for the electricity they produce while under long term contracts. There are some negative views on this tariff claiming it to expensive for the consumers and oversupplying of solar PV. However, Germany will continue to go forward with its renewable energy efforts in the upcoming years. According to planetsave.com, in 2009, Germany installed eight times more megawatts go photovoltaic solar energy capacity than America did.

In 2009, Germany built its first solar-thermal power plant. They used a former polluted military area as their site to build a solar park to meet needs of the country. Matthias Platzeck, state governor of Brandenburg, Germany says that, “An underused and polluted military area has been cleaned up without draining local financial resources. The solar park also meets economic and environmental needs on a long-term basis. After the solar park has used the land, the area will be given back to nature.”

United States:

The United States has also been an important leader in solar energy for power generation. Over the past couple of years, the price of the solar energy system has dropped, making it more affordable for families to use it in their homes. A huge project that the US has founded is the SunShot Initiative. According to energy.gov, “The SunShot Initiative drives research, manufacturing, and market solutions to make the abundant solar energy resources in the United States more affordable and accessible to Americans.” The SunShot Initiative has funded over 350 projects including photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, balanjng system costs, system integration, and technology to the market. This Initiative’s goals is to make solar energy available and affordable to families and businesses while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating jobs.

Here is a video explaining the SunShot Initiative:

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In the US, SunShot would like for the price of solar electricity to reach $0.06 per kilowatt-hour and this will help solar generated power to grow from 0.05% to 14% by 2030. It is not as much as Germany, but the US has taken major steps toward a safer and less hazardous way to generate electricity for their country. Other countries are also increasing their use of solar energy which in turn, helps our planet.

 

References:

Top 6 Countries Using Solar Energy

https://joinmosaic.com/what-is-solar-energy/

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/leaders-in-alternative-energy-germany-turns-on-world-s-biggest-solar-power-project-a-643961.html

http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/about

Blog #7: Generator Experiment 10.3.14

For this lab, we were testing Faraday’s Law which states that changing magnetic fluxes through coiled wired generate electricity. To test that law, we used a generator tube with a magnet that moves back and forth inside the coil of wire. This will show that the faster we shake the tube, the greater the generated voltage will be. The tube was connected to a NXT adaptor and motor which was connected to the computer program, Labview VI. The task was to relate the number of shakes in 30 seconds with the voltages that the generator produces.

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In Excel, Labview recorded our voltages of each shake. After that, we had to square the voltages and take the sum of it to calculate the sum of the squares of the voltages.

The trials were difficult at first because the voltages would not match up with the number of shakes. It was also challenging to count the number of shakes when the person was shaking the generator tube really fast so the data might have been incorrect. It took a few trials to get the voltage and the number of shakes in a correct order.

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