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The President’s Climate Action Plan 

The Obama Administration seems to have a firm grasp on goals and dedication to the decline of carbon pollution in America. The administration promised to reduce green house gas emissions by about 17 % by 2020. The plan is broken up into three large parts, Cutting carbon pollution in America, preparing he u.s. for impacts of climate change and leading international efforts for climate change

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Part three of the plan to cut carbon pollution is cutting energy waste in homes, businesses and factories. To reduce energy bills for American families and businesses the Obama administration concentrated on energy efficiency in urban developments. New standards will be put in place for a minimum efficiency standard for house hold appliances to cut consumer’s electricity bills. The better buildings challenge is focused on helping commercial and industrial buildings to become both more energy and cost efficient.

Another aspect to Obamas plan is to Reducing Methane emissions because it accounts for about 9 percent of domestic green house gas emissions. Although our methane emissions have declined since 1990, multiple groups are assessing emissions data and identifying technologies to reduce emissions more. The Administration is taking a collaborative approach to reducing emissions. reducing methane gas in coal mines, landfills, agriculture, as well as oil and gas developments. Obama will work collaboratively with state governments as well as private sectors to improve air quality.

Expanding Clean Energy use and cutting energy waste is part of the administrations goal of targeting resources towards renewables by participating in the sustainable energy for all initiative. The efforts of this energy for all include natural gas, where they partnering state and private companies and launch a program to share the best practices on issues like water management, methane emissions, air quality and much more of the issues faced when Fracking for natural gas. Nuclear power is also a factor the U.S. will promote nuclear power worldwide. the us is advising international partners on the best and safest practices when it comes to  nuclear waste, storage, training, regulations and more. the U.S. wants to promote safe nuclear energy worldwide and maximize safety and nonproliferation. Next Clean coal is a focus, the U.S. is working with other countries that relay more heavily on coal to clean the production of energy by this means. We led the carbon sequestration leadership forum where 23 other countries are involved with these technologies. Lastly as a part of expanding clean energy the Obama administration is aggressively pushing bilateral programs to be cost effective and higher performance. they wants to improve building efficiency, reduce energy consumption at water waste treatment facilities and expanding global standards for efficiency.

Science and Technology of Fuel Cells:

The first fuel cell was built in 1839 by Sir William Grove, since then NASA and GM began fuel cell developments.

Fuel cells produce energy chemically without combustion called an electrochemical process. There are many different ways and chemicals that can create fuel cell energy. Some of the main ones include… “alkaline fuel cell (AFC), proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC), and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)”. Each type of chemical reaction or fuel cell has its own Electrolyte, Catalyst, operating temperature and electrical efficiency.

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There are some definite perks to fuel cells, there is zero to low emissions, the production of fuel omits no hydrogen and if it does it is low leveled. Noise emissions are also low as well as the fact that fuel cell cars are the least polluting of other fuel run cars.  Fuel cells are highly efficient because they do not burn fuel they are naturally more efficient than combustion processes. Fuel cells are flexible, secure, domestic and durable. Fuel cells can be used as uninterrupted power supply packs back up cell towers in remote places.

Fuel cells run on hydrogen the most available gas on the planet, but it does not occur naturally on its own it is usually with other elements. This mean it needs to be extracted from either non renewable and renewable sources.  It is also the lightest element and tends to be in pairs. Hydrogen can be stored as either liquid or solids. Fuels cells have two electrodes in contact with a material that can conduct ions, called an electrolyte. Electrons are released from the hydrogen that is supplied to the anode. Electrodes in hydrogen fuel cells are relatively stable since they act as catalysts in the release or acceptance of electrons and are not chemically changed during this process.

Cells can be used to power homes but you cant buy a fuel cell to power your home, that technology has not been made available yet. BUT ! in some countries like Japan fuel cells are used and can be bought to fuel homes. The main application for fuel cells is for vehicles. fuel cell vehicles are viable options to battery powered cars, internal combustion engines and hybrids. They have no tailpipe emissions, because they avoid combustion and therefore use less fuel making them more efficient. To power hydrogen fuel cell vehicles generation stations have hydrogen onsite or receive shipments of hydrogen via truck or pipeline. Over 100 hydrogen fueling stations are currently operating around the world.

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Fuel cell technology is on the rise manipulating catalyst in fuel cell technologies is a way to improve efficiency. scientist are working on microbial fuel cells and many more new fuel cell technologies. Microbial fuel cells use the catalyst reaction of microorganisms and convert organic matter into fuel.

http://sepuplhs.org/high/hydrogen/hydrogen.html

http://www.fuelcells.org/base.cgim?template=faq

http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/basics.htm

Our tour of the nuclear reactor started as we went through a long process of checking in, we all had to have our government issued id’s  and they asked us if we had ever taken nuclear medicine. we where not aloud to bring gum, cell phones or anything in. we where given a small Geiger counter which the levels where measured before and after be went on the tour to make sure our radiation exposure was minimum. our tour guide, a younger guy really relatable and easy to understand, also wore a detector that would beep like a traditional Geiger counter if radiation levels got too high. And this was all before we even stepped through the door!

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We then worked our way into a chamber that separated the outside of the reactors dome to the inside one of only two ways to get inside the dome. It dropped in pressure slightly and we all packed in the small chamber like sardines. Some of us felt like we where lifting off in a rocket, this experience seemed surreal for some reason, like something you’d see in the movies. The reactor itself was not critical (active) at the time because of repair. Our guide said that they usually have the reactor active for three month intervals to do experiments then shut it down for updates and repair. The MIT reactor is not used to power our city, it does not produce enough energy to do so. Instead they use it strictly for educational purposes. Surprisingly we learned that they do a lot with hospitals eradiating samples for them and that’s mainly how the financially support the reactor. It was easy to tell the facilities where built a long time ago, I was surprised to find that such a efficient type of power was not stream lined and  modern looking. We where shown many interesting aspects within the dome of the reactor. the control room was interesting and two people where watching a series of monitors at all times. It was interesting to see all the ways they handle the nuclear material and how the fission process can be used for more than just making electricity.

The most interesting part of the tour for me was when he was explaining how they had an experiment that used a radioactivity to kill cancer cells like melanoma off the skin. My mom works at a skin cancer surgery center so I know enough about the process of having skin cancer removed and what he was explaining seemed like an interesting and plausible way to kill skin cancer cells, like freezing off a wart. Unfortunately this process would be incredibly expensive and would probably never be implemented. Our tour guide also said that MIT had great success with this experiment but other test facilities did not.

Upon leaving everyone (except for me) stepped on to another radiation detector and stuck their hands inside as well to make sure nothing we walked on or touched had radiation levels. my shoes couldn’t go on the machine so I had to be “frisked” our tour guide waved a hand held detector over my hands and feet. Then we all had to wave our hands and feet over yet another detector before leaving. They sure are cautious at MIT!

Overall it was really cool and interesting to actually be able to go inside the dome of a nuclear reactor. I learned a great deal because our tour guide was so good at explaining what I assume are simple things to him. Without having taken this class I would have never had the opportunity to go on a tour like this and learn so much. despite me being an art student this ALMOST made science look cool.

In this documentary mainly experts who used to be anti – nuclear talking about both sides of the argument for and against nuclear power to show how nuclear power has had many misconceptions and the facts can change a anti -nuclear activists minds. As a summary of some of the points made in this movie. Experts like Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas an activist and environmentalist, Michael schelenberg, Richard Rhoads, Stewart Brand and Len Koch. Koch was the pioneer nuclear engineer for the argon national lab.  This lab on December, 20th 1951 lit a light bulb with nuclear energy and started the nuclear energy movement. Those against nuclear energy in the beginning of the documentary argued that solar, wind, geothermal and ocean thermal are renewable energy sources available to us now and that no other energy source can leave such large areas contaminated like in the Fukushima Disaster. During this time fear of a nuclear fall out and the bad reputation nuclear energy was getting from the use of the nuclear bomb made the nation think of nuclear as primarily a weapon. This early nuclear opposition is thwarted by facts that nuclear is an unlimited source of energy and one pound of uranium is equal to 5,000 barrels of oil.

Rhoads explained that there are two types of nuclear reactors:

1. Breeder which uses and reuses its own supply of plutonium

2. light water reactors produce much more waste and where marketed first as a stepping stone for the use of the breeder but the commercialization of the nuclear reactors did not account for the amount of waste coming from these light water reactors. although later in the movie they claim that the waste is contained and is not causing any problems and that all the spent fuel would fit into a football field seized space and only 1/4th of that would have a life span that would negatively effect us.

In 1956 in Pennsylvania the first commercial nuclear plant opened mainly because of the cleaner option of nuclear power. When three mile island occurred here and shortly before a movie called China Syndrome came out  in which apocalyptic results from a nuclear fall out happened (a hole so big it cut to china, regardless of the fact that China is not geographically on the opposite side of the world) fear arose again from the nation about nuclear plants. Fear began to shut down reactors as a result of three mile island.

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In 1997 the Kyoto Protocol happened trying to make a unified world decision about what to do regarding  global warming,  by now widely accepted as fact. this created a “seductive narrative” that lowering emissions would happen just like the graphs shown during the conference. It was proposed to make fossil fuels more expensive which most people knew would not happened realistically. No global treaty could be made resulting in a lack of action taken world wide to aid in global warming.

It is at this point in the documentary that we really see pople like Gwyneth Cravens change their mind about nuclear energy. It is the gap between fossil fuels and renewables that make people like her take a second look at nuclear as a viable option for energy reform. It is problems with wind and solar energy not working all the time and being dependent on nature that nullify them as able to be used on a larger energy scale. Not to mention that nuclear is the second safest resource after wind and is surprisingly safer than solar panels which are highly dangerous to make!

We now realize that there is a correlation between quality of life and access to electricity, as quality of life rise in places like China and Brazil energy demands rise as well. By 2050 we need to replace the infrastructure of energy in order to keep up with the growing demand of energy and the growing population of the world with access to energy.

Also shockingly surprising was that coal is said to be the fastest growing use for energy and that most people don’t understand the extreme risks of burring coal or the death rates. 3,000,000 people die each year from it !

Perhaps the most potent point I think made in this documentary was the levels of naturally occurring radiation. If you eat one banana a day you will get more radiation poisoning than if you drank the tritium water that comes from a power plant. Background radiation effects all of us all the time ! A zero tolerance for radiation doesn’t make any sense according to one expert, all over the world we usually get more radiation naturally than we would from a power plant. We have seen no correlation between people who live in naturally occurring high background radiation areas and cancer.

On the other hand we have seen that when a nuclear reactor goes wrong it goes very wrong like with Chernobyl in April of 1986  the surrounding town was evacuated and is still mostly a ghost town frozen in time. Although the reality of Chernobyl is different than the perceptions we have gotten from the media. the death tolls are way less than reported by most anti- nuclear protesters but there is solid evidence from multiple certified organization that the death toll for Chernobyl is below 100. Chernobyl’s style of reactor was inherently unsafe and could have been prevented, there is no reactor in the west made from this style. In addition Radiation levels in Chernobyl in 2012 where .92 lower than the natural background levels measured in Brazil or lower than the levels we receive when we fly on a plane.

Efforts have been made to create a fool and accident proof reactor. in the 80’s they designed a reactor that could resist any accident that could happen and they tested this IFR in the circumstances of Fukushima and three mile island which all had problems with cooling systems which caused the disasters in the first place. The IFR reactor can shut itself down automatically with no action required  making it impossible to have a melt down plus it recycles its energy again and again in the breeder design above. Unfortunately for the supporters of projects like the yucca mountain dispose site or the IFR style reactor, these program got shut down due to government politics and the disagreement between republican and democrats.

We now look to France’s model for nuclear energy to solve our energy problems. 80% of France’s energy is nuclear making it the greenest country. Per capita it produces only 5 tons of carbon monoxide where Germany produces 10 tons.

This documentary gave an all inclusive look into how attitudes for and against nuclear energy has changed since the 50’s it is clear that it is up to this generation to decide weather to revolutionize the energy system by switching to nuclear or not. It is certainly clear we must do something about global warming, unfortunately nuclear energy still has it pros and cons in the eyes of some. Overall the documentary was incredibly engaging and I enjoyed it even though I didn’t think I would. they made valid points throughout and was clearly in support of nuclear energy. I’m still a bit skeptical if all the information is valid but certainly made me stop and think about the pros and cons of nuclear energy.

Tom as a public speaker was engaging, funny and easy to understand so the presentation he gave on radiation was interesting and I learned a great deal.  Mostly We spoke about how the uses for elements like Raydon, Radium and Plutonium where not known to have negative effects in the past and where used in everyday life even consumed which lead to radiation poisoning or cancers in the people effected.

Radio Active elements are constantly slowly changing its chemical make up therefore are unstable. All radio active elements will decay into lead it is this decay process that lets out radioactive particles and can harm humans.

The process if decaying into lead that these elements go through involves a process called half life. it is the time in years that it takes to reduce that element in half. the shorter half life the more dangerous the element is because it gives off more radiation.

1Ib or Uranium -238 has a half life of 4.5 x 10 to the 9th years or 4.5 billion years

There are three different types of Radioactive particles:

Alpha which has the least amount of energy and you could easily stop it with cardboard or paper, it has 2 protons and 2 neutrons

Beta which is all electrons can penetrate deeper and are stronger than alpha

Gama Rays which are a single high energy wave that are highly dangerous and can go through just about anything.

He spoke about Marie Curie, who won two Nobel prizes, and her husband who discovered Polonium and Radium and was constantly working with uranium ore and died of a plastic anemia.

This shows the dangers of being around radioactive elements, when you ingest radioactive elements it can go right to your bones and cause leukemia. There where no federal administration in power to check that what was being consumed was safe. Many manufactures made things with radioactive elements either not knowing or not caring about the effects.

A Geiger counter is a tool to measure radiation in an object tom used this to shoe us numerable examples of how radiation was poisoning a lot of things around the 1950’s

ex. fiesta ware that made plates, vases and other household items used a color called radioactive orange. they used a uranium glaze for color and if ingested could cause serious health problems.

ex. uranium glass are Florissant under UV light and gives a beautiful color so was used in many other house hold items.

In the 1940’s pockets watches came out with radium in it so it would glow. The woman and young girls making these watches had to paint the radium on and found it was easier to run the brush in between their lips to paint quicker and easier. This cased the women’s teeth o fall out and tumors to occur and eventually they all died from radiation poisoning.

Tom spoke also about a few of the nuclear disasters and bombs in the past. like the gun bomb a simple pile of U-235 that when fired down the barrel of a gun explodes.

the Plutonium bomb which can be called 10,000 bombs because after it was dropped nuclear proliferation happened and many died from radiation poisoning and genetic mutations occurred as well.

tom had so many interesting insight and knowledge about nuclear reactors, bombs and radiation I certainly learned all this and much more durring his presentation.

On March 11th 2011 a  major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 shook Japan, shortly after a tsunami destroyed much of the area.  Eleven nuclear reactors at four nuclear power plants shut down immediately after the earth quake and further inspection had shown that all eleven had no damage from the earthquake. Over 100,000 people had to be evacuated fro their homes to ensure that no one would suffer from radiation sickness. The main problem initially centered in Fukushima Daiichi units 1-3 when all three cores melted when the tsunami cut off power supply and cooling system to Daiichi. When this happened the heat exchangers started  dumping reactor waste heat and decay heat to the sea. At 7.03 pm Friday 11 March a Nuclear Emergency was declared due to the lack of access they had to the power plant to fix the system damaged and the knowledge of a nuclear meltdown. visible explosions,  caused by hydrogen gas, in units 1 and 3 and a suspected explosion in unit 2 caused Radiation to be released and food, water and air supply to be polluted with radiation.

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• On April 9, 2013 radioactive water leaked from the storage units contaminating the soil and water nearby.
• On July 9, 2013,  officials reported that Radioactive Caesium was 90 times higher than it was previously.  the Caesium-134 levels in the well water were at 9,000 becquerels per Litre, 150 times the legal level, while Caesium-137 measured 18,000 becquerels, 200 times the permitted level.
• On August 7, 2013,  highly radioactive water was leaking into the Pacific Ocean at a rate of 300 tons (about 272 metric tons) per day.

The effects of the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown are still in effect today radiation spread throughout the world from this tragedy.

this picture shows radiation permeating the sea

After Fukushima Japan decided they needed to revaluate their use of energy and be more prepared for natural events. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to look less to the no emissions nuclear plants but use more of the countries available resources. Approved by the government in Japan on April 11th is a plan that uses coal as a long term source of electricity. this plan focuses less on clean energy and more on coal because it is inexpensive in nature. It’s understandable that after Fukushima Japans leaders are expected to change the countries approach to energy but there is no way of denying coal will not help global warming.

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

http://mashable.com/2014/03/11/three-years-after-fukushima/

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant

Stirling Heat Engine:

A Stirling Heat Engine is defined as a machine used to provide power or refrigeration, operating on a closed cycle in which a working fluid is cyclically compressed and expanded at different temperatures.

A Stirling engine is a heat engine invented by Robert Stirling in 1816 and are used in submarines and  auxiliary powered generators for yachts. Because of its potential to be more efficient than a regular engine, Stirling engines are being looked at as a potential alternative to diesel engines. They are also really quiet because they don’t use exhaust valves.

Unlike regular engines this uses the Stirling cycle. A fixed amount of gas is inside the Stirling engine, the cycle changes pressures of the gas causing it to work. unlike the regular combustion engines that make gas combust with a burst of energy over and over. By heating and cooling the gas inside the Stirling engine the temperature increases and decreases. By cycling heating and cooling the gas allows a piston to move the gas through cylinders. Pistons are pushed back and fourth when he gas is heated or cooled and the cycle happens again and again.

This cycle seems like a feasible way to reduce exhaust from regular engines but the actual use of this engine has some problems.

Because the two cylinders have to be heated and cooled by an external source of energy it takes a while for the engine to respond to changes in temperature and therefore would take a long time to start working. I could imagine on a cold New England morning starting your car would be  a hassle if we used these types of engines.

Here is a great how it works video on Stirling engines :

Thermoelectric, or Peltier Cooling Modules:

used really commonly in refrigeration, cooling, and dehumidifiers. Thermoelectric is based on the Peltier effect is the presence of heating or cooling at an electrified junction of two different conductors and is named after Jean Charles Athanase Peltier in 1834.

This picture shows how wires are attached to sides of a battery using different types of wire, copper and bismuth, this is the Peltier effect. When current flows through the copper to the bismuth wire, heat is produced and vice versa creates cold.
The effect od this passing of thermal heat produces energy that is readily available for use. Implementation of Peltier’s  heating and cooling effect  that occurs when electric current goes through a conductor is used in many different modern day appliances like the refrigerator.

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_effect

Iceland is the perfect storm of geothermal-fields of energy. Because of the country’s placement over 200 volcanos, when the volcanos are more active heat is produced and rises to the earths surface easily accessible. Iceland is also the most sparsely populated country in Europe with only 325,671 people. These variables makes it easy for Iceland to have more than 25 % of the countries energy rely on geothermal or energy produced by the heat of the earth. Iceland is still conscientious with the rest of the energy supply. About 75% is hydro power and only 1% is fossil fuels making it so they are very environmentally clean and sustainable.

There are five major power stations in Iceland:

1. Hellisheiði Power Station (303 MW)
2. Reykjanes Power Station (100 MW)
3. Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station (120 MW)
4. Svartsengi Power Station (76.5 MW)
5. Krafla Power Station (60 MW)

The biggest power station is Hellisheiði  and is the largest geothermal power station in the world and it has the capacity to produce 303 MW of electricity and 400 MW of hot water. This power station uses two turbines and a low pressure steam turbine to extract thermal energy through pressurized steam.

Iceland uses these stations for direct utilization of the heat generated by powering green houses, heat pumps, heating water for bathing, fishing and even snow melting and about 9/10 households are heated with geothermal energy.

Here is a breakdown of how Iceland uses geothermal directly:

Iceland is now making an effort to sustain utilization, a “stepwise development” has been implemented. This method looks at the individual geothermal systems and assesses the maximum use of the system. It also looks at minimizing long term costs. This has all been thought out to improve sustainability and productivity with each individual power station.

Iceland seems to be really thinking ahead and maintaining their spot as one of the most sustainable countries. In the future they plan a deep drilling project where magma is used to produce even higher energy outputs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellishei%C3%B0i_Power_Station

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_Iceland

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2013/03/geothermal-energy-in-iceland-too-much-of-a-good-thing

This Solar Cell lab was the most interesting and easy to understand labs yet. The goal was to record how much energy is emitted when a flash light is held to a solar cell, the distance away our flash light was, is our variable.

For the first part of the lab we recorded the distance away from the solar cell and changes in voltages. In ten second intervals we recorded changes in voltage by the solar cell. First we recorded the solar cell when there was no light coming through, face down on the table to show our starting data point. After that we recorded the voltage when the flash light was directly against our solar panel. By doing these two things it gives us a range in which we can expect our data points to fall.

After changing the distance away we held our flash light for ten seconds, we averaged the voltage for each second to receive one data point. by doing this we can create a visual representation of the decrease in  average voltages when we increase the distance our flash light is from the solar cell, therefore decreasing light intensity.

Our data points for our four trials are as follows:

The second half of the lab included getting data points when the flashlight was directly against the solar cell but with changing colored films in front of the solar cell. We did this to see the impact of color in relation to its wavelengths to the energy received by the solar cell. This concept is based on our in class lecture. we can see below that color has a huge impact on wavelengths of light red yellow and orange produce longer wavelengths while violet and blue produce shorter ones.

Our colored sheets where green, blue , yellow and pink. We could already predict that the pink and yellow sheets would produce longer wave lengths, therefore more voltage. Similarly to out first part of the lab we recorded ten data points and averaged them to get a single data point for each color. these results can be seen bellow.

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through this lab we can understand how both distance and color have an effect on solar cells intensity.