Monthly Archives: March 2014

President’s Obama Initiatives To Help Climate Change

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      One of the goals that Obama is trying to take is to reduce greenhouse emissions.  As it’s stated in the article he made a commitment to reduce the U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The Obama Administration has made progress by doubling generation of electricity from wind, solar, and geothermal, and by establishing historic new fuel economy standards. This can help President Obama achieve his goal by 2020.

One of the initiatives Obama is trying to take is to build a 21st– Century Transportation Sector. Heavy-duty vehicles are currently the second largest source of greenhouse emissions within the transportation sector. In 2011, the Obama Administration finalized the first-ever fuel economy standards for model year 2014-2018 for heavy-duty trucks, buses, and vans. These standards will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 270 million metric tons and save 530 million barrels of oil. During its second term, the President’s Administration will partner again with industry leaders and other key stakeholders to develop post-2018 fuel economy standards for heavy-duty vehicles to further reduce fuel consumption through the application of advanced cost-effective technologies and continue efforts to improve the efficiency of moving goods across the U.S.

Biofuels have an important role to play in increasing our energy security, fostering rural economic development, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. The Department of Energy’s eGallon informs drivers about electric car operating costs in their state.

Another initiative President Obama is taking is cutting energy waste in homes, businesses, and factories. Energy efficiency is one of the clearest and most cost-effective opportunities to save families money, make our businesses more competitive, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He is firstly trying to establish a goal for energy efficiency standards, then to reduce barriers to investment in energy efficiency, after expanding the president’s better buildings challenge.

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Another step that Obama is trying to take is to preserve the role of forests in mitigating climate change. The forests in the United States play scathing role in addressing carbon pollution, removing nearly 12% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions each year. As our forests stay alive and become bigger the percent of removal becomes larger. When facing the change of climate it increases the risk of wildfire, drought, and pests, and the capacity of the forests to absorb carbon gets smaller. Pressures to develop forest lands for urban or agricultural uses also contribute to decline to forest carbon sequestration. Conservation and sustainable management can help to ensure our forests continue to remove carbon from the atmosphere while also improving soil and water quality, reducing wildfire risk, and otherwise managing forests to be more resilient in the fact of climate change. The Administration is working to identify new approaches to protect and restore our forests, as well as other critical landscapes including grasslands and wetlands, in the face of a changing climate.
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MIT Nuclear Reactor

The MIT Nuclear Research Reactor is one of the most popular reactors in the United States. It serves the purpose of research and information for students and scientists. It started functioning in 1958 and its construction begun in July 1956. It took 2 year to be put in function. It took $3 million dollars to be built but now it serves its purpose. Its built out of aluminum alloy and it uses light water for cooling. The MIT Nuclear Reactor needs to be refueled every 3 months. It operates in Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is considered top first university in the United States.

The MIT Nuclear Reactor is a type 6 MW reactors; it operates a high research reactors known as the MITR-II. It is one of the most known laboratories in the United States and is considered the second largest university research in the United States.  It focuses on nuclear fission engineering, material science, and radiation affects in biology and medicine, neutron physics, geochemistry, and environmental studies. It supported educational training and also research for scientists. Here, students can be directly involved in the “development and implementation of nuclear engineering experimental programs with neutron flux levels comparable to power reactors”. The staff at the Nuclear Research Reactor laboratory is really open-minded and offers help to university students, high school students and also graduate students involving school projects. It also provides assistance to university research, faculty members and national laboratory users. This laboratory is fully equipped with experimental facilities available to users from inside and outside the MIT University.

 

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The MIT Nuclear Reactor utilizes flat, plate-type, finned, aluminum clad fuel elements and it also uses light water for cooling. It is a heavy water reflected. The average core power density is 70kW per liter. “The maximal fast and thermal neutron flux available to experimenters are 1.2*10 to the power 14 and 6*10 to the 13th power neutrons/cm2-s. The lab is equipped with a big number of safety features as negative reactivity temperature coefficients of both the fuel and moderator; a negative void coefficient of reactivity; the location of the core within two concentric tanks the use of anti-siphon valves to isolate the core from the effect of breaks in the coolant piping; a core-tank design that promotes natural circulation in the event of a loss-of-flow accident; and the presence of a full containment. The experimental facilities that are available the research reactor contains two medical irradiation rooms, beam ports, automatic transfer facilities. The lab operates 24/7.

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Source

http://web.mit.edu/nrl/www/reactor/reactor.htm

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

Pandora’s Promise-Main Ideas-

Pandora’s Promise starts off with a two speakers. They are both trying to appeal to our president, Obama, in the attempt of trying to send him a message about stopping the use of nuclear plants.

Mostly of the journalists and anti nuclear activists were against nuclear powers. Some of them were became pro nuclear power because of others that were convinced that what they thought, nuclear power being bad wasn’t that bad after all.

In the 1950’s there were two kinds of nuclear reactors. The Brita Reactor, which breads plutonium and recycles over and over again. The Light Water Reactor is much more simple, but produces more waste, and it was chosen by Admiral Rickover to be the reactor for the submarine. But with Rickover’s influence, the light water reactor became the principal reactor all over the world.

What scientists considered to be real long-range future for nuclear power, was, the Brita reactor.

President Eisenhower decided to share the benefits of nuclear energy with other countries, it was called Adam’s four piece.

The first commercial nuclear power plant was built in Shipping port Pennsylvania in 1956. They wanted it there because there was already a lot of pollution, so the citizens saw it as it is, another pollutant added to the city. It was a modified version of a submarine reactor.  The first power reactors were really small.

China Syndrome came out. The idea behind the China Syndrome is that nuclear power plant would melt down and would brow a whole all the way to China-à Cancer.

The countries with the most quality of life are the ones that consume the most electricity, for example New York, Japan, China etc. Even the countries that couldn’t afford having electricity, now they can afford it, so it makes our world more dangerous.

Cole is the fastest growing source of energy. As a result of this, is the most usable source of energy that China and some other countries use. Cole is considered to be one of the worst use of energy and the most dangerous, and as a result millions of people die yearly. Nuclear, as its stated in the movie, is the second safest after wind, even safer than the wind.  Apparently, if you eat bananas you tend to be more exposed to fossil fuels than when you drink a good amount of water.

The explosion of the reactor at Chernobyl had a lot of consequences.  The city was evacuated but some of them came back after a while, thinking that nothing would happen to them.

According to the movie all major explosion of the reactors happened mostly because of inadequate cooling.