On March 11th 2011 a 9.0 earthquake hit Japan. Shortly thereafter the earthquake triggered an tsunami. This caused wreakage to houses, building and entire communities. The earthquake triggered a loss of external power to the nuclear power plant at Fukushima power plant. The tsunami flooded the back up generators which caused a complete loss of power anf failure to cooling systems.

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami began a fatal chain reaction. The earthquake caused damage to everything, the tsunami flooded everything. Because of this, the reactors began to overheat with no cooling systems. Nuclear fuel melted in reactors#1, #2, and #3. Damaged fuel led to a build up of hydrogen gas, and eventually, explosions in reactors #1, #3 and #4. The estimated amount of radioactive caesium the was sent into the atmosphere by the explosions was equivilent to 168 Hiroshima bombs. Because of this the nuclear disaster was rated a level 7 (the highest level) on the International Nuclear Evenrt scale.

 A year later after government investiagation the disaster was named as a “man-made disaster” and not a disaster that occured because of the earthquake or tsunami;  claming that those that were responsible for the reactor were negligent. The plant operator admitted to knowing that the reactors would not hold up if a tsunami were to strike. The operator admitted that the design limits would not withstand either of these events, and it was known years before this disaster occured. Unfortunately, nothing was ever done to update this plant to be able to withstand the potential of these natural disasters, and therefore the plant operators are responsible.

The aftermath of the radioactive explosions displaced 160,000 people from their homes. The contaimination site will be closed for decades. After the explosion, the ocean water was tested for levels of ceasium. It was found that the seawater had levels 50 million times higher than before the disaster. The full effects of this disaster will not be known for decades.

As a result, countries around the world began reevaulating their own nuclear reactors. Germany vowed to completely shut down its nuclear plants all together, and to never go back to nuclear energy. In Japan the citizens are largly opposed to nuclear energy, and rightfully so. As many other countries witness the devestation, it should be asked if their nuclear reactors would withstand the unforseeable forces of nature? And is nuclear energy is really as beneficial as compared to its hazards?

The Stirling Engine

The Stirling engine was invented in 1816 by Robert Stirling. The Stiriling engine has the potential to be much more efficient than an internal-combustion engine that is found in your car. The Stirling engine uses the Stirling cycle to create engery. The gasses in this engine never leave the the engine. Stirling cycle uses an external heat source. A fixed amount of gas is sealed inside the engine. The Stiriling cycle involves a series of events that change the pressure of the gas inside the engine, causing it do work.

The Stirling Cycle

1. Heat is added to the gas inside the heated cylinder (left), causing pressure to build. This forces the piston to move down. This is the part of the Stirling cycle that does the work.
2. The left piston moves up while the right piston moves down. This pushes the hot gas into the cooled cylinder, which quickly cools the gas to the temperature of the cooling source, lowering its pressure. This makes it easier to compress the gas in the next part of the cycle.
3. The piston in the cooled cylinder (right) starts to compress the gas. Heat generated by this compression is removed by the cooling source.
4. The right piston moves up while the left piston moves down. This forces the gas into the heated cylinder, where it quickly heats up, building pressure, at which point the cycle repeats.

The Stirling engine only makes energy during the first part of the cycle. To increase the output in stage one you must increase the pressure. One way to do this would be by increaing the temperature of the gas.

Peltier Junction

The Peltier effect was a discovery made after joining copper wire and bismuth wire together and connected them to to a battery. When the battery was turned on the one of the wires got cold and the other got hot. If the cold wire is place inside an insulated box it became a low-efficiency refrigerator. This is the extact effect that allows for a refigerator to run.

Mendocino Motor

A Mendocino Motor is a solar powered magnetically levitated motor. The base consists of five sets of magnets. The four magnets in the base must be levitation magnets which provides force against the magnets in the shaft. The fifth magnet is a field magnet that provides the magnetic force to the rotor. On the rotor block there are four solar cells. The rotor is levitated by repelling force between the shaft magnets and the magnets on the base. What is key is the back plate that is a piece of glass which is used as the bearing plate. The levitation magnet provides a forward thrust to keep the shaft against the bearing plate. When light stikes one of the solar cells it generates an electric current energizing the rotor. This produces and electromagnetic field with interacts with the field magents in the base, thus which causes the rotar to rotate.

Nice, Karim. “Stirling Engines” http://auto.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine1.htm

Vale, Tom. “Mendocino Motors” http://mtinfopage.com/mendocin.htm

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-peltier-effect.htm#didyouknowout