November 28, 2011

Good Morning,

An exciting article outlines a potential alternative fuel source; find it in the second article. Also, see how president Sarkozy of France responds to protests against nuclear fuel in the third article.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Airport shoe scanner in development

GAITHERSBURG, Md. - U.S. researchers say they've developed a sampling system that can collect particles from shoes and suck them away for analysis in airport security gates. The technology could lead to efficient and unobtrusive screening for trace amounts of explosives on airline passengers without causing frustration among inconvenienced fliers, a release from the American Institute of Physics said. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology said they've developed several different versions of the system. "One particular device is a kiosk-style instrument that people step into, never having to physically remove their shoes for sampling," NIST engineer Matthew Staymates said. "Air jets are located in strategic locations and used to dislodge particles from the shoe surface, and a large blower establishes a bulk flow field that ensures all liberated particles are transported in the appropriate direction." For commercial use, the sampling system, which can collect particles in just 6 to 7 seconds, would have to be combined with a particle collection device and a chemical analyzer, Staymates said. "Incorporating a particle collection device and chemical analyzer would certainly be possible in the current prototype, but it was outside of the scope of the project," he said. "NIST's role was to uncover the fundamental connection between fluid dynamics and trace aerodynamic sampling, and use our findings to help in the development of next-generation sampling approaches."


Thorium shows promise for nuclear power

SYDNEY - Thorium has great potential as an alternative to uranium for nuclear fuel, experts say. Reza Hashemi-Nezhad, director of the Institute of Nuclear Science at the University of Sydney, for more than a decade has spoken of the advantages of thorium when used in an accelerator-driven nuclear reactor that operates at sub-critical conditions, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. "It is completely proven and feasible," Hashemi-Nezhad told the newspaper. An accelerator-driven nuclear reactor, or ADS, uses thorium as fuel and doesn't produce plutonium. The institute on its Web site says a thorium-fueled nuclear reactor can incinerate its own nuclear waste as well as the waste produced from existing conventional nuclear reactors. "You cannot have an accident similar to Chernobyl," Hashemi-Nezhad said, although he made no reference to Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. "It does not produce weapon-grade materials. And the nuclear waste is much less toxic than from a standard reactor." Professor Bob Cywinski, dean of applied sciences and chairman of the Thorium Energy Amplifier Association at the United Kingdom's University of Huddersfield, in a recent editorial in The Australian newspaper said just 5,000 tons of thorium could generate the entire energy needs of the world for a whole year. Four times more abundant than uranium, he claims, there is enough thorium available in known deposits to provide energy for 10,000 years. Australia, he says, is estimated to hold 25 percent of the world's thorium deposits and India has "substantial" deposits as well. Cywinski says almost since the start of the nuclear age, thorium had been regarded as a potential nuclear fuel. But because thorium was not able to produce plutonium for the military, Cywinski wrote, without referring to any specific governments, it was dropped at the height of the Cold War. India is among countries actively pursuing thorium-based nuclear technology, but it is using a process that mixes thorium with specially bred plutonium. It expects to have a prototype nuclear power plant running by the end of the decade.


Sarkozy backs nuke industry amid protests

PARIS, Nov - French President Nicolas Sarkozy reiterated his support for his country's nuclear energy industry despite a wave of protests and political opposition. Sarkozy, visiting a nuclear plant in Pierrelatte, France, Friday, shrugged off the spectacle of fierce protests in his country and Germany along the route of a nuclear waste-carrying train to argue that abandoning the nuclear industry would deal the economy a harsh jolt. The French president said following Germany's lead in phasing out nuclear energy isn't a realistic or desirable goal, The Wall Street Journal reported. "Stopping the development and modernization of our nuclear sector would be a fatal blow to our competitiveness of our economy," Sarkozy said. The nation's nuclear industry "is a considerable economic and strategic strength for France. Destroying it would have dramatic consequences," he added. France is the most nuclear-power dependent country in Europe with 58 reactors providing 75 percent of the country's electric generating capacity. The plants' safety has long been a point of national pride for France but the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has eroded the bipartisan support the industry has long held.


Zuma: Climate change matter of life, death

DURBAN, South Africa - The United Nations' climate change summit began Monday in Durban, South Africa, with calls for compromise and commitments to rein in global carbon emissions. Delegates urged wealthy countries to help shoulder responsibility for polluting the atmosphere by providing funds to developing countries as part of a long-term response to global warming, the South African government news service BuaNews reported. The official name of the summit is the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP17. South African President Jacob Zuma greeted the more than 15 000 delegates, who will meet for the next two weeks to discuss long-term climate cooperation. "Climate change can no longer be treated as just an environmental problem. It is a matter of life and death," Zuma said. "We also feel strongly that as an African conference, the COP17 outcome must recognize that solving the climate problem cannot be separated from fighting poverty," he said. Africa committed to reduce carbon emissions by 34 percent in 2020 and 42 percent in 2025, Zuma said. Expectations are low for a comprehensive and legally binding agreement at the conference, but delegates said they were hopeful of making some progress on certain issues.

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