Nuclear Waste and Nuclear Energy – resources for papers etc.

This is a set of links you may find helpful for assignments, including your first “paper” for this class.

Good general resources to use for arguments AGAINST or critical of nuclear energy:

Union of Concerned Scientists:  This is a nonprofit, science focused group that, among many other things, collects and publishes materials on nuclear safety violations and public risk.

NEIS:  This is an Illinois-based citizen “watchdog” group that takes an anti-nuclear stance.  Their website is an excellent place to go for current, insider information on what is happening in Illinois energy policy, with the anti-nuclear view.

Good general resources to use SUPPORTING nuclear energy: 

Nuclear Energy Institute:  a U.S. based industry group.  Has general pro-nuclear materials as well as many statistics and facts about the U.S. nuclear energy program (look at the links on the bottom of the page).

World Nuclear Association:  a global nuclear industry group, with comprehensive sets of statistics on nuclear energy usage in every nuclear country.

 

Good Resources for Facts on Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Waste, and Safety Standards (U.S.): 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission  (U.S. government agency responsible for maintaining safe nuclear facilities).

E.P.A.  (U.S. government agency responsible for environmental and public health protection. Sets radiation exposure standards).  This website is difficult to navigate.  Try here for radiation protection information, and here for some useful Yucca Mountain stuff).

D.O.E. (U.S. government agency responsible for governmentally-sponsored research and technology development related to nuclear energy and weapons).  Their nuclear-specific page is here.

A Few Global Resources (I am picking ones that I can find with English web pages):

IAEA:  the United Nations watchdog agency responsible for monitoring global nuclear activities and treaty compliance.  Their nuclear energy page is here. 

NEA:  an international nuclear energy industry group

Japanese Atomic Energy Agency

South Korean Nuclear Energy Agency

 

 

Stitches by David Small

Hey, y’all! This isn’t a news thing, this is a thing about a thing I read. It’s a graphic memoir called Stitches by an author and cartoonist called David Small. I originally read it for my mental health/comics class, but it was unexpectedly relevant to this class as well. Not scientifically, but– uh– let me just tell you what it’s about.

The book (which is a comic/graphic novel) goes back to David’s young life. He was born in 1945 and had a lot of sinus and respiratory problems. His father was a radiologist who believed that radiation could cure his ailments, so he did a lot of radiological stuff to David, which leads to him getting cancer at 14. His parents don’t tell him he has cancer– they lead him to believe it’s just a cyst, and he ends up having two surgeries in which they remove the cyst, but also his thyroid and one of his vocal cords, leaving him mostly mute. There’s more stuff that happens, but that’s the relevant bit… it’s an amazing book with fantastic illustration. I own it if anyone’s interested in reading it, and it’s $5 on Amazon– it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

Anyway, have a good week and stay safe.

— Essie

Anti-nuclear Nobel

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 was awarded to ICAN, an anti-nuclear organization pushing for an international ban on nuclear weapons.  The Nobel committee has a history of awarding Peace Prizes to anti-nuclear advocates, including President Obama in 2009.

Reading about this, I was reminded of a very interesting counter-argument published in Time magazine in 2009 after Obama’s win.  The article argues that nuclear weapons themselves deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.  It is worth a read:  http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1929553,00.html

Radioactive Pups + Canadian Petitioning

I was gonna send in this article about the “radioactive puppies of Chernobyl”, but I saw that someone has it in the drafts? Here it is anyway since I’ve been holding onto it for like a week like an idiot: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9k3kqz/please-do-not-pet-the-radioactive-puppies-of-chernobyl

I don’t know how credible it is or anything, just thought it was interesting.

On another note, some Canadians are petitioning for more research on cell phone radiation. We’ve talked about it in class, so I thought it was funny that Canadians are also… very concerned about this, apparently. The article says they have 16 different petitions about it!: http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/more-canadians-petitioning-the-government-about-fear-of-cellphone-radiation

(Edit: 7 petitions about cell phone radiation, 16 total.)

Anyway– here y’all go! Have fun with these worried Canadians and puppies that are bad to touch!

— Essie

A Man, A Decision, A Nuclear Missile

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41314948

“A later investigation concluded that Soviet satellites had mistakenly identified sunlight reflecting on clouds as the engines of intercontinental ballistic missiles.”

Does these mean that the satellites literally picked up a concentrated area of brighter light? Does brighter light, at that altitude, contain higher levels of cosmic radiation? Could that cosmic radiation be misinterpreted for the radiation of a missile? Do we have satellites that can pick up concentrated areas of high radiation?

 

Louis Vowell