I will read/watch 2 environmentally related articles/videos each week. They will be from a variety of reliable sources.
This goal is eco-chic because it is all related to our environment and what is happening in, on and around it.
I chose this as my goal because I thought it would be a little too easy for me just to recycle or use less water when I do the dishes, and those wouldn't keep me engaged. Getting educated is important to me because I think it is the main starting point for any change, and if I want to be able to help people and our environment, I need to know what is going on. In the past I haven't been very good about staying up-to-date on news.
I am going to begin this goal today by choosing and reading an article from the National Geographic magazine that I subscribe to, when I get home.
(I will update my blog later about said article, but it might be after 5 since I am currently on campus.)
*The article: "Water-cooled Nuclear Power Plants Aren't the Only Option" (National Geographic Magazine, October 2011)*
This article caught my eye because since taking Aspects of Chemistry last semester, I have been more "pro-nuclear". We learned about nuclear power, how it works, it's possible benefits and it's negatives. Unfortunately, the media builds nuclear power up into something very threatening and scary, which it has the potential to be, but with newer and newer technologies being developed, it might be our best option for the future.
Most nuclear power plants today are used with fuel rods of uranium, which are split and produce huge amounts of energy. We control these reactions so that they can only react to a certain point - a point to give us energy, but not a meltdown (normally). But of course, we're human, and we make mistakes - but a mistake of over-heating a power plant can be lethal and explosive, like we saw in Japan recently.
This "new generation of nuclear plants" can't overheat, claims the article. Instead of uranium fuel rods and water, it's uses "pebbles" of of uranium bits dispersed amongst graphite, and helium. Graphite acts as a mediator to the uranium, and helium - which is inert unlike water - is the coolant.
The article quotes Andrew Kadak of MIT, who visited a prototype of these reactors four years ago in China. When the workers turned off the cooling system, it naturally shut down - "It was incredible. Especially in light of Fukushima, this is a reactor that doesn't melt down."
It does mention that waste is still a problem with these pebble-bed reactors, along with fuel storage.
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| "Typical" uranium fuel pellets |
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| Fuel pebbles in the new technology |
