Nuclear power is produced by controlled nuclear reactions, which are non-explosive in nature. Commercial and utility plants currently use nuclear fission reactions to heat water to produce steam, which is then used to generate electricity. Nuclear fusion reactions are safer and generate less radioactive waste than fission. These reactions appear potentially viable, though technically quite difficult and have yet to be created on a scale that could be used in a functional power plant.

Read the full story

Nuclear Energy could be the next big thing to fossil fuels. According to scientists nuclear fission reaction produces massive quantities of power and if this power is harnessed well, it could mean a new dimension to energy. Nuclear plants have been built worldwide with the concept of harnessing nuclear energy for the use of military purposes as well as for other national uses. But an international consent to have nuclear power to replace fossil fuels has yet to reach the stage of development. As now there are six states in the US that have electrical energy through nuclear plants.

A small nuclear plan may generate an electrical limit of 80% which means that a single small plant equals 80% of the fossil power used to generate energy. And the other factor that supports nuclear power is its very limited waste material, which though is not a very good sign. Nuclear wastes are high radio active gases that could mean potential danger, even if it is in a small and limited amount.

Read the full story

Though the world had almost realized the problem of global warming but still there are some who say global warming may or may not be a problem. This “ may” in this issue is creating a lots of hurdles in taking major steps against global warming because if global warming don’t exist and the world apply too much resources to solve that problem which don’t even exist then that will be a great loss of world’s resources and billions of people will have to face then poverty.

On other hand if global warming problem exists and we don’t do anything about it then it will become a disastrous problem for mankind in future. So it is more important to see what steps we can take that would prove beneficial whether or not anthropogenic global warming turns out to be a problem. These steps can be termed “no regrets” policies.

How can be a “No Regrets Global Warming Policy” made? Well a global warming policy can be termed “ no regrets” as long as it:

• When the greenhouse gases amount is reduced being emitted in the atmosphere.
• To make less such things, prevent or reduce harm associated with global warming.
• Providing greater capacity for dealing with problems associated with global warming.
• Making such policies for global warming that wont affect the economy and are beneficial.

Read the full story

There are various environment friendly and renewable energy resources available that offer alternate source of energy and help to nullify the effects of certain forms of pollution. All these power generation techniques can be described as renewable because they are not reducing the quantity of any resources to create the energy.

Here is a list of the top 10 renewable energy resources.

# 1 – Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is obtained through any nuclear technology designed to extract usable energy from atomic nuclei through controlled nuclear reactions. Currently,  only fission nuclear method is used, though other methods might one day include nuclear fusion and radioactive decay.

The reactors heat up the water to produce steam, which is then converted into mechanical work for the purpose of generating electricity or propulsion.

Fourteen percent of the world’s electricity is produced by nuclear energy. U.S. , France, and Japan together account for 56.5% of nuclear generated electricity.

439 nuclear power reactors are in operation around the world in 31 countries. According to the figures of World Nuclear Association during 1980s one new nuclear reactor starts up in every 17 days on average, and this ratio will increase till 2015 up to one reactor every 5 days.

France gets cleanest air than any other industrialized country because of nuclear power, and also cheapest electricity in all of Europe. For reducing mass and making more energy France reprocesses it nuclear waste.

Read the full story

According to a new study, one of the major causes of global warming, the increasing carbon dioxide emissions, cannot be stabilized unless the world’s economy collapses completely or the society successfully generates 300 giga watts of nuclear power annually.

Tim Garrett, who is an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah, has conducted this new study. He has said in the study that it seems unlikely that there will be any substantial near-term departure from the recently observed acceleration in carbon dioxide emission rates.

In order to stabilize the carbon dioxide emissions at current rates, approximately 300 giga watts of power, through some new non-carbon-dioxide-emitting way, is required on a daily basis.

Read the full story

Though there are several other ways of producing electricity, solar panels have some additional advantages not only for the consumers, but producers and environment as well.

Uses of Solar Panels

Solar panels can used to power all kinds of electronic home appliances. This electricity is produced from sunlight and enables you to use it for many devices including solar-powered handheld calculators.

Moreover, it can also be used for street lights and satellites. To produce light during the night, the solar cells charge during the day hours which are then utilized at night.

Read the full story

In Madrid the Environmental group Greenpeace said that they taken legal action against the government and the nuclear regulator for unnecessary delays in setting up a panel on nuclear safety with public participation.

A statement of Greenpeace mentions that legislation provided for the Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee to be constituted by August 2008 in order to issue non-obligatory recommendations to the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) watchdog.

The committee will be consist of almost 20 people that will be having the representatives fro central and local government, utilities, unions, environmental groups and technical experts.

Greenpeace spokesman Carlos Bravo stated that having delay over the creation of the Advisory Committee is because the industry minister and the president of the CSN in fact had prevented the environmental groups from getting relevant first-hand information on safety problems.

Read the full story

Another most important form of energy is Nuclear Energy. Nuclear energy can be defined as the energy that is enclosed in an atom. The fact that was discovered in ancient times regarding matter and energy is that they cannot be created nor destroyed, but the form can be changed. The great formula was first invented by the famous scientist Albert Einstein to change the matter into energy. The formula is as follows:

E = mc2

Here in the formula, E stands for energy equals to ‘m’ which is mass times ‘c2’ where c stands for the velocity or speed of light. ‘’c2’ means the c times c that speed of light raised to the second power or c-squared. This is the most famous equation that Einstein provided to the world to release the atomic energy which is now used to create atomic bombs. Atom’s discovery has a lot of theories attached with it, but the last and the authentic words about atoms is that it is composed of minute particles that are electrons, neutrons and protons that have a defined way to stay around the atom circle. Since we have learned about atom in our previous posts, we are now more interested learn about nuclear fission and Fusion. lets have a look at it.

Read the full story

It is refused by most of the environmentalists to accept the concept that nuclear power is a renewable form of energy because it releases harmful byproducts and depends on heavy industries that use fuel like Uranium.

Though many countries like France are motivated to build such industries that create no wastage and don’t harm environment by giving no or little greenhouse gases, but giving name to the nuclear power as renewable energy could help out the nuclear operators to gain benefit from the policies and obligations served as clean energies like wind, solar, and biomass.

Read the full story

Sweden’s deadline for phasing out nuclear power is 2010. Instead of working toward dismantling the 10 nuclear reactors it has, Sweden found it easier to change its stance. The declared that nuclear is green. They will keep their reactors and they have also lifted the ban on research in field of nuclear technology. It is likely that Swedish government will be funding projects for developing new more efficient power plants that generate low cost electricity.

Govt. knew that there would be an uproar from environmental protection groups. They tried to deal with it by a raise in carbon taxes, a promise to reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2020 and bringing in the industries no covered under EU emission laws into carbon credit trading. The most remarkable promise Swedish government made is to adapt “Oil independence” and Zero  Emission as it goal in vision for 2050.

One thing that disappointed me most is that they have shamelessly set the target of 1% increase the share of renewable energy in total grid by 2020.

Source