Hi people!! Back again.. Eventually we attended a talk organized by our lecturer for the benefit of the students, other lecturer and few bodies like OSHA were present too. To deliver the message was Dr. Kurwitz from Texas A&M University which is one of the most oldest universities in Texas. He started of his speech by saying that back in Texas it is 41 degree Celsius. And we are very thankful to the almighty that we are still under our own body temperature.
Well lets hit on our topic. Basically SEI is a program designed specially for students. Students who are very much interested in industrial life. Back in the US, the percentage of students graduating from the Engineering field is only ~55%. Therefore to increase this, the quality on the student output, this special program was designed.
SEI, brings students of freshman, sophomore, Junior or Senior to work with the Industrial Graduates, Project Manager and so on. The reason they are doing this is because Engineering is more interesting when we do it, while studying. At the same time, the company can identify few capable individuals who are very keen to working environment and that might be their future working place too.
There are a lot of benefit gained by in many prospect. What the related company will do is they will assign student to do some research on how things work in a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). For example there were studies on how to safe space on the spent fuel pool so that there are more spent fuel can be placed in. These are done by the students with the guidance of the upper management. At the same time student get paid off for their hours off working. Of course it will be less but its something, and this also benefits the company by getting a cheaper research and development from the students. Therefore student also gain benefit from here, they gain knowledge and they get to work on real working field.
This also will increase the interest of the student in Engineering field, and therefore there will be more undergraduates on Engineering Field. This eventually gives work to the the student (of course if he is productive and willing to give an output). With this program there are certain rate of increase in CGPA for the students in US.
In the end of the presentation, a few question were popped out to Dr. Kurwitz. We did not lose this chance of questioning him about the YUCCA MOUNTAIN plan to place the high level disposal. And few other question were also put out.
Our view of attending this talk. The knowledge that we gained is, if Malaysia is to have a NPP by 2021, this implementation could take place. The growth in Engineering field and the interest will raise high. Therefore Malaysia will produce good Engineers who can compete in idea wise and work wise in future. Being an Engineering students, we truly feel that if given an opportunity, we would gain valuable knowledge from this kind of program and use it for the benefit of others in years to come. We also hope that Malaysia will take a program like this, not relating it to the internship, and see the idea out of us. For we are ever ready willing to spurt out our idea and our skills, anytime, for our country.
MK, T3, L-MAN
Monday 8 August 2011
Sunday 7 August 2011
MNPC proposal on Malaysia Nuclear Power Plant 2021
Malaysia NPP as proposed by Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation (MNPC) by 2021. Just a montage video for the support and appreciating the effort of MNPC people.
MK
Thursday 4 August 2011
Video on How Nuclear Power Plant Operates
For a better picture this is the CANDU reactor at Darlington,Canada which is a special reactor design by the Canadian for their usages. There is one NPP in China using the same technology. This technology is very safe because the Reactor is Controlled by using Robot. Have a view.
For more info:
L-Man
Tuesday 2 August 2011
Flexibility of Nuclear Power Generation
Many people are well known that nuclear power use uranium as the fuel and the questions always come that what will happen to nuclear power generation if uranium finish? is it nuclear power generation story will end up similar to power generation through petroleum? for answer this uncertainties, the following posts should make clear to all.....
We are aware that the Uranium in Earth is a finite property. One day or soon it will finish. Is that all? The world will not end after that. There are a lot of discovery that find the alternatives for Uranium. Even at the usage rate Uranium could sustain up to 60,000 years. After the extinction of Uranium we have such material that can be used and already being use in some part of the world. The magic material is Thorium.
It’s likely that someone will have submitted a credible design to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a thorium reactor. That’s because the United States, India, Japan, and Russia are among the countries now working on Thorium reactors. . Like all nuclear power, a thorium reactor would produce few emissions . Thorium is three to four times more abundant on Earth than uranium. Any cubic meter of Earth, Moon or Mars has enough Th-232 to run a profligate Earth's energy life for several years. Not only is thorium actually cheaper than uranium, it’s indirectly cheaper. 1) A fully functioning thorium reactor would be smaller and produce less waste. 2) In countries like China and India, where the natural abundance of thorium exceeds that of uranium. there are millennia of thorium atoms within easy reach, requiring no energy-intensive, proliferation-endangering enrichment, and no wasteful removal of delicate fuel pellets and rods before even 10 percent of their fuel is consumed. But perhaps the most promising advantage is that a thorium reactor cleans up after itself. It eats its own waste. Proponents say the thorium reactor could function as a kind of waste disposal mechanism for plutonium and other weapons grade material, as part of its regular energy generation process. This is the miracle that proponents point to. And in fact, several countries are investigating the possibility of thorium-based energy generation: India's working on an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, Japan has the MiniFuji, Russia is working on the VVER-1000 and even the United States has long term plans to experiment with commercial energy generation by thorium. Most of these plans are nebulous, but for some it’s a serious option. The country with the most specific plan is India, which has drawn up a three-stage process to rely almost entirely on thorium by 2030.
Thorium has always looked attractive theoretically, but it just has not taken off in countries that have adequate supplies of regular uranium. Despite the many features that recommend it, it's only really attractive for nations–like India and China. India has already a Thorium plant which will be complete by 2012. The China Academy of Sciences in January 2011 launched a program of R&D on thorium-breeding molten-salt reactors (Th-MSR or TMSR), otherwise known as Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR), claiming to have the world's largest national effort on these and hoping to obtain full intellectual property rights on the technology.
from the post, we can surely claim that Nuclear fuels has finite ending. But these finite can be seen as infinite with the existing technologies. Even if petroleum is finishing, Malaysia as a developing country should take an immediate step to transform to Nuclear source as it is the cheapest and reliable for coming days. Worrying about security, the technology has NPP Gen 3 and upcoming Gen 4 and many more new design reactors. Wondering about the age of Uranium, now it has the Thorium as a successor. For this entire gift, we have to thank Mother Earth for giving us more and more in order to survive. Let us thank and appreciate our dearest Earth by going green and supporting the green energies. So Malaysia should bravely take up this opportunity and go for Nuclear Power Plant..... Care for Earth, Go Green.
sources : http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/energy/nuclear/is-thorium-the-nuclear-fuel-of-the-future
MK & T3
Germany's "Grand" Energy Experiment
Germany will have to initiative a range of aggressive measures, focused on energy efficiency, smart metering, car taxation, renewable energy heating systems, etc. etc. This was to make up a ‘gap’ compared to 2009 policies of 70 – 90 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2-e. The gap is now much larger.
The current reality in Germany is that subsidized coal-fired electricity (with the funds generated by the trade in CO2 emissions certificates – yes, turn up the irony dial) will be ‘filling the gap‘ (interesting euphemism) left by the nuclear phaseout. We’re talking here of upwards of 20 GWe of new fossil fuel power plants to be built in Germany over the next decade. 
If we want to exit nuclear energy and enter renewable energy, for the transition time we need fossil power plants. At least 10, more likely 20 gigawatts [of fossil capacity] need to be built in the coming 10 years.
More sources
MK
Monday 1 August 2011
Learned Lesson from Three Mile Island Incident
Hi people. This title came up because many of them are questioning about the safety culture in a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). Well, in recent days many of them are accusing that there will be many human errors if there were to be a NPP in Malaysia. And the sad part is people never understood that there were Nuclear accident that has occurred and lotsa experience has learned and gained through it.
Asking nowdays people what is TMI, they will say "too much information". Hahaha. Never to blame them because they were not born before 1979. Of course for the older generation TMI will always mean Three Mile Island. TMI 2 reactor was where the accident happened. TMI 1 reactor is still operating till today. In TMI 2 reactor, the reactor core was destroyed. Some radioactive gas was released a couple of days later, but not enough to cause any exposure above background levels to local residents.
There were no injuries or adverse health effects from the accident except for the immediate, short-lived mental distress produced by the accident. In fact, since the time of the initial operation of the Shippingport civilian nuclear power plant in 1957, not one single fatality has occurred as a result of the release of radiation from a commercial nuclear power plant in the United States.
There have been many independent studies to assess the possible impacts on people and the environment around TMI since the accident. None has found any illnesses such as cancers that might be linked to the incident. A federal appeals court in December 2003 dismissed the consolidated cases of 2,000 plaintiffs seeking damages against the plant's former owners. The court said the plaintiffs failed to present evidence that they had received a radiation dose large enough to possibly cause adverse health effects. Although studies found no increased incidence of cancer as a result of the accident, they did find evidence of psychological stress. And such psychological stress will continue if we keep demonizing low-level radiation and nuclear power.
The accident at Three Mile Island has done much to shape the safety culture that permeates the nuclear power industry today. TMI was a humbling experience that changed the industry's mind-set from one of smugness to one of increased vigilance. As noted by Angelina Howard, an executive vice president at the Nuclear Energy Institute, at Three Mile Island on the 25th anniversary, "The accident was a catalyst for positive change in the nuclear energy industry." Each segment of the nuclear community--management, workers, designers, and regulators--was made to recognize its own share of responsibility.
We learned a lot from TMI. Before TMI, few, if any, in the nuclear industry would have believed that reactor operators would fail to recognize a stuck-open relief valve. Even fewer would have believed that operators would reduce safety injection flow in the face of symptoms of inadequate coolant. There were many lessons learned, and they can be reviewed more fully in the many good books written about the accident. Here I offer my top five:
The Control Room in TMI 2 reactor
main source : http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf36.html
Asking nowdays people what is TMI, they will say "too much information". Hahaha. Never to blame them because they were not born before 1979. Of course for the older generation TMI will always mean Three Mile Island. TMI 2 reactor was where the accident happened. TMI 1 reactor is still operating till today. In TMI 2 reactor, the reactor core was destroyed. Some radioactive gas was released a couple of days later, but not enough to cause any exposure above background levels to local residents.
There were no injuries or adverse health effects from the accident except for the immediate, short-lived mental distress produced by the accident. In fact, since the time of the initial operation of the Shippingport civilian nuclear power plant in 1957, not one single fatality has occurred as a result of the release of radiation from a commercial nuclear power plant in the United States.
There have been many independent studies to assess the possible impacts on people and the environment around TMI since the accident. None has found any illnesses such as cancers that might be linked to the incident. A federal appeals court in December 2003 dismissed the consolidated cases of 2,000 plaintiffs seeking damages against the plant's former owners. The court said the plaintiffs failed to present evidence that they had received a radiation dose large enough to possibly cause adverse health effects. Although studies found no increased incidence of cancer as a result of the accident, they did find evidence of psychological stress. And such psychological stress will continue if we keep demonizing low-level radiation and nuclear power.
The accident at Three Mile Island has done much to shape the safety culture that permeates the nuclear power industry today. TMI was a humbling experience that changed the industry's mind-set from one of smugness to one of increased vigilance. As noted by Angelina Howard, an executive vice president at the Nuclear Energy Institute, at Three Mile Island on the 25th anniversary, "The accident was a catalyst for positive change in the nuclear energy industry." Each segment of the nuclear community--management, workers, designers, and regulators--was made to recognize its own share of responsibility.
We learned a lot from TMI. Before TMI, few, if any, in the nuclear industry would have believed that reactor operators would fail to recognize a stuck-open relief valve. Even fewer would have believed that operators would reduce safety injection flow in the face of symptoms of inadequate coolant. There were many lessons learned, and they can be reviewed more fully in the many good books written about the accident. Here I offer my top five:
Operator training : One of the most significant outcomes of the TMI accident was training improvements, which gave operators a better understanding of both the theoretical and practical aspects of plant operations and a sound basis for evaluating and responding to unfamiliar situations. Licensed reactor operator training today is conducted on full-scale replica simulators of actual plants. These simulators permit operators to practice and be tested in all kinds of accident scenarios, making them more proficient and knowledgeable reactor operators.
Sharing of industry knowledge : TMI led to the establishment of the Atlanta-based Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) and its National Academy for Nuclear Training. These two industry organizations have been effective in promoting excellence in the operation of nuclear plants and accrediting their training programs. INPO has had a profound impact on the way nuclear plants are managed and operated. The proof is the steady improvement in plant performance in the 30 years since TMI. Plant capacity factors (the ratio of a power plant's average production to its rated capability) have increased to 91.8 percent in 2007 from 58.4 percent in 1979. Meanwhile, the industry average of significant events has decreased from an average of 0.9 per year in 1989 to 0.01 per year in 2006.
Control rooms were complex : Control rooms in the TMI generation of plants weren't designed with the needs of operators in mind. Craig Faust, one of the control room operators during the event stated, "I would have liked to have thrown away the alarm panel. It wasn't giving us any useful information." The operators were overwhelmed and unnerved from the "alarm avalanche." Necessary information wasn't readily available in a convenient and understandable form. After the event, important safety system modifications were made to detect and mitigate inadequate core cooling and post-accident conditions. The next generation of reactors will have control rooms designed with human factors in mind and with computer technology that prioritizes the information operators receive.
The Control Room in TMI 2 reactorFission products : The accident at TMI yielded insight into the "source term"--the amount of radioactive fission products released in the event of a major accident. From TMI data we learned that the release of volatile fission products was three to four orders of magnitude smaller than that provided for in the 1962 federal licensing criteria. This observation stimulated experiments at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and elsewhere, which showed that during simulated accidents many fission products react to form aerosols that then plate out on walls or settle inside the primary containment structure. This knowledge, that strict leak-tightness of the containment wasn't a significant factor in reducing fission product leakage to the biosphere, led to the downward revisions by the NRC toward a more realistic source term in 1995. Since that time, numerous experiments have examined the timing, magnitude, and controlling processes for fission product releases from the fuel, the primary system, and containment. Today, the magnitude of the source term available for release in an accident has been reduced significantly.
These incident has provided a lot of improvement in now days NPP Reactors. More precaution has taken place. It is inevitable that as the humbling experience of TMI fades into history. We must assume that there will be some gradual lowering of standards until the next humbling experience. But we've also learned that the catastrophic vision of the impact of such an accident is wholly fictional. We must never forget TMI, it taught us many lessons and helped us develop a more realistic sense of what actually happens in a nuclear accident.
The operating cooling tower belongs to TMI 1 reactor, and the other side non operating cooling tower belongs to TMI 2 reactor which its core meltdown.
I hope these answers those wondering minds. Keep updated..
MK
Benefit of Going Green
Everywhere you look in the news and media today you see stories about global warming and our effects on the earth. While it seems to make sense that we should all be a little kinder to Mother Earth, what exactly are some of the benefits of going green?
Our short answer is… just review every page on this site and we think you will see a strong case for the benefits of going green (We are lazy, but not that lazy). So, since we know you are pressed for time we have compiled our top 5 benefits of going green below.
Going Green Benefit 1: Save the Earth
Pretty obvious huh? We are not going to spend much time discussing this benefit as it’s the overall point of the going green movement (and this site for that matter), but saving the Earth is the biggest benefit of going green. While our collective actions have done huge amounts of damage to our planet, it is those same collective actions that can save it.
Going Green Benefit 2: Save your Health
Most people are unaware of the dangers in common household cleaning supplies and pesticides, but they all have a cumulative effect on our bodies. From switching to greener cleaning supplies to eating more organic foods, we can all take small steps to positively impact our own personal health.
Going Green Benefit 3: Save Money
One of the side benefits of going green that many people are just now realizing, going green can save you money (I know…sounds like the used car commercials on late night TV, but it’s true). We have a whole section on “Save Money Going Green” with tips and hints for doing just that. From saving money on home energy costs to easy ways to increase the gas mileage of your car, there are hundreds of ways to save money while going green, and who doesn’t want to save money?
Going Green Benefit 4: Save the Economy
As our Economy is currently in a nasty recession, many people claim that this is not a good time to be focusing on going green. We think this is the exact time we should be focusing on going green and green technologies in particular.
Looking at the world economy, it is very difficult for the United States to compete in many traditional areas like manufacturing. One of the best ways for us to “keep our edge” and continue to compete is by being the leader in green technologies. The U.S. has always been an innovator and its part of what has kept us as a world economic power. Green technology just may be the next big thing to be a leader in. That’s why its encouraging to see that part of President Obama’s economic plan includes the creation of 5 million “green collar jobs” over the next decade for US. Malaysia may be exporting our Green Techs to them.
Another side benefit of developing greener technologies is that it will also lessen our dependence on foreign oil. I'm sure that you'll know the petrol price will be up to RM9.50/litre by 2020.
Going Green Benefit 5: It Just Feels Good
Deep down we all know we SHOULD be trying to be greener.. it just makes sense. It’s good for the Earth, good for our health, good for the wallet, etc. etc. etc. Do we really want to hand our children and our grand children a steaming pile of rubbish for a planet?
So why not avoid all that guilt and also reap all the other benefits outlined above? Take that extra 10 seconds to recycle that can or bottle and enjoy that little feeling that you are doing the right thing.
In the end, just remember that going green will not only save the Earth… it will also improve your quality of life and provide many other benefits as well. So the next time someone asks you “Why are you so concerned about being green?” you just might have a few new answers up your sleeve. Bare in mind that NUCLEAR is a GREEN Tech.=)
What do you think are the main benefits of going green? As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments.
MK
MK
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