Framing: To what extent is nuclear power a resilient power source? Focus: Did community behaviors in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown reflect resiliency to nuclear power disaster? If so, how? Background Resilience Definition – (Benson and Craig 2014) and others Theory – Disaster Resilience? – (Wisner et. al. 2011) Risk association/communication Definition […]
What really happened at Chernobyl?
The explosion of a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine on April 26, 1986 was the first of its kind. Unlike Three Mile Island incident of 1979, the explosion and radiation release was difficult to contain, spreading widely and rapidly. Suddenly a new type of disaster was possible; nuclear bombs were no longer the only […]
Who, What, When, Where?: distribution of nuclear power plants around the world
As of November 8, 2016, the European Nuclear Society has reported nuclear power plants in operation or under construction in 33 countries world-wide, with a total of 510 power plants (450 of which are in operation, 60 of which are under construction). The ENS’s site includes graphs describing the distribution of these plants between counties. […]
Is Radioactive Water Worth Worrying About? – The New Yorker
From a human health perspective, Buesseler sees a potential strontium leak as far more worrying than a little cesium. Fukushima cleanup crews have collected a hundred and fifty million gallons of radioactive water in more than a thousand temporary storage tanks, and are adding another hundred thousand gallons a day as groundwater seeps into contaminated […]
The Basics of Nuclear Energy: how nuclear power plants function
There are a number of different types of nuclear energy power plants, all with the same basic principal. The fundamental goal is to produce nuclear binding energy through fission. Heavy nucleus, from materials like uranium, create binding energy by breaking apart into smaller nuclei (McFarland et. al., 1994). Nuclear plants induce this fission in a number […]
Talking Nuclear in Class
This semester is a great time to be starting my independent study on nuclear power for a number of reasons. I first became interested in the topic when I worked with a group to create a small presentation on nuclear power in my ENVS 160 class. It was the first time that I had ever […]