Nuclear Power Plant Will Evolve

In reality, nothing is safe. Driving a car to work may result in traffic accident. Walking down the street may result in being mobbed or hit by a vehicle. Eating may result in indigestion or stomachache. Jumping my cause the ankle to strain. Shouting may cause the voice to disappear. All things may lead to some sort of negative result if not being done properly or in a control manner. However, being a rational a person may always be, the above incident may not happen always, maybe sometimes.

The more dangerous actions or things are perceived as, the more careful the handling will be done. We are less careful when doing something that we do everyday like walking down the street. Sometimes we are too carefree that we do not look left and right when crossing the road. Oftentimes, we do not look down while walking assuming the roads are all even when in reality there could be a manhole being left open or nail sticking out waiting to pierce through our feet. Or driving a car, when are too used to it, we do not even wear the seatbelt. However we are more careful when doing things that we perceived as dangerous or risky such as bungee jumping. We want to make sure that the harness are tight and people who are maintaining the equipments are there to check on the equipments that you are wearing. Sometimes we insist that our equipments are being check twice or more times.

We are all well aware that nuclear bomb is dangerous, catastrophic. It can wipe out the whole city, Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Nuclear power plant can be dangerous, like Chernobyl, it turned an industrial city in Soviet Union to become a dead city with no activity that light up the city. We have heard about the latest incident in Japan, when the tsunami and the great earthquake hit Japan on the memorable Friday noon of 11-3-2011. Today we are looking at the catastrophic events relating the nuclear power plants of Fukushima Daichi. It was design for 6.3 Richter earthquake, yet all safety features managed to halt the reaction when the 9.0 Richter earthquake started to tremble the city of Sendai. It was supposed to be a smooth shutdown of the nuclear power plant had it not been for the unpredictable tsunami. The cooling system failed when the 13 feet tsunami wipe out all backup power source, be it the diesel generator, mobile generator, the power grid and the batteries. Due to the failure of the cooling system, the reactor overheated, even though the nuclear reaction has been stopped or at least left to the bare minimum. The reactor continue to heat and causes steam built-up inside the reactor. The super hot steam coupled with unknown reaction (to me) produces hydrogen, lots of hydrogen which can explode easily. The reactor building exploded due to the hydrogen built-up.

The four units are all affected due to overheating. The explosions coupled with tsunami impact and continual tremor of the earthquake, caused cracks in the containment of the radioactive material which resulted in radioactive leakage. A radius of 20km affecting more than 200,000 people were being evacuated. It is horrendous and heart touching.

The risk of having a nuclear power plant is so great that the design is improving with safety as the main priority. The accident in Fukushima will initiate more robustness in the design. Therefore we can expect the nuclear plant in the future to be stronger, much stronger, able to withhold all knowns hazards, be it fire, fire crashing, etc. Of course, the cost of building it will be higher, but safety is not something we can take for granted.

Energy Security: The importance of strategic Mix with NUCLEAR

Energy security is:

From the demand side i.e. the consumers: to have energy/electricity at all time. they demand that whenever they switch on the plug, electricity will flow.

From the supply side: to be able to supply electricity at all time to all consumers.

How?
In order to be able to supply electricity, fuel is needed to generate electricity.

Gas/Coal/Oil/Biofuel is burnt to boil water then to produce steam that moves the turbines. The moving turbine will produce electricity through electromagnetic conversion. Think of dynamo, dynamo can be found usually in bike with lamp. You will cycle the wheel, the bike will move while moving the rotor in dynamo which will produce electricity to light up the lamp.

Similarly, wind turbine need wind to move the turbine that produces electricity, while hydro need water to move the turbine.

In a nuclear power plant, the nuclear reaction will produce heat that will boil the water to produce steam which will then move the turbine.

In a nutshell, many sources of electricity uses turbine to generate electricity.

It is different with solar power panel, which need the sunlight to initiate reaction within the semiconductor that will produce electricity without the need of turbine.

However, let's move back to the main topic. ENERGY SECURITY.

In general, you need something to produce electricity. You cannot rely on just one source of electricity generation. What if that one source of electricity is not available?

Most fuels need to be replenish at once when there are burnt. Coal needed to be supplied constantly in order for the power plant to continue producing electricity. Similarly, gas, oil, biofuels, water, wind and sunshine need to be available at all time if you want to produce electricity at all time. But we know that would not happen at all time. Sun will not shine at night or when it is raining or when it is cloudy. Wind will not blow at all time. Gas would not available if there is problem at gas terminal or at the gas pipelines. Coal will not be available if there problems at the mines or if the ship that delivers coal does not arrive. Oil cannot be delivered without using road tankers or ship tankers.

What about nuclear power plant? The fuel that it uses can last for 18 to 24 months without replenishment. Thus, once you put the fuel in day 1, you can be rest assured that power/electricity will continue to be generated for 18 months or until day 540 or longer depending on the design.

This is energy security! with nuclear as part of the energy mix!

Trust me, that gas/coal/oil that we have today are subjected to constant supply, without which, there will not be constant supply of electricity.

Japan Quake Aftermath : Nuclear Tragedy?

This is the biggest ever earthquake ever happened in Japan.

Unpredictable.

There is no way the design of nuclear power plants can cater for something beyond probability. It is a sign from God through nature that we will be looking at something even bigger, even worse and beyond our predictions.

Why the world is worry about nuclear plants rather than other plants generating electricity? Why the focus on the nuclear power plant? Simply because any defect in the nuclear safety design can lead to disaster through radioactivity.

The nuclear plant will not explode like a nuclear bomb. Period. The explosions that happen are due to immerse pressure through heat and air inside the containment. The explosions are small in nature, similar to pops of balloons.

The nuclear plant will not explode like a nuclear bomb. Period. The fuel inside the nuclear plants are not concentrated enough to produce bomb-like explosions. The worst that can happen through the fuel is being too hot and melt which may cause leakage to the containment building.

The world are looking. Nuclear committee please do something to contain the radioactivity. Or else the nuclear renaissance will come to complete halt.

The body clock and Dreams

I have noticed with the greatest interest that I would wake up exactly 6 hours after I laid asleep. However, I will often go back to sleep until my alarm sing. Last night I went to bed at around ten and woke up around four in the morning just to realize that it was only four and I did not feel like getting up, but it was cold last night thus I switched off the fan and looked for my blanket which was lying at the side of the bed on the floor. Later, I would wake up when my phone started singing. It was a typical night just like any other night, where I would be waking up exactly 6 hours after I felt asleep and went back to sleep again. I remember if I went to sleep around 3 am in the morning, I would wake up exactly after 6 hours i.e. at nine in the morning, no matter what happen or how loud my phone is singing. The only time I would be able to wake up if only and only if someone else would wake me up like my father or my mom or whoever else.

the night before last night, I had the most wonderful dream of bringing NJZ to see my family and I was happy holding her while walking her down the aisle. =DD

forte 2.0 so far

i have been driving my forte 2.0 since July 2010. The ride has been smooth with insignificant complaints. the pickup is good since it is a 2000cc car, fast to accelerate and able to move around quickly without having to press hard on the gas pedal. the fuel consumption may be on the higher side. On highway it can go at around 8.5 liter per 100km and at full city driving it can go up to 11 liter per 100km. usually, at any normal days, i would fill up my car to its fullest capacity, usually at around 45 liters, this 45 liters of fuel can usually go for as far as 400-500 km depending on the driving style and traffic condition. usually for my commute going to and from work and somewhere in the city, the full tank of 45 liters usually go to around 400km. but my driving style is bad for fuel economy, as i like to press hard on the gas pedal, to feel the exhilaration of driving the forte.

sometimes when travelling down on uneven road, i can hear the annoying rattle sound coming somewhere from the seat belt hook of the passenger and sometimes, from the driver side. it can go unnoticeable but the big ear of mine can sense those annoying rattle sound.

usually, after driving, after switching off the engine, i can hear cranking sound, like metal compressing, coming from the engine, people in the forums say that it is ok and nothing to worry about. but still, it is annoying to hear sounds coming from the car.

sound proofing is so so. not so good and it gets rather noisy when it is raining heavily and going over uneven road. but the engine is quiet. when cruising on the road, normally you would not be able to sense the engine but the friction between the roads and tires spoil the tranquility.

sound system is good. i can feel immerse in the music and songs i am listening to. however, the radio quality somehow is not quite up to crystal clear sound. is it the car or is the radio station itself? i am not as i would always be listening from my ipod connected directly to the forte.

i like white color of my car. but i hate it when it gets dirty so easily. sometimes dirts are hard to get off / to scrap off.

the car does not feel cheap from the inside. it feels strong and robust. i feel safe driving it. with all the airbags to guarantee my safety.