Author: Royal Society of Chemistry (Great Britain) Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry ISBN: 1849731942 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 247
Book Description
Reviews the political and social context for nuclear power generation, the nuclear fuel cycles and their implications for the environment.
Author: R M Harrison Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry ISBN: 1849732884 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 247
Book Description
The environmental implications of generating electric power from nuclear fission have been a matter of concern since the construction of the earliest nuclear reactors and power stations in the 1950s. After two or more decades of construction of nuclear power stations, this ceased in many countries, largely as a result of concerns for the environment and human health. However, the pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is leading many countries to plan extensive new programmes of construction of nuclear power stations which serves to re-emphasise concerns over environmental impacts. Volume 32 of the Issues in Environmental Science and Technology series is concerned with reviewing the political and social context for nuclear power generation, the nuclear fuel cycles and their implications for the environment. Known issues of nuclear accidents, the legacy of contaminated land and low level waste, and the decommissioning of nuclear sites are considered together with a more forward look at the deep geological disposal of high level waste and the pathways of radioactive substances in the environment and their implications for human and non-human organisms. This topical work will be of interest to scientists and policy makers working within this field or related areas as well as advanced students.
Author: Manu V. Mathai Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1136229906 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 248
Book Description
Nuclear power is often characterized as a "green technology." Technologies are rarely, if ever, socially isolated artefacts. Instead, they materially represent an embodiment of values and priorities. Nuclear power is no different. It is a product of a particular political economy and the question is whether that political economy can helpfully engage with the challenge of addressing the environmental crisis on a finite, inequitable and shared planet. For developing countries like India, who are presently making infrastructure investments which will have long legacies, it is imperative that these investments wrestle with such questions and prove themselves capable of sufficiency, greater equality and inclusiveness. This book offers a critique of civilian nuclear power as a green energy strategy for India and develops and proposes an alternative "synergy for sustainability." It situates nuclear power as a socio-technical infrastructure embodying a particular development discourse and practice of energy and economic development. The book reveals the political economy of this arrangement and examines the latter’s ability to respond to the environmental crisis. Manu V. Mathai argues that the existing overwhelmingly growth-focused, highly technology-centric approach for organizing economic activity is unsustainable and needs to be reformed. Within this imperative for change, nuclear power in India is found to be and is characterized as an "authoritarian technology." Based on this political economy critique the book proposes an alternative, a synergy of ideas from the fields of development economics, energy planning and science, technology and society studies.
Author: Richard Rhodes Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 150110537X Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 480
Book Description
A “meticulously researched” (The New York Times Book Review) examination of energy transitions over time and an exploration of the current challenges presented by global warming, a surging world population, and renewable energy—from Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes. People have lived and died, businesses have prospered and failed, and nations have risen to world power and declined, all over energy challenges. Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. “Entertaining and informative…a powerful look at the importance of science” (NPR.org), Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford. In his “magisterial history…a tour de force of popular science” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Rhodes shows how breakthroughs in energy production occurred; from animal and waterpower to the steam engine, from internal-combustion to the electric motor. He looks at the current energy landscape, with a focus on how wind energy is competing for dominance with cast supplies of coal and natural gas. He also addresses the specter of global warming, and a population hurtling towards ten billion by 2100. Human beings have confronted the problem of how to draw energy from raw material since the beginning of time. Each invention, each discovery, each adaptation brought further challenges, and through such transformations, we arrived at where we are today. “A beautifully written, often inspiring saga of ingenuity and progress…Energy brings facts, context, and clarity to a key, often contentious subject” (Booklist, starred review).
Author: Stephanie A. Malin Publisher: Rutgers University Press ISBN: 081356980X Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 239
Book Description
Rising fossil fuel prices and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions are fostering a nuclear power renaissance and a revitalized uranium mining industry across the American West. In The Price of Nuclear Power, environmental sociologist Stephanie Malin offers an on-the-ground portrait of several uranium communities caught between the harmful legacy of previous mining booms and the potential promise of new economic development. Using this context, she examines how shifting notions of environmental justice inspire divergent views about nuclear power’s sustainability and equally divisive forms of social activism. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in rural isolated towns such as Monticello, Utah, and Nucla and Naturita, Colorado, as well as in upscale communities like Telluride, Colorado, and incorporating interviews with community leaders, environmental activists, radiation regulators, and mining executives, Malin uncovers a fundamental paradox of the nuclear renaissance: the communities most hurt by uranium’s legacy—such as high rates of cancers, respiratory ailments, and reproductive disorders—were actually quick to support industry renewal. She shows that many impoverished communities support mining not only because of the employment opportunities, but also out of a personal identification with uranium, a sense of patriotism, and new notions of environmentalism. But other communities, such as Telluride, have become sites of resistance, skeptical of industry and government promises of safe mining, fearing that regulatory enforcement won’t be strong enough. Indeed, Malin shows that the nuclear renaissance has exacerbated social divisions across the Colorado Plateau, threatening social cohesion. Malin further illustrates ways in which renewed uranium production is not a socially sustainable form of energy development for rural communities, as it is utterly dependent on unstable global markets. The Price of Nuclear Power is an insightful portrait of the local impact of the nuclear renaissance and the social and environmental tensions inherent in the rebirth of uranium mining.
Author: Behram N. Kursunogammalu Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 148991546X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 287
Book Description
Developed from the Global Foundation's International Conference on Environment and Nuclear Energy, held in October 1997, this volume examines the impact of nuclear energy on regional and global environmental issues under a variety of scenarios. These include competition in deregulated energy environments, constraints levied upon use of fossil energy, and possible expansion of nuclear power into energy sectors beyond the generation of electricity, process heat, and fuels production. It also assesses the overall role of nuclear energy in meeting future energy needs arising from growing world populations and economic development.
Author: Paul Breeze Publisher: Academic Press ISBN: 0128095121 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 107
Book Description
Nuclear Power provides a concise, up-to-date, accessible guide to the most controversial form of power generation. The author includes a comprehensive description of the various methods for generating nuclear power and evaluates the political, strategic, environmental, economic, and emotional factors involved in each method. The analysis of real-life, tragic examples, such as the accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima help the reader understand the associated risks and dangers of this method of power generation and the radioactive waste it creates. This is a valuable and insightful read for those involved in nuclear power, including power plant designers and engineers, as well as those involved in the protection of society and the environment. Discusses various nuclear reactor designs and methods for generating this type of power Evaluates the political, strategic, environmental, economic, and emotional factors involved in each technology Explores the environmental and economic effects of nuclear power generation through various real-life tragedies, such as the accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima
Author: R. A. Karam Publisher: Elsevier ISBN: 1483150712 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 557
Book Description
Environmental Impact of Nuclear Power Plants contains the proceedings of a conference held in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 26-30, 1974 and sponsored by the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Nuclear Engineering. The papers focus on the environmental impact of nuclear power plants and are organized into six parts: plant site selection; ecosystems and ecological effects; radioactive waste and thermal pollution; standards and guidelines in the preparation of environmental reports; cost-benefit analysis; environmental impact studies of various power sources. Comprised of 23 chapters, this book begins with an assessment of siting considerations for nuclear power plants from a government perspective. The instrument used by Florida Power & Light in evaluating a power plant site is described, along with an ecosystem approach to atomic energy development. The discussion then turns to impact assessment for nuclear power plants and its implications for ecological and environmental sciences; radioactive waste systems and radioactive effluents; engineering aspects of heat dissipation in water bodies; and transportation of nuclear materials. Subsequent chapters deal with recommendations, standards, and regulations concerning the preparation of environmental reports for nuclear power plants; cost-benefit analysis in nuclear power plant licensing actions; and radioactive waste discharges at nuclear power plants. This monograph will be of interest to nuclear engineers and environmental policymakers.
Author: Royal Society of Chemistry (Great Britain)
Author: R M Harrison
Author: 
Author: Manu V. Mathai
Author: Richard Rhodes
Author: Joseph M Dukert
Author: Stephanie A. Malin
Author: Behram N. Kursunogammalu
Author: Paul Breeze
Author: R. A. Karam