Alternative Energy: Thorium

Thorium energy is not a new discovery that scientists have stumbled upon all of a sudden. Thorium energy was used for 4 years between 1965-1969 when Nixon withdrawals his pledge to the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor, which is used by to create energy with the element Thorium.

Thorium was discovered by John Berzelius in 1829. Thorium is a radioactive metal, which naturally occurs in the environment. Thorium is used for the thorium fuel cycle to create nuclear fuel. Thorium engrosses neutrons which 

will eventually produce Uranium-233.

Thorium in the earth exists as thorium-232, but in order for it to be used as fuel, it has to become fissile. Fissile means able to undergo nuclear fission. Thorium-232 must become Thorium-233, which is a fertile material, created by absorbing neutrons. There is a unique type of reactor, Molten Salt Reactor, needed to complete this procedure. Then Thorium-233 decays into protactinium-233, then producing Uranium-233. This then proceeds the Uranium process to create energy.

Some side effects to take into consideration is the waste left behind by this procedure. The waste is radioactive for 500 years, which is lower than from Uranium-235 waste. If this waste were to get into the environment, it could lead to many serious health consequences.

There will have to a lot of government investments to build the reactors needed to turn Thorium-232 into Uranium-233. The money will also go into getting Thorium-232, but I do not believe a lot of it will go towards this part of the process because it is abundant. Most of the money will go towards transforming Thorium-232 into Uranium-233, the technology and facility needed to carry out this action. As well as how to dispose of the waste produced. This must be disposed of carefully because it is still radioactive and is not allowed to be dumped in a landfill. The government may also want to impose a tax break in order to extract Thorium.

This energy would be distributed by transmission lines. This would carry out the same motion as using Uranium-235 transmission lines. Thorium energy is a centralized system. Thorium is used on the grid, but may also be used off the grid. Thorium may be used for transportation. There are a few cars that have been produced that run on Thorium. In one case, a Thorium fueled car could run on eight grams of Thorium for 100 years. It works by a laser heating up water, which produces steam and powers a mini turbine in the car. I think this is quite amazing because not only are there little to no Thorium power plants and Thorium powered cars is crazy. Although I do not see the possibility of this alternative fueled car to go on the market anytime soon.

The fact that most scientists do not have a lot of experience with Thorium is quite troubling. Since there is not a lot of experience with Thorium, errors may occur. The process of transforming Thorium-232 into Uranium-233 is quite complicated.

Thorium as an alternative energy source is safer, cleaner, efficient and cheaper in the long run. Safer- Thorium is not fissile, which means it will not split apart or explode on by themselves. The person also has the power to stop a reaction by simply stopping the source of neutrons. The waste left behind by Thorium does not have the capacity to be used in a nuclear weapon as the waste produced by Uranium-235. A Thorium nuclear power plant would not depend on on a human to check up on the reactors but rather on physics and machines. Cleaner- does not create as much waste as the Uranium-235, which is used today. Uranium produces 1,000-10,000 times less waste and is only radioactive for 500 rather than 10,000 years with Uranium-235. Efficient- A ton of Thorium can produce as much energy as 10 tons of Uranium-235 or 3, 500, 000 tons of coal. Cheaper- A gigawatt (GW) would cost about $780 million in a thorium power plant rather than $1.1 billion in a Uranium power plant. 

There are many countries using Thorium as an energy source in many ways. Some of these countries include: China, Canada, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Norway, the U.K and eve here in the U.S. China is leading the way when they stated in 2011, that they were going to begin researching and developing thorium molten-salt reactor technology. China is expected to build two molten salt reactor prototypes in 2015. India is following as well and designed the “next-generation nuclear reactor”, which is aimed to be completed in 2016. The U.S., in my opinion, is still quite skeptical about Thorium nuclear power plants because we are accustomed to Uranium based nuclear power. Why can’t we change our energy forms, it will not only benefit the environment, but us as well.

So then, what are we waiting for?

Links:

http://energyfromthorium.com/2006/04/22/a-brief-history-of-the-liquid-fluoride-reactor/

http://www.industrytap.com/thorium-fueled-automobile-engine-needs-refueling-once-a-century/15649

http://www.forbes.com/sites/energysource/2012/02/16/the-thing-about-thorium-why-the-better-nuclear-fuel-may-not-get-a-chance/2/

http://energyfromthorium.com/energy-independence-and-sustainability/

http://www.itheo.org/articles/world%E2%80%99s-first-thorium-reactor-designed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle#Actinide_wastes

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Current-and-Future-Generation/Thorium/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power#Current_projects

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Port Valdez is a free port where the southern 

terminus of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.  Many tankers go to this port and it handles more than 1.5 million barrels of crude oil. Port small boat harbor is an economic resource for the community. The harbor stimulates tourism and maritime industries. At Prince William Sound there are facilities measuring incoming oil, two loading berths and a power plant. It is inhabited by salmon, sea otters, seals and sea birds.

The state of Alaska or the federal government was not prepared to deal with an oil spill. Since neither the state nor federal government had an idea how to deal with the problem, they did not have proper ways of dealing with the problem. They did not have adequate equipment, personnel to handle major spills, or knowledge to remove the oil.

On March 24, 1989, the most devastating human caused disaster occurred. An oil tanker belonging to Exxon named Exxon Valdez was carrying about 53 million gallons of crude oil. The captain of the tanker changed before the accident occurred. When Captain Hazelwood took charge and ran aground on Blight Reef. This accident released 11 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Alaska. The oil could not be isolated and moved down Alaska, approximately traveling 1,300 miles. This is quite a disaster because it affected a lot of marine life. There were many dead bird, sea otters, harbor seals, bald eagles, and killer whales found, but there is no clear death toll of animals because their carcasses would sink. The oil spill would also affected the people living in the community. Those who relied on fishing for their income were unable to fish and tourism in the area decreased.

There were many safety precautions to avoid tanker crashes like the Raytheon Collision Avoidance System radar, which indicates an impending collision. Those in the oil industry promised to install state-of-the-art iceberg monitoring equipment but they never did. Exxon Valdez was sailing sailing outside the normal sea land, which then would have avoided small icebergs in the area. The crew was over worked and they would work 12-14 hour shift.The coast guard tanker inspection was not done to Exxon Valdez.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill is still not fully cleaned up, even after 25 years. Exxon set up a program to compensate oil spill victims. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council was established to develop research, restoration and habitat conservation plans for the areas affected by the oil spill. Those who survey the land, still find oil that is almost as toxic as the first few weeks after the spill. The spill cleanup had 10,000 workers, 1,000 boats, and about 100 airplanes and helicopters. They were named Exxon’s army, navy and air force.  It took more than four summers of cleanup efforts before it was called off. Even after 25 years, there is an estimated 16,000-25,000 gallons remain on the beaches and extend up to 450 miles. Many techniques were used to clean the shore, such as hot water, high-pressure cold-water treatment, mechanical clean up, and solvents and chemical agents.

Exxon has spent up to $4.3 billion in cleanup costs, legal damages, settlements and fines. In a class-action lawsuit, Exxon was to pay $507 million plus interest, which was reduced from the initial amount of $5 billion.

In 1990, the U.S. Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. This act would improve the nation’s ability to prevent and respond to oil spills by establishing provisions. This would expand the government’s capacity to provide money and necessary resources to tackle to oil spills. Alaska also took matters into their own hands by requiring two tugboats to accompany every loaded tanker from Valdez out through Prince William Sound to Hinchinbrook Entrance. Congress as well took matters into their own hand by requiring all tankers to be double-hulled by 2015. 

Sources:

http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/index.cfm?FA=facts.QA

http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/oil/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaRdUHrUnBs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/24/292411071/25-years-after-spill-alaska-town-struggles-back-from-dead-zone

http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/exxon-valdez-oil-spill-report-president-executive-summary

Globalization: Adidas

When I was a kid starting to play soccer, I remember my parents would always buy me Adidas cleats. Even today, I enjoy buying from Adidas; it may just be because we have an Adidas store at our outlets.  Adidas has both expanded and taken this world to a new level of athletics.

Adidas was founded by Adolf Dassler following the company slit between him and his brother, who later established Puma. There different brands within Adidas, Reebok, Taylor Made-Adidas, Rockport and is stakeholder of 9.4% of FC Bayern Munich. It all started when Dassler created the famous three striped football cleat and had the 1954 Germany team wear the cleats. These cleats were lighter than the English boots many athletes would wear. From then on, the company expanded to different products such as apparel.

Adidas has a specific way of targeting people, mostly sport teens.  Adidas equipped 33 countries and 6000 Olympic athletes in the last summer Olympic. These athletes in total won 220 medals (70 gold medals), which resulted in a 50% increase in apparel sales. Adidas has contracted many famous athletes and teams to show off their brand. The company would eventually expand to 65 different counties in the world and employing 775,000 people. Adidas is one of the biggest companies in Europe and is the second, behind Nike, globally. Its main headquarters are in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Adidas, like many large companies outsource their jobs to developing countries. The outsourcing of jobs has led to many controversies in Indonesia and china.

The positive effect of the globalization of Adidas is that it has brought many jobs to developing countries. The bad effect would be that the workers in the factories in developing countries are not being paid fairly and the working conditions are horrible. The companies established in China have faced many strikes against the work conditions or the amount of pay many workers are paid. This year, there have been 202 reported incidents in the first quarter this year in China alone. In a recent study, Chinese workers are said to work from 8am to 11pm, working over the legal limit of overtime. In Adidas Chinese factories, workers are hired with temporary contracts. That it quite significant I must admit and I am sure that it has doubled since the first quarter.

There has also been a dilemma in Indonesia were they are paid 34p an hour which is below the minimum wage. This resulted in works skipping meals to make ends meet and to an extreme level, factory workers passing out during their shifts. In Indonesia, there is lack of basic dignity and respect. For example, workers need to ask the permission of their managers to use the toilet. They are also verbally abused, are thrown shoes or even slapped across the face. I am sure this type of behavior is not only exhibited in Indonesia. These workers have the right to protest against their factories in my opinion. The only thing these workers want is a thirty percent raise. 

Honestly, think that is quite attainable since 

Adidas is one of the largest companies in the world.

I do believe that Adidas is capable of raising the pay for workers and improving working conditions. If Adidas has enough money to sponsor both the winter and summer Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, I am sure they can put out some money for their workers. As much as I would love to see this happen, I am oblivious to say it will happen in the future.  Nevertheless, it is possible to bring to the people purchasing Adidas products the facts. The facts that involve where their money is going towards, and the working conditions the workers face to bring make the product they are purchasing.

http://www.adidas-group.com/en/group/history/
http://www.waronwant.org/attachments/Adidas%20briefing.pdf
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/22/strike-spreads-chinese-supplier-adidas-nike-yeu-yuen-factory-jiangxi-guangdong
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/worsening-china-factory-strike-threatens-adidas-nike-sneakers-n87951 http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/06/12/dismissed-workers-protest-against-adidas-ahead-world-cup.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adidas

Affirmative Action

The blog “What’s the issue?!” is dealing with issues in today’s world. There are many controversial tops in the world from health to gun control. The one controversial top I will focus on is affirmative action. Affirmative action is a “program designed to increase minority participation in some institution by taking positive steps to appoint more minority-group members.” Affirmative action has taken in many places like schools, businesses, labor unions and government agencies. President Lyndon Johnson’s speech in 1965 gave forth the motion of affirmative action to achieve equal opportunities in fields such as employment and higher education. These opportunities were meant to break down barriers and level the playing field. This was meant to make sure everyone is given an equal break.

In some cases, this would create a certain percentage of different ethnicities in their facilities. For example, some college are required to have a certain percentage of students to be a different ethnicity. In the recent years since 1965, there has been an increase in different ethnic students who were enrolled in a 2-or-4 year college. In some aspect, affirmative action could be a positive program because ten percent of companies have no women working in their companies.

Affirmative Action has been a great help for many people but at the same time doomed others. For example, some companies would give an opportunity to a minority employee, and the company would set up the employee for failure. The glass ceiling is also a term that comes up when talking about affirmative action. The glass ceiling is when an employee is only allowed to move up to a certain point in their company. For example say an employee who is a minority is hired and starts by doing small tasks for individuals. Over the years, the same employee is promoted once or twice and is no longer allowed to move up in the company.  

Affirmative action has not only been a societal problem but has become a legal problem. To some individuals affirmative action is reverse discrimination. This means that there are non-minority people who feel are being overlooked in order to comply their percentage of minorities in their institution. For example, the 2003 court cases of Gutter v Bollinger and Gratz v Bollinger, Gutter believed to recipient of reverse discrimination. Gutter applied to the University of Michigan Law School and was denied. The law school did acknowledge it uses race as a factor in its admission.  In both cases it was established a decision of “a certain percentage of race cannot be used to admit minorities to college, but it can be a plus factor.” In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Gutter’s Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

This case would, I suppose, lead to the 2014 court case, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. In this case the Supreme Court upheld Michigan’s constitutional amendment to ban affirmative action in admissions to state public universities. Michigan being one of the states banning affirmative action in higher education, Florida and California have done the same. As a result, both states have seen a major drop in enrollment of black and Hispanic students in colleges and universities that are most selective.

There are positives and negatives to affirmative action, a positive would be that those who start at a disadvantage can get a boost to succeed. Although some may feel as though they are faced with reverse discrimination, like Gutter. I feel that affirmative action is a great way to promote more diversity and give opportunities to those who may not have such a great starting point as others. Even though I feel this way, I know that it is wrong to have such an unjust manner of giving minorities opportunities. These opportunities should not be given to people based on their gender or race but those who are qualified for the position. 

http://www.civilrights.org/resources/civilrights101/affirmaction.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/16/us/appeals-panel-upholds-race-in-admissions-for-university.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/us/supreme-court-michigan-affirmative-action-ban.html

http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/schuette-v-coalition-to-defend-affirmative-action/

Obama's Policy Agenda aimed to create social innovations and opportunities (Unit 5)

Technology enhances have altered social and economic problems by widening inequality. President Obama's agenda is directed to broaden Americans opportunities along with health care reform, education investments and an increase of the minimum wage.This may be reinforced  developing cost-effective government programs. In order to address social challenges of inadequate federal financing, they established the Social Innovation Fund.

The Obama administration proposed more than 80 million in its fiscal 2015 federal budget for programs. This money is to encourage policy innovations for work things like work force development, educational achievement and juvenile justice. There are funds that are being established for the improvement of social equality in states. The part of Obama's' Policy agenda is aimed to resolve some of the public policies that other technology has changed.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/equal-opportunity-and-social-innovation-obamas-policy-agenda/

Filibuster Suit (Unit 4)

The District Court dismissed a case on senate filibustering. The U.S. Court of appeals for the D.C. circuit affirmed that the standing decision. This was a result from the senate not being able to pass acts such as the
Dream Act and Disclose Act. The court lacked jurisdiction because the Senate was the one who established filibustering and was not able to make a decision on this case. This decision was also based with constitutional rights stated in the Speech and Debate Clause. The senate is going against their own decision of  allowing filibustering in the senate because there is not mention of filibustering in the constitution.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/04/15/futile-suit-against-filibuster-dismissed/

CIA in Trouble (Unit 4)

With Senator Dianna Feinstein on the panel to declassify pages of executive summaries, the CIA is under a lot of heat after suspicions of spying on congress. While using computers used by senate staffers, Senator Feinstein held the CIA for spying. The CIA is an independent regulatory agency, which the Department of Justice approved of such tactics in legal memos. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FIOA), congress is permitted to obtain legal documents and they discovered they had more valuable intelligence than they believed they had obtained.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/03/politics/senate-cia-report/index.html