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Showing posts from 2020

Thorium is Future

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The biggest challenge today we all are facing is to provide energy for humanity to sustain and flourish. Developing counties like ours (India) are particularly demanding more energy to tread path of progress and development. Energy is one of the most important component to meet the highest potential of an individual, however we should not keep burning fossils for the same. We need more cleaner, greener ways of power production - Nuclear Energy. In this post, we will particularly focus on Thorium. This shows the energy inequality There has been a lot of talk and debate, and of course enthusiasm, about the future of Nuclear Power.   Thorium will play important role in Nuclear Power’s future, particularly for our country (India). So why not know about this extra-ordinary element and its significance? In this post, we will cover following things: India’s Nuclear Power program Thorium physics How Thorium based Nuclear Power plant works? Why there is still not Thori...

Impact of COVID-19 on Administration and Policy Making

Hello Readers. Following post is contributed by a good friend Shreyas Nayak. He is Electronics and Communication graduate from RVIT, Bengaluru and now preparing for Civil Services (UPSC) with Public Administration as his optional subject. In this post, we have analysed the COVID situation and its impact on Administration. The post is divided into three broad titles:  Part I: Impact of COVID19 on Public Administration Part II: Impact of COVID19 on Indian Public Administration Part III: Critical analysis of the relationship between COVID19 and Policy Making Part I: Impact of COVID19 on Public Administration Public administration is considered as a socially embedded process of relationship, dialogue and action to promote human flourishing for all. The Field of Public Administration straddles an academic component and an action/practice component, with each one significantly influencing the other; both seeking to promote the welfare of the people in the context o...

Nuclear Fuel - Uranium 235!

Ever wondered how the most talked/feared fuel of the world, Uranium-235, is extracted from the earth crust and made ready to use in power plant? Probably you know three simple steps of Uranium mineral extraction: Digging - Cleaning - Spinning. But we are talking about one of the most advanced fuels that humankind has discovered to power the world. It fuels 11 % of the world power generation capacity. Let’s dig it up little further and see how exactly Uranium reach to the stage of Pellets (HEU - Highly Enriched Uranium), the form where it is 8000 times efficient than Coal! Stage I Ores are obtained by mining Uranium 238, which is naturally abundant. It contains 99.3 % U-238 and only 0.7 % of U-235 . We want U-235 for fuelling the Nuclear Power Plants. Ore is crushed and heated to remove carbon dirt items like gangue particles and clay. This is basically an extraction and cleaning stage. In India, Uranium is mined at Jaduguda and Narwapahar (Singhbhum Belt - Jharkhand) large...

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

ITER ("The Way" in Latin) is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today. It stands for “International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor”. ITER will work on the “ Tokamak ” concept where the reaction of hydrogen isotopes Deuterium and Tritium produces energy by the mass-energy conversion principle, thereby proving to be a source of unlimited energy. In southern France, Cadarache, 35 nations* are collaborating to build the world's largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars. The experimental campaign that will be carried out at ITER is crucial to advancing fusion science and preparing the way for the fusion power plants of tomorrow. ITER will be the first fusion device to produce net energy. ITER will be the first fusion device to maintain fusion for long periods of time. And ITER will...