kaleidoSCOPE

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...

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...

The other day I was reading the  Economic Survey (2018-19) . It has one whole chapter dedicated to  Nudge Theory of Behavioral Economics  field. So I thought of writing about it. It will be a sort of NUDGE to get out of inertia which prevented me from writing new posts. Nudge Theory got popularized after Richard Thaler was awarded Nobel Prize for it. He is the father of the NUDGE Theory. To many, it might seem like common sense to use these techniques. But you see, common sense is not common and Nobel is definitely not common stuff. Nudge Theory has immense commercial potential. No doubt. For example, you will find chocolates near the cash counter of Groceries Malls (DMart/BigBazaar) because we are exhausted after shopping need some instant sources of energy. The NUDGE Theory can also be used effectively in personal life. We can not always find someone to Nudge us. We got to help ourselves, as Buddha said " Appo Dippo Bhava ". People of our age (15 to 59) sp...

While preparing for the Civil Services (UPSC) interview, I had given mock interviews at a few of the places. And in "every" mock interview, the interviewer would ask me about the job profile and nature of the job. I have worked in Nuclear Equipments and Systems Business. My job was to export the types of equipment related to the Nuclear Power Plant, to the USA. This was the reason why my half of the mock interviews were based on the NUCLEAR related stuff. In my actual final interview, they didn't ask me about my job profile but questions started with my job title "Senior Engineer - Project Management Group". The only question related to Nuclear asked to me was "Do we need Nuclear Submarine?" And that's because of the contribution made by L&T in building our first ever indigenous Nuclear Submarine - INS Arihant! When we say Nuclear The submarine, we mean the one which is powered by the nuclear fission reaction. We also have ...

The only good thing to happen in my last UPSC Attempt (2016) was my Public Administration score. This blog post is about how I scored 302 ( Paper I = 158 and Paper II = 144 ) Marks in Public Administration, in Mains-2016. Please note that there is no short cut for scoring high in any subject. You have to READ a lot many things and refer a lot of stuff. But the thing is you need not read all these resources from the first to the last page. Your Score will depend more upon how effectively you write the answer, which we will cover in the latter part of this post. Resources After reading the list given below, I know few readers will be like “Ye toh pata hai, naya kuch nahi padha kya??” but believe me, you should do “naya” (try innovative and out-of-box thinking!) in answers, not in resource selection. 1.         IGNOU Books – BA and MA Please download all the PDFs of IGNOU Public Administration books. They are available on Mrunal’s websit...

This was supposed to be an isolated place a few years back. But people become more enthusiastic and all. Distances reduced because of vehicles and all. And people became SMART because of SMART cell phones and all. Now a day it is hot-spot tourist place. Devkund is around 100 km from Pune, next to Tamhini Ghat. People who have no work at all on weekends are increasing as the population increase, and shedding off of not-required jerks from IT companies increased and therefore, a place like this is getting flooded like never before. If you search for “ Places near Pune for Hiking ”, Devkund occupies one of TOP place. After UPSC Prelims – 2017, we were planning for some trek around Pune. We are among those people who actually pursue their hobby for trekking and then mention it in Detailed Application Form (DAF, as people call it!). Anyway, that’s not the point here. But I personally feel that even if you are not lucky to be residing in and around Western or Eastern Ghat for that matt...

Blog post Contributor : Ms Nikita Dherange Flanked by the swirling waters of the mighty (male river) Brahmaputra, Majuli - country's first island district- looks peaceful and serene. But life here is unpredictable, as with every monsoon the roaring Brahmaputra takes great bites out of the island, swallowing many homes. The (once) 1,200 sq km riverine island ,it is barely 400 sq km now and surveys predict that it will disappear in another 20 years. It's not just the homes that are at risk- Majuli is also well known for being the seat of Neo-Vaishnavite culture. Since the 15th century,the followers of Saint Srimanta Shankaradeva, who venerate God Vishnu, have been building monasteries/ Satras, here. Majuli's rich ethnic and ecological diversity along with its cultural traditions make it a strong contender for inclusion in the 'Cultural Landscape' category of the UNESCO World Heritage list. This blog aimed at sharing some of the beautiful pictures clic...