Booklist: A Nuclear Family Vacation

A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry, by Sharon Weinberger and Nathan Hodge. 2008. Bloombsbury.

Description

Two Washington, D.C., defense reporters do for nukes what Sarah Vowell did for presidential assassinations in this fascinating, kaleidoscopic portrait of nuclear weaponry.

In A Nuclear Family Vacation, husband-and-wife journalists Sharon Weinberger and Nathan Hodge hit the open road to explore the secretive world of nuclear weaponry. Along the way, they answer the questions most nuclear tourists don’t get to ask: Are nuclear weapons still on hair-trigger alert? Is there such a thing as a suitcase nuke? Is Iran really building the bomb? Together, Weinberger and Hodge visit top-secret locations like the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility in Iran, the United States’ Kwajalein military outpost in the Marshall Islands, the Y-12 facility in Tennessee, and “Site R,” a bunker known as the “Underground Pentagon,” rumored to be Vice President Cheney’s personal “undisclosed location” of choice. Their atomic road trip reveals plans to revitalize the U.S. nuclear arsenal, even as the United States pushes other countries to disarm. Weaving together travel writing with world-changing events, A Nuclear Family Vacation unearths unknown—and often quite entertaining—stories about the nuclear world.

Small Particles Raise Big Questions About Foundations of Physics

From PBS Newshour: Small Particles Raise Big Questions About Foundations of Physics
"May the book bring some one a few happy hours of suggestive thought!!" Albert Einstein wrote that in 1916 at the end of the preface to his groundbreaking book, "Relativity: The Special and General Theory." Scientists around the globe have since spent countless hours -- some perhaps not so happy -- thinking about Einstein's work and the ideas he presented, including the equation E=mc^2, have since served as the bedrock for modern physics.

But the news Friday that a group of European physicists may have discovered that subatomic particles traveled faster than the speed of light (the constant c in Einstein's equation) could call our fundamental understanding of the universe into question.


"The expected reaction is a healthy skepticism that a result this revolutionary can be happening," said Rob Plunkett, a physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.

Listen to a conversation with Rob Plunkett:



Researchers at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, published a paper stating an experiment they conducted demonstrated neutrinos traveled faster than the speed of light.

"Neutrinos are among the weirdest denizens of the weird quantum subatomic world," wrote Dennis Overbee in The New York Times. They are tiny particles believed to travel at the speed of light and are "electrically neutral," meaning they can be pass through matter "like wind through a screen door" or "like a bullet passing through a bank of fog." They come in three varieties, but can change among the three as they travel, something the CERN experiment was intended to detect.

The project, know as Opera, for Oscillation Project with Emulsion-Tracking Apparatus, sent neutrinos from a particle accelerator at CERN outside Geneva, Switzerland, racing some 450 miles to a cavern in Gran Sasso, Italy. The neutrinos arrived roughly 60 nanoseconds faster than light.

"The OPERA measurement is at odds with well-established laws of nature, though science frequently progresses by overthrowing the established paradigms," CERN said in a statement. "For this reason, many searches have been made for deviations from Einstein's theory of relativity, so far not finding any such evidence. The strong constraints arising from these observations makes an interpretation of the OPERA measurement in terms of modification of Einstein's theory unlikely, and give further strong reason to seek new independent measurements."

"It is rather hard to imagine what it means if it is true," said Jenny Thomas, a professor at the University College of London who is now working at the Fermi Lab. "The speed of light being a constant and the maximum speed possible is one of the cornerstones of physics, so it would be much more likely it is some mundane explanation to do with the experiment."

In 2007, scientists at the Fermi Lab also registered neutrinos traveling faster than light, but the difference was within the error rate of the experiment. Their equipment and methods were not as precise then as they are now at CERN. But the scientists at Fermi are now going to try again and see if they can duplicate CERN's findings.

"I believe it will be months and years of happy investigative thought and quite a bit of head banging as well," Plunkett said. "As theoretical physicists try to understand how they would deal with such a thing and we being to work out the details of how to make a definitive yes, no check."

Books to Read: Quantum Man, by Lawrence M. Krauss

Add this book to your To Read List:

Quantum Man: RIchard Feynman's Life in Science, by Lawrence M. Krauss, 2011, WW Norton

Description
Born in Far Rockaway, Queens, Richard Feynman became one of the twentieth century's dominant minds in physics, contributing work that reshaped our understanding of the fundamental forces in nature.

Lawrence M. Krauss's Quantum Man captures the life and science of this enigmatic figure, who would go from running a small radio repair business as a child to working on the Manhattan Project to unraveling the nature of quantum mechanics.

Krauss captured Feynman's relentlessly inquisitive spirit and his near absolute refusal to abide by whay was fashionable or expected; in science and in life.

Along the journey readers encounter some of the great minds of the twentieth century, including Paul Dirac, John von Neumann, and Robert Oppenheimer. With great sensitivity to the historical context in which FEynman worked, Krauss offers miniature physics lessons associated with each of Feynman's discoveries even as he points out the mercurial genius of much of the scientist's work.

Ultimately, as seen in this insightful biography, Feynman's life provides a perspective on the key developments in physics during the second half of the century and many of the puzzles posed by his insights that remain unsolved to this day.

An accessible reflection on the issues that drive physics today, Quantum Man is the story of man who was willing to break all the rules in order to tame a theory that broke all the rules.

The mysterious disappearance (or not) of the physicist who discovered neutrons (or not).

From io9: The mysterious disappearance (or not) of the physicist who discovered neutrons (or not).
In 1938, Ettore Majorana boarded a ship to Naples, and never got off at the other end. Since then people have been debating what happened to the physicist, and whether or not he had a larger part in the history of physics than he's given credit for.

Enrico Fermi, the brilliant physicist who developed the first nuclear reactor and won the Nobel prize for his explorations of radioactivity, might possibly have been eclipsed in his own time by one of his colleagues. Five years younger than Fermi, Ettore Majorana was a rising star in physics when he disappeared in 1938, at the age of 32. Rumors have been swirling around his disappearance since the moment he failed to step off the boat that he was spotted boarding in March - a boat set for Naples.

It's no surprise that Majorana was the center of such a mystery. During his life, he was famously enigmatic. There is evidence that he came up with the proof of the neutron before the official confirmation by James Chadwick, but did not publish his findings. Majorana, it is said, was sure that someone else would discover them and unlike almost everyone else in his profession he hated the spotlight. Fermi, though only slightly older, took it upon himself to mentor Majorana, including hounding him into publishing his paper about some particles, like photons, being their own antiparticles. This brought attention to Majorana; attention he responded to by working in near-complete isolation for years.

Majorana's disappearance caused a sensation and a search at the time, but there have been no real clues turned up since he was first reported missing. Majorana was shy, isolated, and occasionally depressed, and some people worried that he had committed suicide. Although it's possible, his family pointed out that he withdrew his entire savings account shortly before he took the trip. He was also, according to multiple sources, a devout Catholic, making suicide less likely for religious reasons. Some people say he left physics for the quiet life of the Church. Others believe that he had some ties to the mafia and was running from them - or murdered by them. The overall timing of the event is also suspicious. Europe, in 1938, was at the edge of a precipice. Physicists the world over would soon be engaged in one war effort or another. It's possible that Majorana was not interested in becoming part of that effort. Although at the time of his disappearance, no one had conceived that an atomic bomb was possible, some biographers have posited that Majorana was quietly a few steps ahead of everyone and wanted no part of what was to come.

Even the single concrete detail in the case, that Majorana stepped onto a certain boat on a certain day in March, is in dispute. Some believe he deliberately placed a decoy on the boat. Others think the boat trip was simply a fabrication of those he left behind, who naturally wanted some evidence to cling to.

Fermi, when discussing Majorana's disappearance, famously said, "Ettore was too intelligent. If he has decided to disappear, no-one will be able to find him." It looks like he may have been right.

Israel Upgrades Links With European Nuclear Lab

From ABC News: Israel Upgrades Links With European Nuclear Lab
Israel has signed an agreement to upgrade links with the European nuclear physics laboratory CERN, famed for its giant atomic collider beneath the Swiss-French border.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research said Friday it has admitted the country as an associate member pending ratification by Israel's parliament.

Israeli scientists have long collaborated with CERN, including on an experiment searching for the Higgs particle inside the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider. If proven to exist, the Higgs particle could explain why matter has mass.

The Geneva-based organization has 20 members and CERN says Israel can become the first non-European member after a minimum two-year waiting period. The U.S. has observer status at CERN, one step below associate membership.

As Iran edges closer to nukes

From the Politico, an opinion piece: As Iran edges closer to nukes

One country is likely to get increasing attention during the presidential campaign: Iran. So it is important to frame the debate about Iran correctly — without hyping or underestimating the possibility it will get nuclear weapons in the near future.

Compared to four countries that have developed nuclear weapons outside international norms — Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea — Iran has not exactly been sprinting toward a bomb. Yet the Iranian program – which Washington helped start in 1957 – is finally getting close to providing the wherewithal to make nuclear weapons


Iranian leaders insist that they don’t want such weapons — they are proscribed by Islam, they insist, and useless for waging war. Yet they have amassed ever greater quantities of enriched uranium — with no obvious near-term civilian use. Iran now has more than 4,500 kilograms of uranium enriched to 3.5 percent U-235 and 70 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20 percent U-235, according to the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. That’s enough material, if further enriched, for four or five nuclear weapons.

In contrast to other nuclear outliers, Iran still skates within the boundaries of the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The treaty legalized the arsenals of the five earliest nuclear states – the U.S., Russia, China, France and Britain – and gave other signatories the right to develop peaceful nuclear power. Iran allows the IAEA to inspect its overt nuclear facilities. Most recently, it let inspectors see a heavy water production plant and heavy water reactor – which could eventually yield plutonium, another potential bomb fuel. Iran also allowed the U.N. watchdog to visit a facility for the production of advanced centrifuges that could more quickly convert uranium to bomb material.

But there are limits to Iranian cooperation. Tehran refuses to allow IAEA personnel to interview Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a nuclear physicist and officer in the Revolutionary Guards, who allegedly directed nuclear weapons research. Iran also won’t answer questions about alleged studies of nuclear warheads and means of initiating nuclear explosions.

Olli Heinonen, a former IAEA deputy director, says the last time there were “meaningful” talks with Iran about the apparent military dimensions of its program was in summer, 2008.

“The same group of guys who work with high explosives worked with neutron initiators,” Heinonen told me, for a new Atlantic Council report on the reliability of intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program. http://www.acus.org/publication/how-reliable-intelligence-irans-nuclear-program

“When you take the high explosives, the neutron physics and the missile reentry vehicle, it looks like something to do with a nuclear weapon. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and has feet like a duck — it most likely is a duck.”

Will this duck ever take flight? Does Iran really want a bomb or just to keep the world guessing about its intentions and capabilities?

The current state of nuclear ambiguity suits Iranian leaders for strategic and psychological reasons. Iranian leaders clearly enjoy causing anxiety to the United States and other pillars of an international order that has largely spurned Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution. This is especially true of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, scheduled to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly next week — and again likely to infuriate many listeners with outrageous comments about 9-11 and Israel.


On a deeper strategic level, however, Iranian leaders see their nuclear program as providing prestige and deterrence against foreign invasion. With the recent regime-change experiences of near-nuclear states Iraq and Libya in mind, as well as the current troubles of nuclear wannabe Syria, Iran is unlikely to give up enriching uranium. But may stop short of testing a nuclear device.

The U.S. and its allies can help keep the lid on through a mix of policies — including better implementation of sanctions on nuclear-related materials, interdiction of these materials and continued sabotage of equipment and computer software. Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA has been spotty, but improved Western surveillance techniques unmasked in 2009 a secret enrichment facility burrowed into a mountain near Qom.


Iran’s unsettled domestic politics since its disputed presidential elections and mounting economic woes also provide fertile ground for recruiting scientists to reveal more nuclear secrets. More rigorous U.S. intelligence practices since the Iraq fiasco of 2003 give confidence that analysts are neither underestimating or exaggerating Iran’s progress.

Washington should also remain open to diplomacy, and seek to gain from the fact that Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Salehi, is an MIT-educated physicist, who has headed the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization and represented Iran at the IAEA. Diplomacy should test whether Iran would be willing to cap enrichment and accept more rigorous inspections — in return for civilian nuclear cooperation and sanctions relief.

To create a more conducive atmosphere for diplomatic solutions, the United States and other NPT-recognized nuclear powers must keep their own commitments to ban nuclear testing and accelerate nuclear disarmament. They should try harder to convince India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel to curb their programs, and press India and Pakistan to reach arms control agreements.

The goal for Washington and the international community should be to convince Iran that it can lose more than it gains from crossing the nuclear threshold – triggering an arms race with wealthier Arabs, for example, that sanctions-strapped Iran cannot win.

Nuclear weapons did not save the old Soviet Union and will not insure the survival of the Islamic Republic in a region undergoing massive political change. Only an Iranian government that genuinely addresses the needs and aspirations of its people can be confident of enduring.

Barbara Slavin is a nonresident senior fellow at The Atlantic Council, former senior diplomatic reporter for USA Today and former Mideast correspondent for The Economist. She interviewed Muammar Qadhafi in 2000.

Want to Be A Nuclear Physicist in Austria?

Found this job posting on UN Job Monster:

http://www.unjobmonster.com/f852e049176719e996d2-nuclear-physicist-codes-development.html
2011/102
Organization: IAEA

Duty Station: Vienna - Austria

Deadline: 27 Oct 2011 (39 days left)

Level: P-3
Duration: Fixed term, 3 years (subject to a probationary period of 1 year)

The Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences is one of several divisions and laboratories in the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications. The Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences (NAPC) is responsible for carrying out IAEA activities to assist and advise Member States in assessing their needs for research and development in the nuclear sciences, as well as in supporting their activities in specific fields, including: industrial applications of radiation and isotopes; isotope hydrology and geochemistry; nuclear and analytical chemistry; nuclear and atomic data for applications; plasma physics applications; controlled nuclear fusion; production of radioisotopes and labelled compounds; radiation chemistry; and utilization of research reactors.

The Nuclear Data Section, one of four Sections in the Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences in the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, is primarily responsible for the maintenance and provision of a number of high-quality nuclear databases and providing services to users worldwide.

The operating environment is dynamic, participative and interactive with inputs received from the Board of Governors, the General Conference, policy and decision-makers, and technical counterparts in Member States and the international development community.

Main purpose
As a member of the Nuclear Data Development Unit, led by the Unit Head and with additional guidance from the Section Head, the Nuclear Physicist (Codes Development) leads Coordinated Research Projects (CRPs), produces publications, develops databases and software tools relevant to international users, develops and implements training workshops, assists Member States to access nuclear data and provides technical assistance at the request of Member States.

Role
The Nuclear Physicist (Codes Development) is: (a) a programme developer and implementer, providing input in planning and developing the IAEA's programme in the fields of analytical techniques and nuclear structure and decay data; (b) a technical expert, carrying out the compilation of data leading to the production of databases and leading technical coordination of work carried out by Member States; (c) a technical and project officer, promoting, coordinating and evaluating moderately complex CRPs in the area of nuclear data applications.

Partnerships
The Nuclear Physicist (Codes Development) interacts with appropriate counterparts in other international and national nuclear data centres and Member States' institutions for the implementation of nuclear data activities; consults with staff in other departments on the Section's activities; participates in the development of technical reports and of presentations for training workshops. The incumbent works closely with appropriate technical departments within the IAEA, Member States' institutions and other relevant international organizations to ensure the effective implementation of nuclear data activities.

Functions / Key Results Expected
* Provide input to develop and implement the IAEA's programme in analytical techniques and nuclear structure and decay data.

* Plan and conduct Technical Meetings in the area of analytical techniques and provide substantive technical input to other Technical Meetings in the general area of nuclear structure and decay data, including assistance in preparing the scope, selecting participants, coordinating the preparation of reports and documentation.

* Carry out programming work required for the provision of software tools and databases for analytical and nuclear structure and decay data applications.

* Carry out technical work in the evaluation of nuclear structure and decay data as input to international databases.

* Promote, coordinate and evaluate moderately complex CRPs involving participants from several Member States and conduct studies and assessments related to issues and trends.

* Plan, organize and conduct training for various topics related to analytical techniques and nuclear structure data.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
* In-depth knowledge and experience of nuclear physics' principles and state-of-the-art experimental techniques.

* Awareness of common approaches to the methodology of evaluation of data and knowledge of data formats as well as of the work of international networks in these areas.

* Substantial knowledge of computer programming languages and use of SQL for the extraction of data from databases. Good general computer skills are required, particularly in standard office applications.

* Interpersonal skills: Ability to operate across organizational boundaries, establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.

* Ability to work with a high degree of independence, including the planning and carrying out of tasks on a day-to-day basis.

* Communication skills: Demonstrated ability to speak, write and present information effectively in a training environment.

Education, Experience and Language Skills
* PhD or equivalent advanced university degree in nuclear physics or a related field.

* Minimum of five years of combined relevant experience at the national/international level in a relevant field.

* Proven experience in production of nuclear data files.

* Experience in programming languages and computer skills for scientific applications.

* Experience in organizing training courses, workshops and seminars desirable.

* Fluency in spoken and written English. Knowledge of another official language of the IAEA (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) desirable.

Remuneration
The IAEA offers an attractive remuneration package including a tax-free annual net base salary starting at US $56 018 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance), a variable post adjustment which currently amounts to US $39 157*, dependency benefits, rental subsidy, education grant, relocation and repatriation expenses; 6 weeks' annual vacation, home leave, pension plan and health insurance.

China: 1-3 Nov, 2011: International symposium on frontiers in nuclear physics

PR: International symposium on frontiers in nuclear physics
We are glad to announce the second International Symposium on Frontiers in Nuclear Physics. We hope to organize such an international symposium every year at Beihang University as a way to contribute to the enhancement of collaboration in the area of Nuclear Science and Technology. The first one was held in October of 2010.

The subject we focus on in this year is "Tensor interaction in nuclear and hadron physics". This does not mean other interesting subjects are excluded. The venue is Beihang University in Beijing of China. The time of the meeting is 2-3 of November. Using this occasion, we would like to hold an opening ceremony of Research Center of Nuclear Science and Technology (RCNST) at Beihang University. The opening ceremony will be held in Nov. 1 and all the participants are invited for the event.

As for the topic of the second International Symposium, we would like to focus on the role of tensor interactions on the structure of nuclei and hadrons. Tensor interactions play important roles in Nuclear Physics. In deuteron, about 80% of attraction comes from the tensor interaction. The tensor interaction is the major term of the pion exchange interaction. The work of the Argonne group on light mass nuclei (A<10) demonstrates about 80% of the attraction is due to the pion exchange interaction. The tensor interaction provides specific configurations that influence the shell structure. All these things became clear in the recent research works and we would like to bring scientists who work on the tensor interaction from both theory and experimental sides. The pion is related with the chiral symmetry. Hence, it has a strong influence on hadron physics. Recently, the role of the tensor interaction is studied in the spectra of heavy quark systems as well.

Registration
For those who are interested, please register before October 20th, 2011 by filling out the registration form. Please also tell us whether you will attend the opening ceremony of RCNST. Registration fee is 500 CNY (approximately 6000 JPY) to cover coffee break and conference venue and should be paid in cash (CNY) at the conference registration desk.

Contribution:
All participants are encouraged to give an oral presentation, though we may have to select the talks depending on the number of contributions. Please send us a title and a brief abstract through the "Submit a new abstract" page.

Chairmen: Isao Tanihata and Jie Meng
Scientific secretaries: Hiroshi Toki and Lisheng Geng
Organizing committee: Gaolong Zhang, Hongyan Cai, ChunYan Song, Atsushi Hosaka

Fermi, Volcanoes, and the Dark Art of Estimation

From Technology Review.com: Fermi, Volcanoes, and the Dark Art of Estimation
Enrico Fermi was renowned for his ability to make reliable estimates. But how well can you do on a modern estimation problem?

During the first test of an atomic bomb on 16 July, 1945, one important question was the yield of the weapon. During the test, the Nobel-prize winning physicist Enrico Fermi, one of the leaders of the team, estimated that it was about 10 kilotons.

This was more than a mere guess. As the shockwave from the explosion hit the Base Camp where Fermi was observing the test, he method threw a handful of paper scraps into the air and watched how far the shock moved them.

Then. with a few straightforward assumptions, he made an estimate that turned out to be reasonably accurate. The actual yield turned out to be 19 kilotons.

Fermi was a master of estimation, an art that is worth acquiring. He famously set his students problems such as estimating the number of piano tuners in Chicago. This involves making a number of reasonable assumptions such as as the number of people living in Chicago, in how many houses there is a piano, how often a piano should be tuned, how long it takes for a tuner to do the work and so on.

In this spirit, Hernan Asory and Arturo Lopez Davalos at the Comision Nacional De Energia Atomica in Argentina, have set themselves (and their students) a similar estimation task. The problem is to estimate the energy release as well as the volume and mass of sand ejected during the eruption of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile on 4 July.

You can look up the calculations and the assumption they make in the paper. You might want to try the estimate yourself.

I'll just leave you with a couple of very general but impressive figures: These guys conclude that the volcano produced 24 million truckloads of sand and released as much energy as the entire Argentinian electric power grid generates in 2.3 days.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1109.1165: Fermi Problem: Power developed at the eruption of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic system in June 2011

Is fundamentals of Applied Nuclear Physics class HARD

Someone asked this question on Yahoo Answers.

Is fundamentals of Applied Nuclear Physics class HARD?
(I thought that question was amusing, considering all the other classes this guy had taken, as he describes below:)

I'm studying Electrical engineering (Junior ) and planning to take Nuclear engineering as Minor. I have to take three courses in order to have this minor. I don't know if these classes are hard. the three classes are :
first one focus on " introduction to quantum mechanics, nuclear forces and nuclear structure, nuclear stability and reactions, natural and induced radioactivity"

Second class is Introduction to Radiation Physics and Dosimetry
Third class is Introduction to Nuclear Engineering.

I have completed many math classes (Cal 1,2, Linear algebra and DE)
I took Physic last summer (Waves, Optics, & Thermodynamic)

He only received one answer, not surprising considering the fact that he was asking this question on "Yahoo Answers."

You have all the background you need; work as hard as you did in your previous courses and you will succeed.

But the answer is correct.

Rebalancing the Nuclear Debate Through Education

From Science News Daily: Rebalancing the Nuclear Debate Through Education
ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2011) — Better physics teaching with a particular emphasis on radioactivity and radiation science could improve public awareness through education of the environmental benefits and relative safety of nuclear power generation, according to leading Brazilian scientist Heldio Villar. He suggests that it might then be possible to have a less emotional debate about the future of the industry that will ultimately reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

To environmental activists, nuclear power and environmental preservation are two antagonistic concepts. Nevertheless, nuclear power can generate huge amounts of electrical and heat energy with minimal impact on the planet, particularly in terms of much lower carbon emissions and pollution than is seen with power generation based on burning fossil fuels. Because of this cultural clash, activists have prognosticated doom for a world if we pursue the nuclear energy option, leading to public distrust of the nuclear industry and its relatives, nuclear research installations and particle accelerators.

"The introduction of the theoretical bases of radioactivity, radiation physics and nuclear power plants in the environmental education curricula will certainly result in a greater awareness of the public towards the reality surrounding radiation and radioactivity," says Villar of the University of Pernambuco, who not surprising also works for Brazil's Nuclear Energy Commission. "This initiative, coupled with a more realistic approach towards nuclear risks on the part of nuclear regulators and licensers, has the potential to make nuclear applications -- not only in electric energy production but in other areas -- more palatable to a public squeamish of another Three Mile Island or Chernobyl and the specter of nuclear weapons, rendering it more prepared to reap the benefits thereof."

Ironically, in the 1950s and 1960s, nuclear power was once hailed as the best option for an energy-starved world. Nuclear reactors were seen as modern, reliable and, above all, capable of producing electricity 'too cheap to meter'. Into the 1970s, the oil crisis sparked the first major interest in going nuclear on a much wider scale. However, even before Three Mile Island, activist groups such as Greenpeace were sounding unwarranted alarm bells and popular movies such as the China Syndrome, which does not have a disastrous ending, were fuelling the anti-nuclear movement.

Villar points out that it is widely accepted that Brazil and several other nations, are entirely capable of launching successful nuclear power programs, given their expertise, the availability of nuclear fuel and the pressures such as a lack of coal and the rising price of oil. "Electrical energy is scarce and obviously expensive," says Villar, "a situation seen in several other countries." Supposed "green" solutions, such as hydroelectric power, which has already been fully exploited in Brazil, as well as gas turbines, solar and wind power, tidal power and biomass, do not represent a cheaper alternative to nuclear he asserts.

EMCOR Group, Inc. Subsidiary Awarded Contract for Installation of All Mechanical and Fire Protection Systems at University of Pittsburgh Project

A press release from Aug 25, 2011: EMCOR Group, Inc. Subsidiary Awarded Contract for Installation of All Mechanical and Fire Protection Systems at University of Pittsburgh Project
NORWALK, Conn., Aug 25, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- EMCOR Group, Inc. /quotes/zigman/146153/quotes/nls/eme EME -5.68% , a Fortune 500(R) leader in mechanical and electrical construction, energy infrastructure and facilities services for a diverse range of businesses announced that its subsidiary EMCOR Services Scalise Industries has been awarded a contract for the installation of all mechanical and fire protection systems in the Nuclear Physics Laboratory Building at the University of Pittsburgh, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

EMCOR Services Scalise will be responsible for installing all the mechanical and fire protection systems within the 22,260 square foot Nuclear Physics Laboratory Building located within the "Mid Campus District Early Renovations" section of the University. Encompassing 3 levels and a Penthouse, which includes 13 new leading-edge physics laboratories for the department of Physics and Astronomy, scope of work will include demolition of existing lab space, and construction and installation of a number of different sophisticated systems. These systems range from high efficiency particulate air filters, unique humidity controls, special exhaust systems, and special lab gas piping, to all fire protection systems, including pre-action systems, and all connections necessary for a complete and functioning fire protection system. Scope of work will also include the installation of all heating and cooling, plumbing, specialty gases, chilled and heating water systems, and indoor air-handling units.

The project will be constructed with the goal of achieving LEED Certification through sustainable construction approaches recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council. The building design has addressed energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emission reduction, and improved indoor air quality, all which will be executed in full or in part by EMCOR Services Scalise.

The project is being funded both by the University of Pittsburgh and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Across the HVAC, plumbing, and fire protection work being performed, it is estimated that approximately 54 specialty trade workers will be employed over a period of one year as a result of this project.

"We are pleased to again be working with the University of Pittsburgh and are thrilled to have been selected to perform the mechanical work for this important project within its 'Mid Campus District Early Renovations' section," stated Mark Scalise, President and CEO of EMCOR Services Scalise. "The scope of this work requires a breadth and depth of expertise that optimally leverages our extensive skills and experience."

About EMCOR Group, Inc.
A Fortune 500 company with estimated 2011 revenues of ~$5.5B, EMCOR Group, Inc. /quotes/zigman/146153/quotes/nls/eme EME -5.68% is a global leader in mechanical and electrical construction, energy infrastructure, and facilities services. A leading provider of critical infrastructure systems, EMCOR gives life to new structures and sustains life in existing ones by its planning, installing, operating, maintaining, and protecting the sophisticated and dynamic systems that create facility environments---such as electrical, mechanical, lighting, air conditioning, heating, security, fire protection, and power generation systems---in virtually every sector of the economy and for a diverse range of businesses, organizations and government. EMCOR represents a rare combination of broad reach with local execution, combining the strength of an industry leader with the knowledge and care of 170 locations.

The ~26,000 skilled employees of EMCOR have made the company, in the eyes of leading business publications, amongst the "World's Most Admired" and "Best Managed". EMCOR's diversity---in terms of the services it provides, the industries it serves and the geography it spans---has enabled it to create a stable platform for sustained results. The Company's strong financial position has enabled it to attract and retain among the best local and regional talent, to undertake and complete the most ambitious projects, and to redefine and shape the future of the construction and facilities services industry. Additional information on EMCOR can be found at www.EMCORGroup.com .

TO GET THE QUESTION RIGHT

From The Telegraph India: TO GET THE QUESTION RIGHT
The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, while speaking at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Calcutta on August 21, 2011, described nuclear energy as an important factor in the economic growth of India. He encouraged nuclear physicists to work on this subject and also enhance the safety of this technology. The issues involved, however, are not so simple when a broader assessment of the present global push towards nuclear power is made. This push, described as the renaissance of nuclear technology, needs to be seen in the historical-political context.

Scientific enquiry and technological innovations have been driven by the survival instinct, which led to the development of weapons for killing competing communities. World War I stands out as a watershed in the evolution of science and technology for developing weapons for the destruction of living beings. These activities grew very rapidly in the post-World War I period, when the scale of governmental and corporate investment in research and development of weapons of mass destruction became astoundingly large. The race for making the first atomic bomb was won by the United States of America when the Manhattan Project established destructive technological supremacy by causing the deaths of many innocent human beings in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and later in Nagasaki. It was probably the largest field testing of the atomic weapon.

While investments in military research have mounted after that, the modification of products of military research has opened up the civilian market for them. Thus, scientific knowledge associated with the production of atomic weapons was put to use in the commercial generation of nuclear energy. This has been the growth path of modern technologies, whether it is solid-state electronics or jet-propulsion applications.

In India, in spite of the debates on the nuclear policy, information about nuclear research and development remains largely classified because of its strategic significance. Such confidentiality about nuclear power starts from mining nuclear fuels, processing ores, extracting nuclear materials, generating nuclear power, all the way to the storage and safe disposal of nuclear wastes.

Thirty-one countries now have functioning nuclear power plants. In India, rapid expansion of nuclear power generation capacities is on the official card. Anti-nuclear positions are taken by Australia, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, and so on. Following the disaster in March 2011 at the Fukushima nuclear power station in Japan, a new wave of debate has emerged all over the world on the desirability or otherwise of nuclear power, though it has been prescribed as a “clean” source of energy by the prime minister for unhindered economic growth.

In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, common people all over the world demonstrated against the expansion of nuclear power generation. China, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Thailand, and so on have started seriously rethinking their nuclear plans. In Italy, a national referendum went against nuclear power. In India, though there has been no declaration of rethinking at the national governmental level, the West Bengal government took a stand against it.

As India starts an ambitious expansion of civil nuclear power generation, the question whether we have undergone an open options assessment for energy technologies is being raised. Growing incidences of nuclear disaster have further focused public opinion on the issue of liability and desirability of such an energy path. Protests that started against nuclear weapons and later expanded to nuclear power constitute the ‘anti- nuclear movement’. In July, 1977 in Bilbao, Spain, 200,000 people demonstrated against nuclear power. In the aftermath of the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, New York witnessed an anti-nuclear protest by about a quarter of a million people. To protest against the Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant west of Hamburg, some 100,000 people confronted 10,000 police officers in 1981. A million marched against nuclear weapons in New York on June 12, 1982. In May 1986, following the Chernobyl disaster and as a protest against the Italian nuclear programme, about 200,000 people marched in Rome. In a recent report on the real economics of this energy path, entitled Nuclear Power Subsidies: the Gift that Keeps on Taking, the US’s Union of Concerned Scientists has exposed the growing dependence of the nuclear power sector on subsidies. So the energy expert, Arjun Makhijani, has charted a carbon-free and non-nuclear energy road map for the US that needs the attention of policymakers even in India.

The anti-nuclear movement has three main platforms. The first is the risk to living beings, both from the plants and the wastes. The wastes include isotopes with half-lives of several thousands of years, during which time they need safe storage. The second is the real economics of nuclear power, the actual cost of its generation and whether it is as “clean” a technology as described by its promoters. The third is the lack of transparency and the destructive power associated with it.

However, anti-nuclear movements in India and probably in many other countries have not connected their protests with the broader issue of available energy options. The efficient use of energy resources at all levels has become urgent. But in India, the rich and the middle class have shown scant interest in energy efficiency or technological choices as long as energy supplies to the homes and the factories are smooth. The richer consumers have become comfortable with subsidized non-renewable energy sources, pampered by politicians supporting subsidy on non-renewables. If sustainable and efficient use of energy had been a serious priority, solar-based technologies would have found far greater popular use. Unconcerned dependence on non-renewable energy sources and the assumption that energy supplies to maintain the growing standards of living in India should be made available ad infinitum by the government, without options assessment, provides the backdrop for the nuclear energy discourse in India.

Driven by the Copenhagen Accord, some steps to promote energy efficiency are being taken in recent months, but a lot of indigenous research and development should have already been done, considering the level of our problems. An example is the lack of widespread use of rooftop passive solar cells, especially in the west of the country, which has 250 or more sunny days. In the case of active solar cells, research towards greater efficiency of conversion in photovoltaic-cells is a very important priority. In the industrialized world, large, futuristic investments are being made on research towards this objective. India, with its competence in solid-state and surface physics, can become a front-runner in this race. The impact of the development of high temperature superconductors will be similar. In these challenges, frontiers of modern physics and energy technology merge. The advances made in non-conventional energy development in China have not woken us up either. In addition, the question of distributive equity has always raised important questions about technological choices.

Whether it is the governmental policy in favour of nuclear power or the popular movements against it, positions need to be taken with a more comprehensive perspective. The movement against nuclear power needs to be connected with the broader perspective on energy, beyond the narrow ideas of risks associated with this technology, however real they may be. If the risks of living with nuclear wastes are to be avoided, the starting point for the people will be to embrace organic wastes as sources of energy. If social movements do not address this challenge, the government would continue with the arguments of developmental needs and of having “no alternative” to the expansion of the nuclear power sector.

Jobs, family ‘matter’ to Grau

From the Pontiac Daily Leader: Jobs, family ‘matter’ to Grau

Pontiac, Ill. — For Nathan Grau, a 1996 Flanagan High School graduate, who starred in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat many summers ago, “Any Dream Will Not Do.”

Grau is an assistant professor of physics at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D. He is the son of Mary Jo Heath and Gary Grau.

In high school, he read the book, “The God Particle" by Leon Lederman, then the director of Fermi National Laboratory outside of Chicago. Lederman did his Nobel Prize winning work at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., and after reading his book, Grau knew this is what he wanted to be doing. “Amazingly and somewhat miraculously,” Grau has achieved his goal.

Grau graduated from Millikin University with a bachelor of science degree in physics and minor degrees in astronomy and mathematics. From there he went to Iowa State to work on his doctorate in physics. As a PhD student he studied with the experimental nuclear physics group working on the Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction eXperiement (PHENIX), a collaboration of 500 scientists and engineers from around the world.

“This collaboration built and continues to maintain a three-story tall, 200-ton detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC, pronounced “Rick”) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. RHIC is a particle accelerator that takes beams of particles, accelerates them to almost the speed of light, and steers them into collision. When RHIC collides gold beams, thousands of particles are produced. The PHENIX detector acts like a giant digital camera which images those particles coming out of the collision. Scientists then use those particles to recreate what happened when the gold collided,” said Grau.

Why is this interesting to us? “When those gold beams collide, a new state of hot and dense matter is formed and is how the universe looked one millionth of a second after the Big Bang. These are extremely short-lived little bursts. The 1 trillion degree region expands and cools after ten-thousands of a billionth of a billionth of a second. Scientists at PHENIX, in essence, study the infant universe.”

After graduating with a PhD in nuclear physics in 2005, Grau moved on to continue his education and apply his trade. He took a job as a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University in New York City. There he continued to work on the PHENIX experiment. He also became a member of the ATLAS collaboration, the collaboration that maintains one of the detectors at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, the particle accelerator made famous in Dan Brown's "Angles and Demons," he said.

At Columbia, Grau continued his work studying the early universe at both PHENIX and ATLAS. He played an important role in a project which produced the first major physics result from the Large Hadron Collider. In a paper Grau submitted last November, he strikingly confirmed “that the early universe is a dense liquid rather than a gas as people generally expected,” he said.

“What we learned early on in the experiment is that we saw high energy particles soaked up by the soup that is the universe a millionth of a second after the Big Bang. Basically (with ATLAS), we can ask more detailed questions that we can answer,” Grau said.

That’s right, the first millionth of a second of the Big Bang was more like a log flume ride than a gun blowing up a balloon and popping carnival game analogy. At least, according to the data Grau has presented.

And what are the ramifications for the common man? While Grau admits that the basic science doesn't have any direct impact on our daily lives. There are a number of indirect consequences of this work. The detectors “push the limits of engineering. The things we have learned have helped us make better, more accurate, PET and MRI detectors.”

“Scientists also push the limit of computing technology. PHENIX produces 1 petabyte, that's 1,000 gigabytes, of data per year that we have to share with colleagues around the world. Things like distributed computing, which are buzz words now, were being dreamed up 15 years ago by these experiments. Not to mention, the World Wide Web was developed by scientists to share data,” Grau added.

The fourth job Grau holds is his greatest love — teaching upper division courses for physics majors, introductory-level general education courses and even a computer science course. “During the summer months I only had one class to teach and had money to pay a student to do research with me. So, I was spending time analyzing data predominately. During the school year, I teach two and half classes.”

“The preparation for a college course is extensive and this is only my second year of teaching full-time, so I spend a lot of time preparing lectures, demonstrations, assignments, exams, grading and helping out students who are stuck, etc.,” he said.

Grau said he also loved talking to students of any age about science. “It is crucial to get the young people interested in science.”

Grau hates to admit it, but sometimes his job as a husband and dad takes a back seat to his other four jobs. He has a wife, Nikki, and two children, Brandon, 6, and Sadie, 4. He enjoys camping with his son and in his spare time, he likes to read the novels of John Grisham and watch sports on TV.

Grau says he loves his jobs. “I love learning new things. I can do this through my research in physics and through the teaching and interacting I do with other students.”

The aspect he enjoys most is the travel. “I have been to three continents and around a dozen countries, mostly in Europe. I have also been in China and India. This has put me in touch with a number of foreign nationals with opportunity to learn other cultures from my colleagues,” Grau said.

Grau thinks he is a good fit for these jobs because he is people friendly. “I believe very strongly that a good scientist needs to be able to not only discuss things with their peers, but also relate science information to everyone.

“Sometimes I enjoy my work so much, I get lost," he continued. "I forget to sleep. Sleep is erratic. I just love my job.”

When asked about what faith-based people might say about his research, Grau replied, “Religion and science are all searching after the same thing. We just might come at it from slightly different viewpoints. My opinion is not to take the Bible literally. It was not intended to be absolute. It was written to show God’s love. Everyone has a right to their opinion. I can respect any opinion.

“Actually, Augustana (in Sioux Falls, S.D.) is refreshingly open in their discussions. Students are free to ask tough questions,” he said. He added that Augustana is an Evangelical Lutheran Church of America College.

If Grau was teaching students in Flanagan, he would say, “Work hard. That’s my biggest asset.”

His mom, Mary Jo Heath, echoes that remark.”I am so proud of him because he has done all the work himself. He is such a hard worker and really has stick-to-it-ism.

“When he was 2, I showed him the Big Dipper. Then when he was in Tiger Cubs, he went to the Planetarium. Then we bought him telescopes and things. I always thought he would be a teacher and author papers. I guess with his research he does that,” she said.

Grau’s father thinks he works hard also. “I am very proud of Nathan. I have followed his career from Millikin to his thesis defense at Iowa State even to Prague in the Czech Republic. I think when he was younger, he was more interested in math — in college at Iowa State, his professor kind of took him under his wing and steered him into physics.”

When asked if he would have rather have grown up in a big city rather than Flanagan, he replied, “It is mixed. I first became interested in science by spending hours outside on the farm looking at the stars. I could not have done that in a big city. Life is slow in the small towns and so I had plenty of time to ponder and wonder and think. The advantage of a larger city would have been a little more opportunity of advanced schooling. Looking back, I was more prepared to take more advanced courses in science and math than was available in Flanagan, but I made up for it in college and graduate school.”

In 10 years from now, Grau hopes to still be teaching at Augustana or another liberal arts college in the United States. “I want to work for a college that values professors who are doing research with the students rather than just classroom learning. With science, this is difficult. The fiscal state of the union is quite uncertain. The funding for basic science comes nearly exclusively from the federal government.”

“There are plans to upgrade detectors at Brookhaven and run the facility beyond 2020. There is an exciting opportunity here in South Dakota where the plan is to build a new facility in the abandoned Homestake mine near Rapid City to study things called neutrinos and dark matter. Over 75 percent of the matter of the world is dark matter and we have no idea what it is composed of. People are trying to find out what it is, but it is elusive.

“In science, we celebrate what we don’t understand and we continue to poke the things that we think we understand,” Grau said.

Grau is not just living the dream; he is living his dream.

China’s Nuclear-Power Chief: A Spy?

From The New Yorker: China’s Nuclear-Power Chief: A Spy?

When Kang Rixin, the head of China’s nuclear-power program, was sentenced to life in prison last November for taking bribes, it was a troubling enough piece of news. Given the speed, scale, and ambition of China’s nuclear program—it has more plants in the planning stage than the rest of the world combined—it did not project reassuring evidence that China has shielded this crucial program from the kind of construction-corruption that has dogged the high-speed rail system.

Today brought startling news. Midway through a video leaked on the Chinese Web, a senior military official explains previously unknown details about major spying cases uncovered in recent years, including the fact that bribery was hardly the most serious accusation against Kang. He is accused of selling secrets about China’s nuclear power industry to foreign countries. “Kang’s case can’t be made public because the damage he has done by selling secrets was a lot more devastating than economic losses,” Major General Jin Yinan said in the video.

If true, it would make Kang one of China’s highest-ranking figures to be accused of spying. (Before his downfall, he was a member of the Communist Party’s elite Central Committee and the Central Disciplinary Committee.) Before we start conjuring images of a Chinese A. Q. Khan, it’s worth remembering that Kang had no (known) involvement with the weapons programs, and that selling secrets is a flexible notion in China; accusations that might lead to charges of simple bribery one day can be upgraded to divulging “business secrets” the next.

But the reason for concern is what this says about the technical and management rigor surrounding the world’s most ambitious nuclear program. If the boss—a man who has already gained access to the highest ranks of political and economic power—was willing to sell access, what were the frustrated staff beneath him willing do to do?

Related: The Guardian is reporting this week that a leaked U.S. cable out of Beijing says that China “has ‘vastly increased’ the risk of a nuclear accident by opting for cheap technology that will be 100 years old by the time dozens of its reactors reach the end of their lifespans.”

Taking the Impossible Photograph

From The New York Times: Taking the Impossible Photograph

David Yoder is not an art historian. Nor is he a physicist. “In fact,” Mr. Yoder said, “I’m positive I would have failed any physics course.”

Mr. Yoder is a freelance photographer. But an article in Saturday’s Arts section chronicles the unusual marriage of art history and nuclear physics with which he is involved.

Mr. Yoder’s project, which is on Kickstarter, came from a decades-long, much publicized search for “The Battle of Anghiari,” the lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci thought to be hidden behind a wall-sized Vasari fresco in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio.

Mr. Yoder wants to photograph the long-lost painting. His first task, however, is raising funds for the project, which is supported but not entirely funded by the National Geographic Society. The goal — a whopping $266,500 — sounds high, and it is. (Mr. Yoder called it “ambitious.”) The money will go toward imaging the painting, a complicated process that involves building and testing a gamma camera.

As the story goes, Leonardo began working on the painting in 1505 and abandoned the task the next year. In the 1560s, Giorgio Vasari covered the oil painting with a protective wall and painted a fresco on top. The art historian Maurizio Seracini has been searching for the lost painting since the 1970s.

When Mr. Yoder heard about the search, it captured his imagination. He wanted to find a way to photograph an image behind more than five inches of brick and plaster. So after much time on Google, he found the one person in the world who builds a copper crystal mosaic gamma-ray diffraction lens: the nuclear physicist Robert Smither, at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.

The more time he has spent with the project, the more sure Mr. Yoder is of the painting’s existence. And despite the challenge before him, he’s excited. “Even in its day,” he said, “it was considered, I’m told, a turning point in the Renaissance. I would think that you could liken it to what King Tut was to archeology.”

By February, Mr. Yoder and his team will need to have purchased, assembled and tested a portable particle accelerator and germanium crystal detector.

Unfortunately, as he noted, “You can’t buy them at Wal-Mart.”