Astronauts Going to Mars Will Absorb Crazy Amounts of Radiation. Now We Know How Much. https://www.space.com/41887-mars-radiation-too-much-for-astronauts.html By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer | September 20, 2018, There are plenty of challenges to putting people on Mars, whether you look at the rocket, the astronaut or the planet itself.
New data from one of the many spacecraft at work around Mars confirm just how dangerous a round-trip human journey would be by measuring the amount of radiation an astronaut would experience.
Cosmic radiation is made up of incredibly tiny particles moving incredibly fast, nearly at the speed of light — the sort of phenomenon a human body isn’t very well equipped to withstand. That radiation travels across all of space, but Earth’s atmosphere buffers us from the worst of its impacts. That means the farther away from Earth’s surface you go, the more cosmic radiation your body absorbs. [Space Radiation Threat to Astronauts Explained (Infographic)]
By the time you’re traveling to and from Mars, that gets to be a very big problem. “Radiation doses accumulated by astronauts in interplanetary space would be several hundred times larger than the doses accumulated by humans over the same time period on Earth, and several times larger than the doses of astronauts and cosmonauts working on the International Space Station,” Jordanka Semkova, a physicist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and lead scientist on the new research, said in a statement. “Our results show that the journey itself would provide very significant exposure for the astronauts to radiation.”
Those results are based on data from the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter, a spacecraft that has been circling the Red Planet since 2016. One of the instruments it carries is a dosimeter, which has been taking measurements throughout the orbiter’s journey.
According to the team behind the new research, those measurements show that just getting to and from Mars would expose astronauts to at least 60 percent of the current recommended maximum career exposure.
What precisely that recommended maximum is varies with sex and age, but it ranges from 1 sievert for a 25-year-old woman to 4 sieverts for a 55-year-old man. (The measurement of sieverts already accounts for differences in weight.)
But 60 percent just for the round-trip is particularly concerning, since presumably the point of going to Mars is to spend at least a little time on the planet’s surface — ideally, without overdosing on radiation.
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
2 WORLD, radiation, technology |
Leave a comment
Big research payments in radiation oncology are distributed only to a few, Radiology Business, September 19, 2018 | Subrata Thakar |New research in the Journal of the American College of Radiology suggests an association between disclosed payment from the healthcare industry and increased individual productivity metrics.
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA |
Leave a comment
Wales Online 17th Sept 2018 , Protesters seeking an injunction to stop the dumping of mud from Hinkley
Point nuclear power station off the coast of Cardiff have had their
application adjourned after the energy company behind the dumping admitted
it had given inaccurate information to the High Court.
In documents submitted to the court in Cardiff by NNB Generation Company (HPC) Ltd – a
wholly owned subsidiary of the French energy giant EDF – it was argued
that the dumping did not require an environmental impact assessment (EIA)
under European regulations.
However, the company’s barrister James
McClelland told the court that an environmental statement was made by the
company at the time it sought approval for the whole Hinkley Point C power
station in Somerset, the successor to two previous nuclear power stations
on the same site.
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Legal, UK |
Leave a comment
Guardian 19th Sept 2018 Companies including Facebook, Google and Microsoft have failed to distance
themselves from a lobby group’s proposal to fight any effort by the EU to
set more ambitious climate change goals. A leaked document shows that
BusinessEurope, Europe’s biggest business lobbying group, will urge members
to oppose any moves by the European Commission to ratchet up the bloc’s
2030 targets for clean energy, carbon cuts and energy efficiency.
The commission is considering whether to set more ambitious goals in November
after a key international science panel report on meeting tougher global
warming targets is published in October, and before a UN climate summit in
December.
But, at meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, BusinessEurope will ask
big companies to agree a “line to take” on the prospect of steeper carbon
cuts. If the commission’s measures have teeth, the group’s “advocacy and
communication strategy” recommends companies agree to fight them. “To
oppose the new increase of ambition, using the usual arguments of global
playing field, we cannot compensate for others, etc,” the document said. If
the commission opts for warm words and a political statement rather than a
material ratcheting up of the targets, the group suggests it should react
by being “rather positive”.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/19/tech-giants-fail-to-distance-from-businesseurope-fight-against-eu-climate-targets
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
climate change, EUROPE |
Leave a comment
David Lowry’s Blog 18th Sept 2018 , All this week the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog body, the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has held its annual (62nd)
General Conference in Vienna. On 17 September, the junior Foreign Office
minister Sir Alan Duncan, told the conference “We live in an increasingly
uncertain and dangerous world. We have seen the destabilising consequences
when States pursue nuclear weapons. And we have worked together to prevent
terrorists acquiring nuclear material”.
This statement makes a lot of sense, until it is put in the context of what his own British Government is
doing in wasting £205,000 m (£205 billion) of tax payers’ money of
replacing the Trident nuclear WMD system, which makes the faux concern over
nuclear weapons pure, unadulterated hypocrisy.
To put the scale of this gross hypocrisy in context, Duncan asserted in Vienna that he UK had
“already contributed £4.1 million this year to the Nuclear Security
Fund,” and urged all to “support the Agency’s work to help Member
States implement robust nuclear security regimes.”
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
UK, weapons and war |
Leave a comment
FT 18th Sept 2018 , As President Donald Trump weakens one environmental rule after another, the
deep green state of California has found a way to fight back: with a
rocket. “With science still under attack and the climate threat growing, we
are launching our own damn satellite,” declared Governor Jerry Brown,
explaining that the craft will track emissions and share the results. One
of the pollutants the satellite will measure is methane, a potent
greenhouse gas. Mr Brown’s declaration on Friday in San Francisco, came
just two days after the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington said
it wanted to relax methane rules. For California and Mr Brown, the
satellite is not only about monitoring methane monitoring but also shows
how much states can do themselves to fight climate change.
https://www.ft.com/content/aae5fe16-b91b-11e8-94b2-17176fbf93f5
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
climate change, USA |
Leave a comment
Vogtle’s Escalating Costs Concern Lawmakers, Stakeholders, Power magazine, 09/20/2018 | Sonal Patel, The Vogtle nuclear expansion’s “ever-escalating” cost is concerning several members of Georgia’s General Assembly, according to a letter sent to partners building the much-delayed project.
Twenty lawmakers from both houses of state government—19 Republicans and one Democrat—sent a letter to the board of directors at Georgia Power Co., Oglethorpe Power Co. (OPC), and Municipal Electric Authoity of Georgia (MEAG Power), lamenting continuing cost increases, and their impact on local utility rates, despite a change in project management eight months ago.
The lawmakers urged the utilities to ensure a cost cap is established before the utilities vote in support of moving forward with the project, as required by the amended co-owners agreement, before September 24. Georgia Power holds a 45.7% stake in the two-unit Plant Vogtle expansion, while OPC (30%), MEAG Power (22.7%), and Dalton Utilities (1.6%) hold the remaining shares. MEAG Power could vote as early as today (September 20). A 90% vote for the project is required for the project to continue……….
Legal Complications
As the fate of project grows murky, a legal battle is also brewing that involves the City of Jacksonville, Florida, and JEA, the city’s municipal utility that serves about 458,000 electric customers. The entities on September 11 asked a federal appeals court for a declaratory judgment on a power purchase agreement (PPA) the utility entered into with MEAG in 2008 for power from Vogtle Units 3 and 4, which were originally scheduled for completion in April 2016 and April 2017.
Completion dates have since been extended by five years: Unit 3 is expected to come online in November 2021, and Unit 4 in November 2022. “A new unlimited cost-plus reimbursement agreement was implemented without JEA’s approval in June 2017 after the project’s initial general contractor, Westinghouse, declared bankruptcy. The amended agreement has increased JEA’s liability from $1.4 billion to more than $2.9 billion—an uncapped and rising amount,” the company noted.
MEAG Power on September 11 filed its own lawsuit in the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, claiming that the Florida entity became “irreversibly obligated” when the company entered into the PPA to pay its share regardless of “whether or not the project is completed or is operating or operable.”………https://www.powermag.com/vogtles-escalating-costs-concern-lawmakers-stakeholders/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTnpFNFpXUmpZbVJqWWpCbCIsInQiOiJOTXhEekNRSSszWDdKcEd5eWFKWm5YN3JpUjVPQXRWNm9ZVkJLbXNjbzF4M1o0Z2hBOHFRc2pucjBLS29xTVV5QW
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, USA |
Leave a comment
Now’s the time for Utahns to comment on EnergySolutions’ dangerous exemption request, https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/letters/2018/09/20/letter-nows-time-utahns/ By Benjamin Silberman | The Public Forum
·EnergySolutions is requesting exemption from a law that prohibits the amount of depleted uranium (DU) that can come into Utah. When laws governing the disposal of nuclear waste were developed in the 1980s, byproducts like DU weren’t yet considered. So how can EnergySolutions ensure the safety of future generations from hazards like DU?
Currently, there are limits on DU concentrations and masses allowed in Utah, and any shipments above the limit require safety evaluations. EnergySolutions hopes to exceed these limits by bringing in DU munitions. While EnergySolutions insists that DU is less of a hazard in this form, advocacy groups like HEAL Utah and Utah Sierra Club have raised legitimate concerns.
Most concerning is that DU becomes “hotter” over time. While it begins as a low-level waste, its radioactivity increases for thousands of years. EnergySolutions’ Clive disposal site, just off Interstate 80, is in a particularly vulnerable area, is subject to flooding and will look vastly different in even 100 years. It’s unsettling that EnergySolutions thinks it has the power, and knowledge, to evade the law for something this capricious and uncertain.
There is a public comment period Sept. 6-Oct. 6 regarding EnergySolutions’ exemption request.
|
|
|
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
depleted uranium, USA, wastes |
Leave a comment
|
No to nuclear energy a good move Science has yet to find ways to manage its waste to prevent cataclysmic outcomes, says PM Malaysian Reserve , By LYDIA NATHAN 20 Sept 18 BLOOMBERG
Malaysia will have to figure out a substantial and safe way to dispose of nuclear waste if the country were to opt for nuclear energy to generate electricity.
Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia president S Piarapakaran, who supports Prime Minister (PM) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s decision to not rely on nuclear energy for the country’s power generation, said the biggest issue would be the containment of energy from leaking.
The government would also have to determine the cost that would be incurred, apart from finding methods to manage such a project successfully.
“A worst-case scenario we’re looking at is leakage in a case of nuclear exposure that could cause various types of cancer to develop rapidly ending in death, or a more severe and long-term outcome, which is severe genetic inflammation that causes mutation,” he told The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) in a telephone inter- view yesterday.
Piarapakaran said mutation as a result of nuclear radiation is also a serious issue as it could last for generations. “In some cases, babies are born with organs outside of their bodies. They are sick all their lives and cannot develop normally,” Piarapakaran said, adding that the cost of management will only increase over the years.
“Waste management is becoming more expensive and we won’t know the exact cost 30 or 40 years from now,” he said.
The PM’s call for the country to not rely on nuclear power was announced at the launch of the Conference of the Electric Power Supply Industry 2018 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre earlier this week………https://themalaysianreserve.com/2018/09/20/no-to-nuclear-energy-a-good-move/
|
|
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Malaysia, politics |
Leave a comment
Bloomberg 19th Sept 2018 , . “The country—as an
administrative entity—has virtually stopped working.” The energy issue
has been particularly badly hit. “There are the micro-processes of
government that are in turmoil because of the revolving doors of ministers,
and then there’s been the internal party fighting and squabbling, which
is then consuming all of the political oxygen,” says Mary Creagh, a
lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party and chair of Parliament’s
Environment Committee. “It means the normal decision-making of government
is not happening and has not happened for two years.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-19/brexit-has-brought-britain-to-a-standstill
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics, UK |
Leave a comment
Here’s how YouTube became a powerful far-right propaganda machine, Raw Story , NICOLE KARLIS, SALON –19 SEP 2018
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
2 WORLD, media |
Leave a comment
Air Force: Space Force would cost $13 billion over 5 years, SF Chronicle, Sep. 17, 2018 WASHINGTON (AP) — Creating a Space Force as a separate military service, as proposed by President Donald Trump, would cost an estimated $12.9 billion in its first five years, according to a detailed Air Force plan for how to go about it.
This is the first publicly available cost estimate. When the White House announced plans to establish a Space Force in August, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan declined to give a figure but said it would be in “the billions.”
The Air Force’s estimate is contained in a Sept. 14 memo from Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, who proposed that the Pentagon ask Congress for the authority and money to establish a Space Force headquarters in 2020……..
In an indication of the complexities of creating a new military service, the Air Force says the proposed U.S. Space Force would be a separate department organized under a civilian secretary appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, along with an undersecretary, four assistant secretaries, a chief lawyer, an inspector general and a legislative liaison. A four-star general would serve as chief of staff.
The proposal said the missions of Space Force would include missile defense. More broadly, it would be “responsible for the preparation of forces necessary for the effective prosecution of war.”
In June, Trump directed the Pentagon to create a “separate but equal” space force. In August, Vice President Mike Pence announced that the administration will work with Congress to come up with a workable approach. The last time the U.S. created a new military service was in 1947 when the Air Force was established as an independent service. https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/politics/article/Air-Force-Space-Force-Would-Cost-13-Billion-13236410.php?utm_campaign=twitter-premium&utm_source=CMS%20Sharing%20Button&
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
USA, weapons and war |
Leave a comment
MEPs defy warnings from internet pioneers, civil liberties groups and commercial interests, Guardian, Rankinin Brussels, Wed 20 Jun 2018 A European parliament committee has voted for legislation that internet pioneers fear will turn the web into “a tool for surveillance and control”.
September 21, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
civil liberties, EUROPE |
Leave a comment
nuclear-news 