Power Surge 8.1
Volume 8, Issue 1
September 22, 2019 – September 28, 2019
Neha Chauhan '21 | Joe Kawalec '21 | Amy Amatya '21 | Patrick Huang ‘21 | Rei Zhang ‘21 | Sabrina Reguyal ‘22
Yukiya Amano, Head of the I.A.E.A. Nuclear Watchdog Group, Dies at 72
July 22, 2019 | The New York Times | Megan E. Specia and David E. Sanger
Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.), died in July at age 72. Born in 1947 in Yugawara, Japan, he was part of a generation heavily influenced by the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which pushed him towards a career centered on diplomacy. Some of his main accomplishments include inspecting Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal and pressuring the Japanese government after the 2011 reactor meltdown in Fukushima to respond more quickly and inform the population of the dangers of spreading radiation. The I.A.E.A. has appointed Romanian diplomat Cornel Feruta as acting Director General. He has since continued Amano’s policies of supporting the Iran Nuclear Deal, placing pressure on the North Korean government for compliance, and supporting the role of nuclear energy in producing clean energy for the future. -SR
An accident in Russia points to the risks of atomic aviation
August 15, 2019 | The Economist
An accidental explosion and a nuclear radiation release on August 8th on Russia’s White Sea are being attributed to the country’s development of new long-range nuclear missiles. On March 1, 2018, President of Russia Vladimir Putin announced the development of a 9M730 Burevestnik, a nuclear-powered unlimited-range cruise missile. Such a missile could evade defenses more effectively, shortening warning times, and would have a greater range than existing nuclear missiles. The failure on August 8th is being regarded as an indication that developing this technology will yet take over a decade. -NC
Residential Solar: Becoming Increasingly Cost-Effective And Customer Friendly
September 19, 2019 | Forbes | Peter Kelly-Detwiler
With the costs of installing solar panels going down, according to the 9th Solar Marketplace Intel Report released by EnergySage, applying solar energy to houses in residential areas could become more accessible to the customer. EnergySage, an online tool built by current CEO Vikram Aggarwal, helped make the process of searching for solar energy contractors easier to navigate, and offered users the opportunity to make cost-effective choices. According to Aggarwal, they designed this platform so consumers can acquire these solar products as “easily, simply, and transparently as possible.” With big hopes for the years to come, Aggarwal foresees a future of solar energy in the hands of everyone in the country. -JK
Australia’s capital city switches to 100% renewable energy
September 19, 2019 | Nature | Bianca Nogrady
Canberra, Australia's capital, will join seven other districts in the world on January 1st, 2020, when it switches to 100% renewable energy. This means that Canberra will produce or purchase all of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar. This event will mark the first major region in the Southern Hemisphere to rely completely on renewables; the others are located in Europe. -RZ
Transformative? New Device Harvests Energy in Darkness
Sept. 12, 2019 | New York Times | Rebecca Boyle
Aaswath Raman, an electrical engineer at UCLA, is designing a device that uses a heat gradient caused by radiative cooling to generate electricity in complete darkness. Right now, the primary goal of the project is to provide low-power electricity at night, such as for lights (a goal his prototype has already accomplished), and distribute this to areas without access to an electrical grid. A long-term goal is to eventually contribute to the grid as solar cells do, and to fill in solar energy’s gaps of daylight dependency. This work builds on materials research that has looked at the power of large-scale temperature differences between day and night, using solar energy during the day and the difference produced by cooling at night to generate electricity. Though there’s much research to be done, Raman was able to create such a device with low-cost materials - which means it has potential in powering the developing world. -AA