A World without Nuclear Power

Nuclear Power in a Warming World

Because the spent fuel removed from a nuclear reactor is highly radioactive, it must be disposed of in a way that protects the environment from contamination and living organisms from exposure. Radioactive isotopes can be spread by air or water, and can also become part of the food chain. While the radioactivity of spent fuel drops with time, according to a 1995 National Academy of Sciences stu...

A World Without Standards

h THIS ISSUE OF IEEE Design & Test of Computers is all about standards. Each of the papers makes an excellent argument why a particular standard is important and what benefits can be achieved by adopting the standard. As engineers we deal with standards a lot, but, like the air, I don’t think we often stop to think of their pervasiveness. Let’s imagine a world without standards. You wake up to ...

A world without measles.

Measles is one of the most highly transmissible contagious human diseases. In the prevaccine era, .90% of children had measles by their 15th birthday. In 1980, before the use of measles vaccine was widespread, an estimated 2.6 million deaths due to measles occurred worldwide. The aim of Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG4) is to reduce the overall number of deaths among children by two-thirds b...

World Cancer Day 2011: a world without cancer one day?

Nuclear Power

Nuclear power has never been free from the stifling involvement of government. Heavy regulation has reduced the ability of entrepreneurs to develop and provide new means for the generation of energy using nuclear fuel. The strict parameters dictated by government officials are based upon outdated technology, an improper regulatory philosophy, and preclude innovation in nuclear power generation....