The elimination of soluble boron creates several advantages for Small Modular Reactor (SMR) operation. Most of these advantages are realized through significant core simplification (removal of pipes, pumping, and purification systems), the removal of the corrosive effects of soluble boron, and from improved safety effects. However, removing soluble boron creates...
The group of scientists that make up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found in 2007 that the warming of Earth’s climate is unequivocal and largely due to human activity. Earth’s climate has changed in the past, though the recent magnitude and pace of changes are unprecedented in human existence....
Ellis, a booming mid-sized town in California's Central Valley, is packed with farmers and commuters, and plagued with a dwindling sense of itself and its history. Set against the backdrop of a failed murder-suicide, a secret affair and a wealthy local mogul's attempt to develop the town into something it's...
Climate change has the potential to accelerate many forms of human migration and mobility, yet almost all of the key migration outcomes of interest are determined predominantly by governance, or the norms, laws, and institutions involved in the coordination of human society. These outcomes include the decision whether or not...
Radiological emergency plans ensure that protective actions can and will be taken in the event of an accident. Principle protective actions for the early phase of an emergency are evacuation and sheltering-in-place. While evacuations are generally safe, there are deterministic, long-term health consequences from prolonged displacement that outweigh the stochastic...
Seven decades of supercritical heat transfer research have not seen an attempt to characterize turbulent thermal transport in internal flows subject to asymmetric heating. Existing heat transfer models therefore do not account for phenomena that dictates thermal transport, in the proximity of the pseudo-critical point, for non-uniform heating. Additionally, past...
The developmental milestones of Sustainability are consistent with the post-normal versus traditional science, where transdisciplinary and policy/action research are among the important approaches to be added to traditional analysis. This shift requires a new perspective to look at the problem at hand: we are no longer considering a group of...
This report summarizes the outcomes of a March 22-25, 2010, workshop in Seattle, Washington, on the environmental effects of tidal energy development. The workshop focused on building capabilities to evaluate the environmental effects of tidal energy from turbines placed in the water column throughout the United States. However, it did...