The siting of UK Nuclear Power Installations

choosing a suitable site for a nuclear installation requires the consideration and balancin9 of several factors which are sometimes in tension with one another. One particularly interesting tension is a human and demographic one. On the one hand it is beneficial to place nuclear stations close to centres of population, to reduce transmission losses and other costs (including to the local environment) of transporting electricity over large distances from generator to consumer. On the other it is advantageous to place nuclear stations some distance away from such population centres in order to minimise the potential human consequences of a major release of radioactive materials in the (extremely unlikely) event of a major nuclear accident, not only in terms of direct exposure but also concerning the management of emergency planning, notably evacuation. This paper considers the emergence of policies aimed at managing this tension in the UK. In the first phase of nuclear development (roughly speaking 1945 to 1965) there was a highly cautious attitude, with installations being placed in remote rural locations with verylow population density. The second phase (1965 to 1985) saw a more relaxed approach allowin9 Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor construction closer to population centres (in 'semi-urban' locations, notably at Hartlepool and Heysham). In the third phase (1985 to 2005) there was very little new nuclear development, Sizewell B (the first and so far only pressurised water power reactor in the UK) being co-located with an early Magnox station on the rural Suffolk coast. However, there was considerable effort expended on trying to find a site for disposal of radioactive wastes. Renewed interest in nuclear new build grew from 2005 onwards and led to a number of sites being identified for new reactors before 2025; all having previously hosted nuclear stations and including the semi-urban locations of the 1960s and 1970s. Finally, some speculative comments are made as to what a 'fifth phase' starting in 2025 might look like

Techno-economic study of output-flexible light water nuclear reactor systems with cryogenic energy storage

This study explores whether a nuclear power plant can be combined with a cryogenic energy storage plant to allow the resultant facility to provide variable power to the grid. The study expands on previous literature by performing novel market-led system optimisation to best design the output profile of the plant to improve economic performance in the UK electricity grid. There are three key conclusions that emerge from this study. The current UK electricity market favours plant designs with rapid discharge rate. Provided that the capital cost expectations of the NuScale SMR are realised, strike prices of £55/MWh are sufficient to ensure a return on investment. However, the case for storage remains weak and only becomes viable in extreme spot market conditions

Scotland, Nuclear Energy Policy and Independance

This paper examines the role of nuclear energy in Scotland, and the concerns for Scotland as it votes for independence. The aim is to focus directly on current Scottish energy policy and its relationship to nuclear energy. The paper does not purport to advise on a vote for or against Scottish independence but aims to further the debate in an underexplored area of energy policy that will be of value whether Scotland secures independence or further devolution. There are four central parts to this paper: (1) consideration of the Scottish electricity mix; (2) an analysis of a statement about nuclear energy made by the Scottish energy minister; (3) examination of nuclear energy issues as presented in the Scottish Independence White Paper; and (4) the issue of nuclear waste is assessed. A recurrent theme in the analysis is that whether one is for, against, or indifferent to new nuclear energy development, it highlights a major gap in Scotland's energy and environmental policy goals. Too often, the energy policy debate from the Scottish Government perspective has been reduced to a low-carbon energy development debate between nuclear energy and renewable energy. There is little reflection on how to reduce Scottish dependency on fossil fuels. For Scotland to aspire to being a low-carbon economy, to decarbonising its electricity market, and to being a leader within the climate change community, it needs to tackle the issue of how to stop the continuation of burning fossil fuels

Energy and the Military: Convergence of Security, Economic, and Environmental Decision-Making

Energy considerations are core to mission delivery of armed forces worldwide. The interaction between military energy issues and non-military energy issues is not often explicitly treated in the literature or media, although in the last decade there has been some increase driven especially by the issues of clean energy. It is recognized that the military has for more than a hundred years taken a leadership role in terms on research and development (R&D) of specific energy technologies - most commonly where they are applicable in theater. More recently that R&D leadership has moved to the energy efficiency of home-country bases, and the development of renewable energy projects for areas as diverse as mini-grids for in-country installations, to alternative fuels for submarines and jets. Nevertheless, the military in most major countries tends to see energy issues as a matter of mission delivery or conversely the denial of enemy energy supply chains as a source of advantage. In this paper we explore the evolving relationship between energy issues and defense planning, and show how these developments have implications for military tactics and strategy and for civil energy policy

Expressed in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, human ERK5 is a client of the Hsp90 chaperone that complements loss of the Slt2p (Mpk1p) cell integrity stress-activated protein kinase

ERK5 is a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase regulated in human cells by diverse mitogens and stresses but also suspected of mediating the effects of a number of oncogenes. Its expression in the slt2Delta Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant rescued several of the phenotypes caused by the lack of Slt2p (Mpk1p) cell integrity MAP kinase. ERK5 is able to provide this cell integrity MAP kinase function in yeast, as it is activated by the cell integrity signaling cascade that normally activates Slt2p and, in its active form, able to stimulate at least one key Slt2p target (Rlm1p, the major transcriptional regulator of cell wall genes). In vitro ERK5 kinase activity was abolished by Hsp90 inhibition. ERK5 activity in vivo was also lost in a strain that expresses a mutant Hsp90 chaperone. Therefore, human ERK5 expressed in yeast is an Hsp90 client, despite the widely held belief that the protein kinases of the MAP kinase class are non-Hsp90-dependent activities. Two-hybrid and protein binding studies revealed that strong association of Hsp90 with ERK5 requires the dual phosphorylation of the TEY motif in the MAP kinase activation loop. These phosphorylations, at positions adjacent to the Hsp90-binding surface recently identified for a number of protein kinases, may cause a localized rearrangement of this MAP kinase region that leads to creation of the Hsp90-binding surface. Complementation of the slt2Delta yeast defect by ERK5 expression establishes a new tool with which to screen for novel agonists and antagonists of ERK5 signaling as well as for isolating mutant forms of ERK5

Large-Scale Image Processing with the ROTSE Pipeline for Follow-Up of Gravitational Wave Events

Electromagnetic (EM) observations of gravitational-wave (GW) sources would bring unique insights into a source which are not available from either channel alone. However EM follow-up of GW events presents new challenges. GW events will have large sky error regions, on the order of 10-100 square degrees, which can be made up of many disjoint patches. When searching such large areas there is potential contamination by EM transients unrelated to the GW event. Furthermore, the characteristics of possible EM counterparts to GW events are also uncertain. It is therefore desirable to be able to assess the statistical significance of a candidate EM counterpart, which can only be done by performing background studies of large data sets. Current image processing pipelines such as that used by ROTSE are not usually optimised for large-scale processing. We have automated the ROTSE image analysis, and supplemented it with a post-processing unit for candidate validation and classification. We also propose a simple ad hoc statistic for ranking candidates as more likely to be associated with the GW trigger. We demonstrate the performance of the automated pipeline and ranking statistic using archival ROTSE data. EM candidates from a randomly selected set of images are compared to a background estimated from the analysis of 102 additional sets of archival images. The pipeline's detection efficiency is computed empirically by re-analysis of the images after adding simulated optical transients that follow typical light curves for gamma-ray burst afterglows and kilonovae. We show that the automated pipeline rejects most background events and is sensitive to simulated transients to limiting magnitudes consistent with the limiting magnitude of the images

Effect of source, placement, and time of N application on winter wheat grown on stubble in the Brown and Black Soil Zones

Non-Peer Reviewe

Statistical Communication Theory

Contains research objectives and reports on three research projects

Patterns of Mesophotic Benthic Community Structure on Banks Off vs Inside the Continental Shelf Edge, Gulf of Mexico

Information on the biodiversity and geographic patterns of mesophotic, sessile, epibenthic communities on banks around and at the edge of the continental shelf, northern Gulf of Mexico, has been limited. These communities vary in their environments and are prone to disturbance from Outer Continental Shelf oil- and gas-related activities and fishing (trawling and long-lining). We surveyed these communities on the flanks of 13 banks to determine species richness, species composition, similarities between benthic communities, and geographic patterns in community structure. We sampled to ≤ 181 m in depth via a remotely operated vehicle using a vertically mounted digital camera bearing two lasers for scale and a flash (generally 10 drop-sites/bank, 5 transects/drop-site, and ≤11 photos/transect). Data analysis via PATN revealed three main Bank Groups: the on-shelf group containing 29 Fathom and Sonnier Banks; an anomalous bank—Geyer Bank; and the shelf edge group—Horseshoe, 28 Fathom, Bright, Alderdice, Bouma, Rankin, Rezak, Elvers, McGrail, and Sidner Banks. Most species-rich banks (Bank Group 3) occurred at the shelf edge. Two of the species-poor banks (Bank Group 1) occurred further north, inside the shelf. Geyer Bank (Bank Group 2) occurred at the shelf edge but was anomalously species-poor. Box-and-whisker analyses identified four Species Groups driving the Bank Groupings. Species Group 4 (the Elatopathes abientina/Nicella sp. group) was the largest (also containing Peysonellia sp.), primarily defining Bank Group 3. Species Groups 2 (the Antipathes sp./Gorgonian G04 group) and 3 (low species abundances) were also associated with Bank Group 3. Species Group 4 (the Elatopathes abientina/Nicella sp. group) was a major contributor to Bank Group 2 (Geyer Bank). Species Group 2 (the Antipathes sp./Gorgonian G04 group) was the primary constituent of the on-shelf Bank Group 1, also characterized by low species richness. Most species had a comparative abundance of ≤20%. The high species richness and affinities exhibited by Bank Group 3 are likely due to continual exposure to warm, low-turbidity Caribbean water at the shelf edge. Banks inside the shelf likely vary from the others as a result of exposure to cooler winter temperatures and higher turbidity due to wind-forced inshore currents. The reasons for the unique community structure on Geyer Bank are as yet unknown. Shelf-edge banks tend to be more species rich than on-shelf banks