Why this fuss about NSG membership?

The decision of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) to deny India membership to its club is hardly surprising despite the government employing its diplomatic muscle in the run up to the group’s plenary meeting in Seoul this month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal pleas to leaders of important countries, including China, certainly helped build broad support among NSG members for India. However, China’s resolute opposition (which is quite independent of Pakistan’s obstinacy) has ensured keeping India outside the NSG tent for now. While the Prime Minister cannot be faulted for embarking on ambitious foreign policy goals, it is puzzling why he risked his personal reputation by hitching India’s diplomatic horse to a wrong cart. NSG membership, while desirable, is an issue of marginal importance to India’s nuclear energy development

Modeling Global and Regional Energy Futures

200 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005.Using a defined tropical/temperate disaggregation of the world, region-specific modeling results are presented for population growth, GDP growth, energy use, and carbon use compatible with a gradual transition to energy sustainability. Results for the fractions of energy use from various sources by grouping nine commercial primary energy sources into pairs of competing fuel categories are presented in combination with the idea of experiential learning and resource depletion. Analysis based on this division provides estimates for future evolution of the fractional shares, annual use rates, cumulative use of individual energy sources, and the economic attractiveness of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. This unified approach helps to conceptualize and understand the dynamics of evolution of importance of various energy resources over time.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Reassessing Nuclear South Asia

It has been twelve years since the 1998 nuclear tests in India and Pakistan. Sufficient time has passed to draw some conclusions about the meaning, motivations, and implications of those events. This issue begins with an article which sets the stage for the tests, providing a retrospective on the political climate at the time and the steps each country took toward nuclear weapons development. The issue proceeds with topics focusing on nuclear doctrine, security of the weapons themselves, the implications of the U.S.-India nuclear agreement, and the options for a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT). A timeline of events in South Asia up to August 2009 completes the publication.published or submitted for publicationnot peer reviewe

A process for the preparation of highly pure manganse sulphate electrolyte useful for electrodeposition of highly pure electrolytic manganese dioxide(HPEMD")

The invention relates to a process for the preparation of highly pure manganese sulphate electrolyte useful for electrodeposition of highly pure electrolytic manganese dioxide (HPEMD). In the process of the present invention the manganese sulphate solution containing monovalent cations, in particular K and Na are removed as a complex, viz. jarosite, which is highly crystalline and insoluble from manganese sulphate under optimum conditions. This has been done by digesting the manganese sulphate solution containing monovalent cations with ferric sulphate, at a pH of 1.5 to 3.0, for a duration of 15 to 180 minutes. The temperature being maintained between 80 to 100°C. Bringing about precipitation with suitable addition of seeding. Allowing to cool, followed by filtration. Subsequently treating either with CaO or calcine to raise the pH. The present invention thus provides a process for the preparation of highly pure manganese sulphate electrolyte by the removal of monovalent metal ions from manganese sulphate solution, which is a precursor for the electrodeposition of highly pure electrolytic manganese dioxide (HPEMD)

Social dimension of India's energy future

Energy is one of the prime requirements for balanced growth of economy. Dr Baldev Raj (and T S Gopi Rethinaraj and Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan) have given a very informative and analytical round-up of the social dimension of our energy scenario. Dr Baldev Raj (and co-authors) who have a wide national and international experience in the energy sector (particularly nuclear) give a macro view of the energy scenario in India, its power generation mix, as also the energy demand in different sectors. The related social issues like land acquisition, population displacement and resettlement, including energy poverty and inequalities have been discussed. The impact of energy induced emissions and health issues covering various forms of energy have also been brought out. The authors reiterate that with increasing availability of clean energy and transformation technologies, there would be a beneficial impact on health and life spans which could beneficially change our energy availability scenari

Electrolytic manganese dioxide from chloride electrolyte: Anode potential measurements

683-686In the preparation of electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) the dependence of anode potentials on conditions of electrolysis,viz. ,temperature, anodic current density and concentration of hydrochloric acid, has been studied and the behaviour of uncoated and MnO2 coated graphite in HCI, H2SO4 and MnCI2-HCI electrolyte has been compared. It is observed that above 70°C, below an anode current density of 100 Am-2 and below a concentration of 20 g/L hydrochloric acid, the deposition of manganese dioxide takes place preferentially. Among the probable electrochemical reactions EMD deposition, oxygen evolution and chlorine evolution occur under the present experimental conditions. The data collected employing an all- glass apparatus also confirm the results

Probability distributions for carbon emissions and atmospheric response

Probability distributions for carbon burning, atmospheric CO2, and global average temperature are produced by time series calibration of models of utility optimization and carbon and heat balance using log-linear production functions. Population growth is used to calibrate a logistically evolving index of development that influences production efficiency. Energy production efficiency also includes a coefficient that decreases linearly with decreasing carbon intensity of energy production. This carbon intensity is a piecewise linear function of fossil carbon depletion. That function is calibrated against historical data and extrapolated by sampling a set of hypotheses about the impact on the carbon intensity of energy production of depleting fluid fossil fuel resources and increasing cumulative carbon emissions. Atmospheric carbon balance is determined by a first order differential equation with carbon use rates and cumulative carbon use as drivers. Atmospheric CO2 is a driver in a similar heat balance. Periodic corrections are included where required to make residuals between data and model results indistinguishable from independently and identically distributed normal distributions according to statistical tests on finite Fourier power spectrum amplitudes and nearest neighbor correlations. Asymptotic approach to a sustainable non-fossil energy production is followed for a global disaggregation into a tropical/developing and temperate/more-developed region. The increase in the uncertainty of global average temperature increases nearly quadratically with the increase in the temperature from the present through the next two centuries