142 research outputs found

    Systems Aspects of Environmental Accountability

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    Human activities have increased in such a way that there now exists the danger that some global balances will be disturbed. As a result, there is today a widespread effort to get precise knowledge about these balances themselves as well as about the consequences of possible disturbances in these balances. Because of their magnitude, these problems are inter-related with other problems. Additionally, effects which were considered earlier to be side effects become important. All this means that for the treatment of these problems a systems approach seems necessary. This paper recommends use of the general concept of material accountability for the analysis and treatment of these problems. This has already been proposed by different groups. The reason it is emphasized here is that the material accountability concept has proven extremely valuable in the establishment of the IAEA safeguards system for nuclear material in the peaceful nuclear industry. It is especially the organization of this system in the plant operator's responsibility (generation and reporting of source data for material balance) and in the safeguards authority's responsibility (verification of these data by means of independent measurements) which allowed the acceptance of this system on a broad international scale and which GROSSO MODO could serve as an example for any future global monitoring system. In the first part of this paper, examples for balances existing in nature are given: oxygen, carbon dioxide, radiation balance of the earth atmosphere system. Models for these balances and their disturbances as well as the respective measurements are reported. In the second part we have tried to explain why the treatment of these problems necessarily leads into the field of systems analysis. Special reference is made to the problems outlined in this paper. As an example for this kind of approach and for an existing global control system, the IAEA safeguards system and the mathematical models developed in the course of establishing that system are sketched in the third part. In the fourth part, the economic implications of material accountability are described using the input-output approach; for the example of sulphur it is demonstrated in which way the consequences of constraints -- e.g. in the form of emission standards -- can be analyzed. The paper ends with a schematic representation of the complex interrelations between the basic concepts: material accountability, verification by means of measurements, and economic implications

    Considerations on the Large Scale Deployment of Nuclear Fuel Cycles

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    In recent papers by Hafele, Manne and Schikorr, strategies for a transition from fossil to nuclear fuels are considered for a model society of 250 million people with an asymptotic energy consumption of 10 kilowatt thermal per capita. In the final state, a purely nuclear energy production system, based on only two reactor types, was assumed to cover all electric and non-electrical energy demands of the model society. It is the purpose of this paper to evaluate the whole nuclear fuel cycle belonging to the asymptotic nuclear energy production system. In order to achieve this, all normal operational and accidental risks connected with the nuclear material throughputs are analyzed. Thus, an idea of the relative importance of the different hazards is obtained; furthermore, the basis for a comparison of the nuclear option with alternative options (which is the subject of forthcoming work) is given. With this purpose in mind, only orders of magnitude are considered throughout the paper; in addition, the argumentation is restricted to the level of expected values. The structure of this paper is as follows. Following the introduction, the mass flows of nuclear material through the nuclear fuel cycle are analyzed. The methodology used is then developed. The normal operations releases of radioactivity are considered, and possible modes of accidental radioactive releases are analyzed; the problem of a final waste storage is treated separately because of its unique nature. Different kinds of sabotage and blackmail, including the construction of a nuclear explosive device, are next analyzed, and finally all calculations are summarized. In conclusion, a number of decision-oriented assessments are identified that must be made when the large-scale deployment of nuclear energy is considered

    Nuclear Energy and its Alternatives

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    Irrespective of the type of primary energy considered, every large-scale use of primary energy has its specific disadvantages. The problem is therefore to select and combine the various types of primary energy in a way that is optimal in terms of economics and has acceptable side effects. In the medium term, coal is the only real alternative to nuclear energy, and in fact is its partner rather than a competitor. The large-scale use of solar energy opens up supra-regional perspectives such as the demand for land and the storage and transportation of energy. Secondary energy becomes a more important factor and hydrogen seems to be a better partner for solar energy than is electricity. The timely build-up of a modern secondary energy system is of importance for the longer-term energy supply requirements

    Procedures for the Establishment of Standards. Final Report. Vol.2

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    This final report summarizes two years of research on analyzing procedures for the establishment of standards. The research was sponsored by the Volkswagenwerk Foundation and jointly carried out at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis at Laxenburg and the Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. The final report is meant to be both a problem-oriented review of related work in the area of environmental standard setting and an executive summary of the main research done during the contract period. The following eleven technical papers (Volume II of the Final Report) are reference reports written to accompany Volume I. They describe the studies and findings performed under the contract in more detail, and they have been either published as IIASA Research Memoranda or as outside publications, or were especially written for this report. These technical reports are structured in four parts: (1) policy analyses of standard setting procedures; (2) decision and game theoretic models for standard setting; (3) applications of decision game theoretic models to specific standard setting problems; and (4) biological basis for standard setting

    Characterization of Spectral Entanglement of Spontaneous Parametric-Down Conversion Biphotons

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    We verified operational approach based on direct measurement of entanglement degree for bipartite systems. In particular spectral distributions of single counts and coincidence for pure biphoton states generated by train of short pump pulses have been measured and entanglement quantifier calculated. The approach gives upper bound of entanglement stored in total biphoton states, which can reach extremely high value up to 104−10510^{4}-10^{5}

    Photon Number Statistics of Multimode Parametric Down-Conversion

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    We experimentally analyze the complete photon number statistics of parametric downconversion and ascertain the influence of multimode effects. Our results clearly reveal a difference between single mode theoretical description and the measured distributions. Further investigations assure the applicability of loss-tolerant photon number reconstruction and prove strict photon number correlation between signal and idler modes.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
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