Many parties/experts involved in the project of developing the first nuclear power plant in Poland are sending quite contradictory messages suggesting 2025-2031 time horizon of the project. Some experts are even suggesting...
Unlike single-phase flows, where the main factor behind the quality of computer simulations, with some notable exceptions, is mainly associated with numerical issues, two- or multiphase problems introduce a whole spectrum of additional questions, including...
At the end of the 19th century, due to the rapid growth of many branches of industry, there developed a need for new institutions concentrating on basic research in physics and chemistry. In Germany, in particular Werner Siemens and Hermann von Helmholtz strongly advocated such a facility supported by Government. In 1887 this lead to the foundation of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt in Berlin.
Motto (a Chinese proverb):
Sow rice if you think one year ahead
Plant trees if you think ten years ahead
But teach people if you think a hundread years ahead
Operation of nuclear power plants to be developed in Poland will produce spent fuel in the amount of between 6,000 and 8,000 MgU* (depending of the selected reactor type). Issues related to dissipating of decay heat from spent fuel temporarily stored in water-filled or dry bunkers will be discussed. Three strategies to manage spent fuel will be analysed:
How the cast votes should be translated into mandates is a central issue of any electoral (voting) system applied to elect members of parliaments, local authority bodies, supervisory boards etc. There is no single answer because...
Plasma in tokamaks and stellerators (two major types of facilities used to conduct research on controlled thermonuclear fusion) is confined by magnetic fields. Toroidal and poloidal components of the field form a system of infinitely many nested surfaces of magnetic field force lines. Transport of particles and energy along the lines is at least six orders of magnitude larger than perpendicular to the surfaces. In result the so-called plasma confinement coefficient is relatively high.
During my short stay in Japan I was given an opportunity to meet people living in vicinity of Kawauchi (close to Fukushima), to understand current issues at stake in Daiichi nuclear power plant, to sightsee Nuclear Research Institute in Chiba, and to give two lectures: on health risks related to consuming polluted food, and on health consequences of being exposed to small doses of ionizing radiation. The events were reported by one of the daily newspapers published in Fukushima. I was also given an opportunity to meet authors of a very interesting project dubbed the D-Shuttle Project.
Recent years have seen revival of public debate on broadly understood education. Opinions have been voiced that the formal education system is fossilized if not outdated. At the same time numerous activities (financed from public or private funds) that are summing up into a realm of non-formal education have been breeding; in Poland that realm includes also science centres associated in the SPIN (Society and Science) federation. The topic of education seems to be as hot as never before.
