Advances in Nuclear Science and Technology

Abstract

PREFACEAs we close on the Millennium we also approach a half-century of nuclear power. The major peaceful application centres on the large-scale production of electricity but international politics in the last year has shown that we have not left the origins in nuclear weapons behind. Can we assess the future of nuclear technology in the coming century?Electricity remains the dominant role for nuclear technology, though we may recognise the valuable contributions of radio-isotope work to biology, agriculture, disease control, medical diagnostics and therapy in particular, with ramifications in most industries and civilised life. The supply of electricity from nuclear power remains of the order of 10% in the USA but rises to one-third in the UK and on to some 80% in France. Far Eastern countries still have a major construction program that might lead to them rivalling such figures. Indeed if we are to accept the majority judgement of scientists that global warming through, principally, carbon dioxide is a realistic threat, it is to be hoped that nuclear power will indeed be maintained and increased to balance the almost inevitable expansion of the use of coal by China in particular. Claims that countries such as Sweden will reduce CO2 emission and simultaneously reduce nuclear power seem but a chimera, lacking all technical credibility.The down-side remains, however. Not only is the world still threatened with nuclear weapons, by repute or even testing, but no country has had the political will to manage the disposal of radio-active wastes, not just the Achilles heel but the foot, shin and leg of nuclear power. Many scientists and engineers will suppose that this is solely a political problem, claiming that the technical solutions are available. Unfortunately, it makes it no less a problem and renders the prospect of continued, let alone expanded nuclear power, no less vulnerable for being political. And who amongst the technicians is wise to say that the atavistic public perception of the threat of nuclear power is irrational when sabre rattling by emerging weapons powers echoes throughout the world?We see an interesting parallel in the modern development of genetically engineered plants and animals, to be compared with the last halfcentury of nuclear power. In the bright dawn of the post-war nuclear age, the public by-and-large accepted the claims made for the promise of the cheap production of electricity but have largely turned, or been turned by the media, against nuclear power. Do we see the same hubris mounting for those microbiologists who dismiss risks of genetic contamination of agriculture or dismiss the change in insurance attitudes when the threads of DNA predict our future like the threads of the Fates, those Spinners of the Years? Take note of the history of Nuclear Power and prepare for the backlash.If trust is to be restored in the civil use of nuclear power, rational and careful study must be made of its problems, and the results made available publicly, as instanced by the first article in this ...

Stochastic dynamics of phase singularities under ventricular fibrillation in 2D Beeler-Reuter model

“…For nonlinear complex phenomena like VF, one can introduce a stochastic model in the form of a nonlinear Langevin equation (NLE) or a corresponding Fokker-Plank equation. 16,17 There are two approaches to determine the form of NLE and to estimate the parameters of a model: One is based on a probability distribution, 18 and the other is based on time series data. 19 Section II presents (A) Beeler-Reuter cardiac model in 2D tissue by using the method of numerical simulation; (B) a method of defining the phase with PS detection; (C) a hyper-Gamma distribution for the number of PSs, and a parameter estimation method for a corresponding nonlinear Langevin equation.…”