Decommissioning Strategies Worldwide: A Re-Visited Overview of Relevant Factors

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Laraia
Keyword(s):  
Common Factors ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Near Term ◽  
The Many ◽  
Year 2000 ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Relevant Factors

This paper highlights current trends and developments in selecting decommissioning strategies worldwide. Radiological conditions, spent fuel and radioactive waste management, funding, economics and the development of suitable technology are some common factors for taking decisions on the timing and circumstances of decommissioning. Although safe enclosure is the default option for many shut down facilities typically due to lack of ready cash, delay in dismantling may have serious disadvantages such as loss of expertise and long term uncertainties. Currently, of the many large nuclear installations permanently shut down, only a fraction have been or will be in the near term totally dismantled and decommissioned to unrestricted release state. A trend towards immediate dismantling seems to emerge in some countries, and is supported by IAEA positions, but this appears to be due to country-, site- or plant-specific conditions of limited generic applicability. In recent years, and often as the result of international efforts, the situation is evolving, and provisions and infrastructures including funding are being established to cope with decommissioning challenges. This factor seems in principle to encourage immediate, total dismantling. However, the worldwide overview of decommissioning strategies does not offer a clear pattern. New factors have come into being, such as stakeholder opinions, in particular those of local communities, and now play a significant role in decision-making. The conditions of the nuclear industry at large (e.g. the “nuclear renaissance”) considerably changed over the last few years and are going to affect decommissioning in the near future. Strategies such as restricted release (brownfields), incremental decommissioning or entombment seem to offer new prospects. The author reviewed first the worldwide situation around the year 2000, and offers in this paper some reflections about changed world’s conditions and how these affect the decommissioning scenarios.

Demobilisation will be a long-term challenge in Libya

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Near Term ◽  
The Many ◽  
Financial Arrangements

Significance Although a ceasefire has been in place since October 2020, very little has been done during that time to integrate or demobilise the many armed forces and groups that exist across the country. The obstacles are formidable. Impacts Significant demobilisation and reintegration will not happen in the near term. Local security will continue to rest on fragile political and financial arrangements between armed groups and governing authorities. The current high levels of oil and gas revenue will tend to discourage unrest.

CONSTOR® Transport and Storage Cask for Spent Fuel and for High Active Waste

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolf Diersch ◽  
Robert Gartz ◽  
Konrad Gluschke
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Type B ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Active Waste ◽  
Intermediate Storage ◽  
Near Future ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Rbmk Fuel

Abstract The CONSTOR® was developed with special consideration to an economical and effective way of manufacturing by using conventional mechanical engineering technologies and common materials. The main objective of this development was to fabricate these casks in countries not having highly specialized industries for casting or forging of thick-walled casks. Nevertheless, the CONSTOR® concept fulfills both the internationally valid IAEA criteria for transportation and the German criteria for long-term intermediate storage. The basic cask concept has been designed for adaptation to different spent fuel specifications as well as handling conditions in the NPPs. Adaptations have been made for spent fuel from RBMK and VVER reactors, and also for BWR spent fuel and high active waste. So far, 30 CONSTOR® RBMK-1500 original casks have been manufactured and delivered to Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania. Two of these have been succesfully loaded during hot trial tests and placed in storage. The CONSTOR® cask for RBMK fuel has obtained the type B(U)F verification certificate from the Russian authority GAN and the release for manufacturing as a storage cask by the Lithuanian Authority VATESI. Following the successful hot trials, the final storage license from VATESI is expected in the near future. The type B(U)F licensing in the Czech Republic will be finished in 2001.

Designing Control Rooms for the Year 2000: New Technologies, New Techniques?

1992 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 458-459
Author(s):  
Edward L. Cochran
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Widespread Application ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Field Control ◽  
Large Systems ◽  
Control Rooms ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Year 2000

Control rooms are one of the most visible areas of applied human factors, and they represent perhaps the most thorough integration of the various disciplines that comprise the field. Control rooms may well be revolutionized by the turn of the century through the widespread application of technologies that are just now emerging. This symposium will explore, from a variety of perspectives, the technologies likely to affect the next generation of control rooms. We hope to stimulate debate about which emerging technologies are likely to have significant impact, how control room designers should incorporate those technologies in the near term (and plan for them in the long term), and how the enhanced capabilities of the operators of large systems of the future could affect the design of those systems.

Demographic gaps between Syrian and the European populations: What do they suggest?

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Murat Yucesahin ◽  
Ibrahim Sirkeci
Keyword(s):  
Transition Theory ◽  
World Population ◽  
Demographic Analysis ◽  
Demographic Differences ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Syrian Population ◽  
Displaced People ◽  
Near Future

Syrian crisis resulted in at least 6.1 million externally displaced people 983,876 of whom are in Europe while the rest are in neighbouring countries in the region. Turkey, due to its geographical proximity and substantial land borders with the country, has been the most popular destination for those fleeing Syria since April 2011. Especially after 2012, a sharp increase in the number of Syrian refugees arriving in Turkey was witnessed. This has triggered an exponential growth in academic and public interest in Syrian population. Numerous reports mostly based on non-representative sample surveys have been disseminated whilst authoritative robust analyses remained absent. This study aims to fill this gap by offering a comprehensive demographic analysis of the Syrian population. We focus on the demographic differences (from 1950s to 2015) and demographic trends (from 2015 to 2100) in medium to long term, based on data from World Population Prospects (WPP). We offer a comparative picture to underline potential changes and convergences between populations in Syria, Turkey, Germany, and the United Kingdom. We frame our discussion here with reference to the demographic transition theory to help understanding the implications for movers and non-movers in receiving countries in the near future.

The foundations of peaceful coexistence after the war ... Mosul is a model

2019 ◽  
pp. 178
Author(s):  
Omar Hashim Thanon
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Mass Displacement ◽  
The Common ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Post War ◽  
Common Destiny

Since peaceful coexistence reflects in its various aspects the concept of harmony between the members of the same society with their different national, religious and sectarian affiliations, as well as their attitudes and ideas, what brings together these are the common bonds such as land, interests and common destiny. But this coexistence is exposing for crises and instability and the theft of rights and other that destroy the communities with their different religious, national, sectarian, ethnic aspects, especially if these led to a crisis of fighting or war, which produces only destruction and mass displacement, ttherefore, the process of bridging the gap between the different parts of society in the post-war phase through a set of requirements that serve as the basis for the promotion of peaceful coexistence within the same country to consolidate civil and community peace in order to create a general framework and a coherent basis to reconstruct the community again.      Hence the premise of the research by asking about the extent of the possibility and ability of the community of religious and ethnic diversity, which has been exposed to these crises, which aimed at this diversity, basically to be able to rise and re-integrate within the same country and thus achieve civil and community peace, and Mosul is an example for that, the negative effects of the war and the accomplices of many criminal acts have given rise to hatred and fear for all, leading to the loss of livelihoods, which in the long term may have devastating social and psychological consequences.        To clarify all of this, the title of the first topic was a review of the concept and origin of peaceful coexistence. While the second topic dealt with the requirements of peaceful coexistence and social integration in Mosul, the last topic has identified the most important challenges facing the processes of coexistence and integration in Mosul. All this in order to paint a better future for the conductor at all levels in the near term at the very least to achieve the values of this peaceful coexistence, especially in the post-war period.

Integration of Digital Preservation Knowledge, Skills and Competencies in the Teaching Curricula of Library and Information Studies at the University of Botswana

Mousaion ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thatayaone Segaetsho ◽  
Julie Moloi
Keyword(s):  
Digital Preservation ◽  
Records Management ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
University Of Botswana ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Teaching Content ◽  
Library And Information Studies ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
The University

In the past few decades, digital technology has found a place in the acquisition, arrangement, description, preservation, and dissemination of information. However, heritage institutions are perturbed by the challenges of digital preservation strategies particularly for education. Despite continuous investment in digital preservation, there are limited skilled professionals to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and competencies required to drive digital preservation in Botswana. Therefore, this paper investigated the knowledge, skills and competencies related to digital preservation in the teaching curricula of the Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) at the University of Botswana. Data collection was done through intensive structured interviews with specific educators who teach courses on digital preservation in the archives and records management stream. The study revealed that despite the fact that the educators in preservation courses are aware of current trends in digital preservation, most of them have not obtained formal degree certification specific to digital preservation. The findings further revealed that minimal digital preservation competencies are observed in the teaching curricula. A significant number of challenges observed illustrated mainly a lack of resources and limited skills in terms of practical demonstrations by educators. The curricula mostly lacked clarity on long-term and short-term digital preservation. The study recommends that DLIS and other institutions should conduct surveys or curriculum auditing on digital preservation in order to improve the teaching content. A significant number of shortcomings regarding digital preservation that could motivate further studies are also discussed under the conclusion and recommendations section of this study.

Hallucinogen Use in College Students: Current Trends and Consequences of Use

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-127
Author(s):  
Lena S. Jia ◽  
Jessica A. Gold
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Drug Class ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
College Population ◽  
Therapy Studies ◽  
Recreational Use ◽  
Perception Disorder ◽  
Review Current

Hallucinogens are a drug class that is growing in popularity with college students. Recent experimental trends, such as microdosing, have helped promote the use of hallucinogens on campus, and students may be tempted to use these substances due to their beliefs about the drugs’ positive effects on mood. Although hallucinogens are not currently an established form of medical therapy, studies have shown that they have significant benefits as adjunctive treatments for psychological disorders. However, the recreational use of these drugs in college students often occurs in uncontrolled doses or with drug mixing, which is often dangerous. Furthermore, students with mental health disorders may have their symptoms masked by hallucinogenic drug use, which could delay treatment and have serious consequences. Long-term use of these drugs may also result in tolerance or hallucinogen persisting perception disorder. This article attempts to review current information regarding hallucinogen use and how it applies to the college population.

The Many Faces of Socioeconomic Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Toye
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Face ◽  
Scientific Expertise ◽  
The Many ◽  
Century Development

This book provides a survey of different ways in which economic sociocultural and political aspects of human progress have been studied since the time of Adam Smith. Inevitably, over such a long time span, it has been necessary to concentrate on highlighting the most significant contributions, rather than attempting an exhaustive treatment. The aim has been to bring into focus an outline of the main long-term changes in the way that socioeconomic development has been envisaged. The argument presented is that the idea of socioeconomic development emerged with the creation of grand evolutionary sequences of social progress that were the products of Enlightenment and mid-Victorian thinkers. By the middle of the twentieth century, when interest in the accelerating development gave the topic a new impetus, its scope narrowed to a set of economically based strategies. After 1960, however, faith in such strategies began to wane, in the face of indifferent results and general faltering of confidence in economists’ boasts of scientific expertise. In the twenty-first century, development research is being pursued using a research method that generates disconnected results. As a result, it seems unlikely that any grand narrative will be created in the future and that neo-liberalism will be the last of this particular kind of socioeconomic theory.

scholarly journals Transdisciplinary AI Observatory—Retrospective Analyses and Future-Oriented Contradistinctions

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Nadisha-Marie Aliman ◽  
Leon Kester ◽  
Roman Yampolskiy
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Research Direction ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Safety Critical ◽  
Safety Research ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Ai Safety

In the last years, artificial intelligence (AI) safety gained international recognition in the light of heterogeneous safety-critical and ethical issues that risk overshadowing the broad beneficial impacts of AI. In this context, the implementation of AI observatory endeavors represents one key research direction. This paper motivates the need for an inherently transdisciplinary AI observatory approach integrating diverse retrospective and counterfactual views. We delineate aims and limitations while providing hands-on-advice utilizing concrete practical examples. Distinguishing between unintentionally and intentionally triggered AI risks with diverse socio-psycho-technological impacts, we exemplify a retrospective descriptive analysis followed by a retrospective counterfactual risk analysis. Building on these AI observatory tools, we present near-term transdisciplinary guidelines for AI safety. As further contribution, we discuss differentiated and tailored long-term directions through the lens of two disparate modern AI safety paradigms. For simplicity, we refer to these two different paradigms with the terms artificial stupidity (AS) and eternal creativity (EC) respectively. While both AS and EC acknowledge the need for a hybrid cognitive-affective approach to AI safety and overlap with regard to many short-term considerations, they differ fundamentally in the nature of multiple envisaged long-term solution patterns. By compiling relevant underlying contradistinctions, we aim to provide future-oriented incentives for constructive dialectics in practical and theoretical AI safety research.

scholarly journals Survey-Based Analysis of Current Trends for Prescribing Gastrointestinal Protectants among Small-Animal General Practitioners in Portugal

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Rita Baptista ◽  
Ryane Englar ◽  
Berta São Braz ◽  
Rodolfo Oliveira Leal
Keyword(s):  
General Practitioners ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Small Animal ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Educational Strategies ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Therapeutic Value

In both human and veterinary healthcare, gastrointestinal protectants (GIPs) are considered a staple of clinical practice in that they are prescribed by general practitioners (GPs) and specialists alike. Concerning GIP use, overprescription of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) has become a growing concern among human healthcare providers. This trend has also been documented within veterinary practice, prompting the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) to publish a consensus statement in 2018 concerning evidence-based indications for GIP use. This observational cross-sectional study evaluated self-reported prescribing protocols among Portuguese GPs to determine whether there is adherence to the consensus guidelines. Respondents were Portuguese GPs recruited by social media posts in veterinarian online forums. Data were collected from 124 respondents concerning their GIPs of choice and their rationales for prescribing them. Data were mined for prescription patterns and protocols. Among GIPs, PPIs were prescribed more often. Rationales for use included gastrointestinal ulceration and erosion (GUE), prophylactic management of nonerosive gastritis, pancreatitis, reflux esophagitis, and steroid-induced ulceration. Once-daily administration of PPIs was the most frequent dosing regime among respondents. Ninety-six percent of PPI prescribers advocated that the drug be administered either shortly before or at mealtime. Forty-nine percent of respondents supported long-term use of PPIs. Fifty-nine percent of respondents acknowledged discontinuing PPIs abruptly. This study supports that Portuguese GPs commonly prescribe GIPs in accordance with ACVIM recommendations to medically manage GUE. However, misuse of GIPs does occur, and they have been prescribed where their therapeutic value is debatable. Educational strategies should target GPs in an effort to reduce GIP misuse.

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