“Good Bye, Big Sky”: Coal and Postwar America

Power Lines ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Needham
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Fly Ash ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Chemical Components ◽  
Postwar America ◽  
Four Corners ◽  
Unique Nature ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Electrical Utilities

This concluding chapter presents a reading of “Good Bye, Big Sky” and “The Giant Revived,” two articles on coal's rise as the fuel of postwar America and the cost of that transition. “The Giant Revived” explained how American electrical utilities found coal to be an inexpensive alternative to natural gas and nuclear power that could meet the nation's burgeoning demand for electricity. This demand drove a revival of the coal industry. By 1970, demand from utilities had tripled the amount of electricity generated by coal since 1956. Meanwhile, “Good Bye, Big Sky” suggested the costs of coal's new place as the nation's dominant source of electricity. With Four Corners alone releasing approximately 46,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and 35,000 tons of sulfur dioxide—the two main chemical components of smog—as well as 50,000 tons of fly ash annually, the resulting air pollution obscured vistas and suggested the Southwest's unique nature had come to an end.

The availability of coal

1987 ◽  
Vol 92 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
K. Moses
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Energy Content ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Mining Operations ◽  
Coal Reserves ◽  
The Cost

SynopsisSince the assessment of coal reserves for the Royal Commission on the coal industry of Great Britain made nearly a century ago, up to assessments made by geologists of the National Coal Board, it has been evident that the coalfields of Scotland contain considerable quantities of coal. Throughout the past two decades the presence of hydrocarbons in the rocks beneath the North Sea, the general abundance of oil in various parts of the world, and the development of nuclear power, has meant that coal is only one of several sources of energy readily available to us. The coalfields of Scotland contain seams of varying quality and energy content and so can be compared with other fuels. Consequently it is the cost of the energy to the consumer that is often the controlling factor in the choice of which fuel to use. The very nature of coal as a bulky and not-too-easily-handled fuel has meant that only the generation of electricity offers the scope for substantial consumption of coal.The paper examines these factors and also the location of the coal reserves in Scotland, particularly in the light of the geological factors that affect the cost of the energy. The National Coal Board's deep mining exploration programme in Great Britain has sought opportunities for new ventures and developments, some of which have been in Scotland. The market for the coal and the competition for that market clearly indicates that the productivity of coal mining operations is paramount in determining the future size of the coal industry in Scotland. About half of the coal can be provided from low-cost opencast operations, with the other half obtained from the mines with the highest productivities—productivities that result in energy costs similar to those obtained from oil and nuclear power.

The Cost of Air Pollution in Lagos

10.1596/33038 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lelia Croitoru ◽  
Jiyoun Christina Chang ◽  
Andrew Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
The Cost

scholarly journals Synthesis of Zeolite from Fly Ash and Removal of Heavy Metal Ions from Newly Synthesized Zeolite

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 1200-1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parag Solanki ◽  
Vikal Gupta ◽  
Ruchi Kulshrestha
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metal ◽  
Fly Ash ◽  
Metal Ions ◽  
Heavy Metal Ions ◽  
Coal Fly Ash ◽  
Proximate Analysis ◽  
13X Zeolite ◽  
Alkali Fusion ◽  
Type Zeolite ◽  
The Cost

Coal fly ash was used to synthesize X-type zeolite by alkali fusion followed by hydrothermal treatment. Characteristics of the various Fly ash samples were carried out. Coal proximate analysis was done. Batch experiment was carried out for the adsorption of some heavy metal ions on to synthesized Zeolite. The cost of synthesized zeolite was estimated to be almost one-fifth of that of commercial 13X zeolite available in the market.

Measuring the air pollution cost of shale gas development in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 1098-1111
Author(s):  
Zhengwei Ma ◽  
Yuanjun Pang ◽  
Dan Zhang ◽  
Yuqi Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Social Cost ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Measurement Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Recoverable Reserves ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Gas Fields ◽  
Ecological Cost

Shale gas is one of the most promising unconventional hydrocarbon resources in the 21st century. In recent years, economically recoverable reserves have achieved explosive growth, and drilling techniques have made large breakthroughs. As a clean unconventional energy, shale gas is given substantial consideration by governments. However, the cleanliness of shale gas has been questioned for causing serious air pollution during production. To further measure the air pollution cost during the exploration and transportation of shale gas, this article establishes an economic measurement model of the air pollution cost from the three aspects of human health, social cost and ecological cost by reviewing the relevant literature in the United States and China. This study lays a foundation for further calculating the cost of air pollution around shale gas fields.

AEC Classifier: A Tree-Based Classifier with Error Control for Medical Disease Diagnosis and Other Applications

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 241-262
Author(s):  
Wasif Bokhari ◽  
Ajay Bansal
Keyword(s):  
Error Control ◽  
Binary Classification ◽  
False Negative ◽  
Disease Diagnosis ◽  
False Negatives ◽  
Medical Disease ◽  
Unique Nature ◽  
Comparable Accuracy ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Roc Score

In medical disease diagnosis, the cost of a false negative could greatly outweigh the cost of a false positive. This is because the former could cost a life, whereas the latter may only cause medical costs and stress to the patient. The unique nature of this problem highlights the need of asymmetric error control for binary classification applications. In this domain, traditional machine learning classifiers may not be ideal as they do not provide a way to control the number of false negatives below a certain threshold. This paper proposes a novel tree-based binary classification algorithm that can control the number of false negatives with a mathematical guarantee, based on Neyman–Pearson (NP) Lemma. This classifier is evaluated on the data obtained from different heart studies and it predicts the risk of cardiac disease, not only with comparable accuracy and AUC-ROC score but also with full control over the number of false negatives. The methodology used to construct this classifier can be expanded to many more use cases, not only in medical disease diagnosis but also beyond as shown from analysis on different diverse datasets.

Swedish Nuclear Power and Economic Rationalities

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Kåberger
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Reactor ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Reactor Accident ◽  
Energy Supply System ◽  
High Investment ◽  
Market Evaluation ◽  
The Cost

The economic characteristics of nuclear power, with high investment cost and fuel costs lower than conventional fuels, make it possible to achieve low electricity prices when reactors supply marginal electricity. The support for nuclear power by the Swedish electricity consuming industry may be understood as efforts to create and defend a situation of over-capacity in the electricity production sector rather than as support for nuclear power as such. Politically the external costs of routine emissions of radioactive materials are difficult to internalise because they, like carbon dioxide, have global long-term effects. However, like the air pollutants already regulated, costs of reactor accidents, as well as the motives for taking on management costs of nuclear waste, are regional and within a generation in time. The market evaluation of accident risks has been deliberately destroyed by legislation set to favour nuclear power reactors. Societal economic rationality may be successfully applied in the energy sector. This paper describes how climate change risks were internalised in Sweden using carbon taxes under favourable political conditions. The resulting development of biofuels was surprisingly successful, indicating a potential for further modernisation of the energy supply system. Possible ways to restore the nuclear risk market in order to internalise nuclear reactor accident risks and waste costs by legislation are described. This may be done without the difficult quantification of environmental costs. Appropriate legislation may internalise the cost while creating conditions for market evaluation of these uncertain costs.

We Never Built Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), but What Do We Know About Modularization in Construction?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benito Mignacca ◽  
Giorgio Locatelli ◽  
Mahmoud Alaassar ◽  
Diletta Colette Invernizzi
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Schedule Compression ◽  
Small Modular Reactors ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Additional Costs ◽  
Structured Knowledge ◽  
The Cost

The key characteristics of small modular reactors (SMRs), as their name emphasized, are their size and modularity. Since SMRs are a family of novel reactor designs, there is a gap of empirical knowledge about the cost/benefit analysis of modularization. Conversely, in other sectors (e.g. Oil & Gas) the empirical experience on modularization is much greater. This paper provides a structured knowledge transfer from the general literature (i.e. other major infrastructure) and the Oil & Gas sector to the nuclear power plant construction world. Indeed, in the project management literature, a number of references discuss the costs and benefits determined by the transition from the stick-built construction to modularization, and the main benefits presented in the literature are the reduction of the construction cost and the schedule compression. Additional costs might arise from an increased management hurdle and higher transportation expenses. The paper firstly provides a structured literature review of the benefits and costs of modularization divided into qualitative and quantitative references. In the second part, the paper presents the results of series of interviews with Oil & Gas project managers about the value of modularization in this sector.

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