Monday, October 11, 2010

Nuclear Talk Review. Harry Potter Syle (Part 2)


Harry, Ron, Hermione and Lord Voldemort are stunned. The demonic presence of Lady Gaga seems to immobilize them. No forms of magic could harm her because she’s the one doing the harming and despite being witch and wizards, there’s nothing they could do. A nuclear bomb is much safer than this abomination.

Ron : Arghh! This is scarier than spiders!

Hermione : Scarier than not getting A for exams!

Harry : Scarier than Dementors!

Lord Voldemort : Scarier than my mom!

Hermione : Enough! I won’t stand for this! Though I might hesitate to use the Unforgivable Curses even on Voldemort, I won’t with this one!

Harry : Me too!

Ron : Me three!

LV : You go girl!

In union, Harry, Ron and Hermione for the sake of mankind unleash their power to kill Lady Gaga.

HRH : Avada Kedavra!

Lady Gaga : Don’t call my name, don’t call my name Alejandro. Arghhh!

And Lady Gaga drops dead.







LV : Phew! Glad that’s over.

Harry : Couldn’t agree more. But LV, when you say nuclear is green, how can that be possible?

LV : You really are one slow learner aren’t you? As I said before nuclear produces very little amount of CO2. This is because unlike conventional technologies that depend on combustion, nuclear uses the fission concept which is why it’s a green technology. At this the author would like you to refer to the previous posts.

Harry, Ron and Hermione took out their Iphones and BBs and start roaming the net whilst LV who’s dead and the author who’s poor just stares jealously at them.

LV : Whilst you guys are at it, just so you know Malaysia in the UN summit on global warming in Copenhagen, stated her voluntary reduction of up to 40% in terms of emission intensity of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by the year 2020. Seems like she is quite serious in adopting nuclear energy after all huh?
 
Harry : OIC, but what about sustainability? Ok nuclear is green but is it sustainable?

LV : You bet it is! Like I said before, uranium’s lifetime of fuel resources is over 3000 years! For all we know, judgement day may already be in the pass by then. According to Nabuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), current trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable – environmentally, economically and socially- they can and must be altered! He was referring to nuclear as the solution for sustainable energy obviously. FYI, a typical pellet of uranium (imagine one Panadol) weighs about 7 grams yet it can generate as much energy as

  • 3.5 barrels of oil
  • 17000 cubic feet of natural gas or
  • 1780 pounds of coal
Now tell me nuclear is not sustainable!

Hermione : That’s a really good news! But Voldy, may I call you Voldy?

LV : No you may not! *#@*#*

Hermione : Fine! LV then! What about radioactivity?

LV : Oh don’t give me that! And I thought you were the smart one. You ever heard of NORM?

HRH : No.

Hermione : (I’m only good in magic....)

LV : Well oh-clueless-ones,  it stands for Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials and can be found anywhere.  In air and soil, in radioactive potassium in our own bodies, public water supply and surprise! Even in food we consume like Brazil nuts, cereal and peanut butter! The food we eat exposes us to about 40 milirem of radiation each year. An x-ray technician who works with x-ray machines every day is exposed to about 500 milirem of radiation each year. You guys smoke?

HRH : No! Of course not!

LV : Well, smoking one and a half packs a day results in exposure to 1300 milirem of radiation per year. Flying in an airplane reduces the thickness of atmosphere shielding you from cosmic sources of radiation so a member of an airline crew receives about 200 milirem a year on their job. Know what a nuclear power plant gives you?

HRH : What? What?

LV : If you’re crazy enough to live near a nuclear power plant, 0.009 milirem of radiation per year. If you work in a nuclear power plant, 180 milirem per year. Ironic isn’t it?

Ron : (Whistles) It is indeed. What’s the maximum dosage of radiation can a person withstood?

LV : Glad you ask. It’s 5000 milirem per year. So see, enough with the hysterics already.  Also there are three types of radioactive decay: alpha, beta and gamma decay. A sheet of paper can block the alpha particle, a sheet of plywood for the beta and 1 metre of concrete for gamma. Do you really think a nuclear power plant would be less than 1 metre of concrete in size? What’s there to worry about for goodness’s sake!

Harry : That’s all fine then, but what about the nuclear waste?

LV : I knew this would come up! FYI, the waste volume for fuel preparation and plant operation for:

  • Coal is 0.5 million tonnes per GWe yearly of ash and fuel gas desulphurization
  • Oil is 0.25 million tonnes per GWe yearly of ash and fuel gas desulphurization
  • Natural Gas is about 0.2 million tonnes per GWe yearly of gas sweetening
  • Wood is 0.1 million tonnes per GWe yearly of ash and
  • Solar is less than 0.05 million tonnes per GWe yearly of toxic materials
Know what nuclear gives? Only less than 0.05 million tonnes per GWe yearly of radioactive materials! And besides, because of people’s perspective on nuclear due to the atomic bombs, there is no industry in the world that gives more attention to safety than nuclear industry. A common misconception is that radioactive waste is a huge problem that cannot be solved. Let me ghost-magically summon a holographic picture.



The final disposal facility, or facilities, should be located several hundred meters underground. The waste would be encased in tough materials and would use the surrounding rock as a barrier to prevent radioactive leakage into the environment. Underground storage allows for the radioactive waste to be managed safely. We know where it is, and we can plan our development model around it!

Besides, nuclear waste can be vitrified by mixing them with glass to immobilize them so it cannot leak into the environment! Now tell me, are you still concerned over nuclear?

HRH : No we’re not!

LV : Good! Now let’s do some happy monsters dance! (Refer to the kid’s programme Hi-5)

While Harry, Ron, Hermione and Voldy are doing the dance and holding hands in blissful unison, again they heard another horrifying sound and this time it was much worse than Lady Gaga’s.

Baby, baby, baby ohhh. Like baby, baby, baby noo!

And Justin Bieber makes an appearance.


LV and HRH : OMG!

Harry : No! This is much more horrible than Lady Gaga and nuclear bombs combined!

Ron : This is it! We’re doomed!

Hermione : Not even Avada Kedavra would work this time!

LV : And people are worried about nuclear why?

LV and HRH : Arghhh!!!

And so it was with great despair as Hogwarts bears witness to the demise of Harry, Ron, Hermione, LV’s ghost and the innocent author.

The End

4 comments:

  1. technically,in order to keep the viability of human, each everyone of us must keep away all the negative thinking by considering its contribution for future mankind..

    arif afifi bin ahmad (me084865)
    megatron_183@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. hhhh - Thx alot for making such an informational article this funny :D
    by knowing more about Nuclear throught the sites we visiterd,the articles we read and the Grean Series we attended we can see that the only reason which has prevened us from using such energy and i'll use the expression from the lucture that some of us always stand at the -bungee jump- stage and never jump! while others (Try) ...
    Anan Issam Alnajjar -CE084206
    annanalnajjar@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. before this, its true that when i heard about nuclear, the only things that i can imagine is BOMB.. but, it is actually better than those bomb, we can save life.. because nowadays, we depend on energy sources that generates more on pollution rather than the power output.. pollution=diseases=die.. so, if nuclear power is a go green technology, we can save life. isn't it?

    khairul azzam mazlan
    me083561
    whizz42243_kid@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. arif afifi: couldn't agree more. for the future!

    annan: u're most welcome :) yeah, guess it is time to make that jump huh?

    azzam: absolutely. ironic isn't it? life-taker in the past yet live-saver for the future

    ReplyDelete