The BU Trustee Scholarship Competition

The author of Something Clever is a female high school student from Seattle, Washington who has been accepted at Boston University. She just found out that she's been asked to apply for the school's Trustee Scholar program that would qualify her for full tuition and room and board for all four years.

Wow, that's a heck of an opportunity. But to win the scholarship, she going to have to write a 600-word essay. And here's topic#1:

Boston University Trustee Scholars are encouraged to develop well-informed and well-reasoned views of important political, social, and artistic issues. We try to select students who have a sense of how to present persuasive arguments in support of their views. With that in mind, write an essay of no more than 600 words responding to one of the following statements:

1. Electricity generation via nuclear power produces no greenhouse gases, but does produce a small volume of very dangerous radioactive waste.

What a coincidence! Now, if our young friend would like some help researching this paper, feel free to explore our blog, or check out our main Web page.

And good luck. And once you get to BU, please say hello to Mr. Eruzione.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Energy, Electricity, Environment, Boston University

Comments

something clever's high school teacher said…

Something Clever from Seattle, Washigton has not even completed an application yet for Boston University. She has visited and had a great time, but at this time has made no decisions. She is a theatre student currently, however entirely capable of nuclear science or whatever field she chooses. Just felt the need to clarify.

October 28, 2005 at 11:27 PM

How Nanomaterials Can Make Nuclear Reactors Safer and More Efficient

The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior communications advisor at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald.

From the batteries in our cell phones to the clothes on our backs, "nanomaterials" that are designed molecule by molecule are working their way into our economy and our lives. Now there’s some promising work on new materials for nuclear reactors.

Reactors are a tough environment. The sub atomic particles that sustain the chain reaction, neutrons, are great for splitting additional uranium atoms, but not all of them hit a uranium atom; some of them end up in various metal components of the reactor. The metal is usually a crystalline structure, meaning it is as orderly as a ladder or a sheet of graph paper, but the neutrons rearrange the atoms, leaving some infinitesimal voids in the structure and some areas of extra density. The components literally grow, getting longer and thicker. The phenomenon is well understood and designers compensate for it with a …

Why America Needs the MOX Facility

If Isaiah had been a nuclear engineer, he’d have loved this project. And the Trump Administration should too, despite the proposal to eliminate it in the FY 2018 budget.

The project is a massive factory near Aiken, S.C., that will take plutonium from the government’s arsenal and turn it into fuel for civilian power reactors. The plutonium, made by the United States during the Cold War in a competition with the Soviet Union, is now surplus, and the United States and the Russian Federation jointly agreed to reduce their stocks, to reduce the chance of its use in weapons. Over two thousand construction workers, technicians and engineers are at work to enable the transformation.

Carrying Isaiah’s “swords into plowshares” vision into the nuclear field did not originate with plutonium. In 1993, the United States and Russia began a 20-year program to take weapons-grade uranium out of the Russian inventory, dilute it to levels appropriate for civilian power plants, and then use it to produce…

Nuclear Is a Long-Term Investment for Ohio that Will Pay Big

With 50 different state legislative calendars, more than half of them adjourn by June, and those still in session throughout the year usually take a recess in the summer. So springtime is prime time for state legislative activity. In the next few weeks, legislatures are hosting hearings and calling for votes on bills that have been battered back and forth in the capital halls.

On Tuesday, The Ohio Public Utilities Committee hosted its third round of hearings on the Zero Emissions Nuclear Resources Program, House Bill 178, and NEI’s Maria Korsnick testified before a jam-packed room of legislators.

Washingtonians parachuting into state debates can be a tricky platform, but in this case, Maria’s remarks provided national perspective that put the Ohio conundrum into context. At the heart of this debate is the impact nuclear plants have on local jobs and the local economy, and that nuclear assets should be viewed as “long-term investments” for the state. Of course, clean air and electrons …

NEI Nuclear Notes

Search This Blog