Machine generated contents note:
Part 1 Global Warming and Energy Production
1 Global climate change: Real or myth?
What is the debate about?
The IPCC and International Conventions
Skeptical politicians and pundits
Historical temperature and greenhouse gas record
Last 10,000 years of climate
Recent changes in temperature and CO2
Melting glaciers and rising seas
Response to Singer and Avery
Predictions of future global warming and consequences
Sea level and acidification
2 Where our Energy Comes From
A brief history of energy
How much energy do we use and where does it come from?
What can be done to reduce our carbon-intensive energy economy?
3 The Good, Bad and Ugly of Coal and Gas
Anatomy of a coal-fired plant
Carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants
Mining and health hazards
Carbon Capture and Storage
4 The Siren song of renewable energy
Photovoltaic (PV) solar power
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)
Limitations of solar power
Limitations of Wind Power
5 Back to the Future: Nuclear Power
Advantages of nuclear power
Subsidies for nuclear and renewables
Advanced Reactor Technology
Can nuclear replace coal?
Arguments against nuclear power
Part 2 Radiation and its Biological Effects
Radioactivity: decay processes
7 How dangerous is radiation?
Interactions of Radiation with Matter
Electromagnetic radiation (photon) interactions
Charged particle interactions
What is a dose of radiation?
Effects of radiation on DNA and cells
How does radiation cause cancer?
Hereditary effects of radiation
8 What comes naturally and not so naturally
Natural Background Radiation
Primordial terrestrial radiation
Part 3 Risks of Nuclear Power
The long and the short of waste storage
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)
Recycling spent nuclear fuel
Making new fuel from recycled "waste"
The Scare, March 16, 1979
Three Mile Island, March 28, 1979
How the accident happened
Chernobyl, April 26, 1986
How the accident happened
The hazardous radioisotopes
Environmental consequences
Consequences for nuclear power
Fukushima, March 11, 2011
How the accident happened
Health and environmental consequences
Consequences for nuclear power
Public perception of risks from nuclear power
World resources of uranium
Is there enough uranium for a nuclear renaissance?
Myth 1: Radiation is extremely dangerous and we don't understand it
Myth 2: There is no solution to the nuclear waste produced by nuclear power
Myth 3: Nuclear power is unsafe and nuclear accidents have killed hundreds of thousands of people
Myth 4: Uranium will run out too soon and mining it generates so much carbon dioxide that it loses
its carbon-free advantage
Myth 5: Nuclear power is so expensive it can't survive in the marketplace
Appendix A: Global warming
The emission scenarios of the IPCC special report on emissions scenarios (SRES)
Appendix B Glossary of terms, definitions and units
Appendix C Glossary of acronyms and abbreviations
Appendix D Selected Nobel prizes