Radioactive Wastes

Initially, nuclear energy was hailed as a non-polluting way for generating electricity. Later on, it was realized that the use of nuclear energy has two very serious inherent problems. The first is accidental leakage, as occurred in the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl incidents and the second is safe disposal of radioactive wastes. 

Radiation, that is given off by nuclear waste is extremely damaging to organisms, because it causes mutations at a very high rate. At high doses, nuclear radiation is lethal but at lower doses, it creates various disorders, the most frequent of all being cancer. Therefore, nuclear waste is an extremely potent pollutant and has to be dealt with utmost caution. 

It has been recommended that storage of nuclear waste, after sufficient pre-treatment, should be done in suitably shielded containers buried within the rocks, about 500 m deep below the earth’s surface. However, this method of disposal is meeting stiff opposition from the public.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Public Services Code as recommended by the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission

2nd Administrative Reforms Commission has suggested the inclusion of the following principles in the Code of Ethics for civil servants in India:    • Integrity : Civil servants should be guided solely by public interest in their official decision making and not by any financial or other consideration either in respect of themselves, their families or their friends.    • Impartiality: Civil servants in carrying out their official work, including functions like procurement, recruitment, delivery of services etc, should take decisions based on merit alone.    • Commitment to public service: Civil servants should deliver services in a fair, effective, impartial and courteous manner.    • Open accountability: Civil servants are accountable for their decisions and actions and should be willing to subject themselves to appropriate scrutiny for this purpose.    • Devotion to duty: Civil servants maintain absolute and unstinting devotion towa...
Read more

Lord Dalhousie was the founder of modern India

Lord Dalhousie was the founder of modern India because he brought modernity in ideas, architecture, reforms, public works etc.  Military Reforms : Shimla became the army headquarter and Meerut became artillery headquarter Dalhousie created a new, regiment called ‘Gurkha Regiment’ and also introduced the system of centralized control in newly acquired territories known as ‘Bon-Regulation system’.  Educational Reforms : Woods dispatch is considered as the Magna Carta of English education that helped in the development of female & male education. An engineering college was established at Roorkee and Anglo Vernacular Schools and Government colleges were also opened.  Social Reform : Widow Remarriage Act (1856) was passed during his work period. Infrastructural  Development : He introduced the railway network that facilitated trade, commerce and cultural experiences.  He also laid out first telegraph line and postal system on modern lines that increased commu...
Read more

TSPSC Group-1 (Mains) | Paper-3 Indian Society, Constitution, Governance

I. Indian Society, Structure, Issues and Social Movements  1. Indian Society: Salient features, Unity in Diversity; Family, Marriage, Kinship, Caste, Tribe, Religion, Language; Rural – Urban continuum; Multi-culturalism.  2. Social Exclusion and Vulnerable Groups: Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, Minorities, Women, Children, Aged and Disabled.  3. Social Issues: Poverty; Unemployment, Child Labour, Violence against Women; Regionalism; Communalism and Secularism; Corruption; Caste Conflicts, Problems of Agricultural Labour; Urbanization; Development and Displacement; Environmental Degradation; Sustainable Development; Population Explosion; Agrarian Distress; Migration.  4. (a)Social Issues in Telangana: Vetti; Jogini and Devadasi System; Girl Child; Flourosis; Child Labour; Migrant Labour; Child Marriages.       (b) Social Movements in Telangana.  5. Social Policies and Programmes in India and Telangana: Policies for Women...
Read more

Cyber Dome Project and how it can be useful in controlling internet crimes

Image
Cyber Dome Project has been conceived by Technological Research and Development Centre of Kerala Police as a public-police participation model and is aimed at combating emerging cyber threats through effective policing.  • Cyber dome is a Centre of Excellence for Kerala Police, to meet the long-term security challenges in the digital arena of the modern world, by bridging the gap between the latest changes and innovations in the cyber space and the skill set development of Kerala Police, in combating the emerging cyber threats.  • It envisages as a hi-tech public-private partnership centre of collaboration for different stakeholders in the domain of cyber security and handling of cyber crimes in a proactive manner.  • It is envisaged as a collaboration centre for both the public and private fraternity to converge and share information, as well as resources that will escalate the safety of our cyber space.  It can be useful in controlling internet crimes in India...
Read more

Economic policies of the British in India from eighteenth century to Independence

British control over India began purely out of economic considerations with political factor assuming primacy in the later stages. The English East India company assumed the Diwani rights over a large part of east India following their victory at Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764). The Company continued to rule for nearly a century followed by the direct British rule till 1947. In the meantime, they devised certain economic policies which had far reaching impact on all aspects of Indian society.  Till the 18th Century, India was not only ahead in the field of agriculture, but also had a prominent place in the world in the field of handicraft production.  Mid 18th Century onwards, the British destroyed handicraft industry and introduced new systems and tenures and policies of revenue administration.  The taxation policies of British were very regressive and exploitative. British had implemented new policies of revenue collection in the form of Permanent Settlement, Mahalwari ...
Read more

EDUSAT Satellite, ISRO

GSAT-3, known as EDUSAT is meant for distant class room education from school level to higher education. This was the first dedicated "Educational Satellite" that provide the country with satellite based two way communication to class room for delivering educational materials. This is a Geo-synchronous satellite developed on I-2K bus. GSAT-3 was co-located with METSAT(KALPANA-1) and INSAT-3C at 74 o  E longitude. Mission Education Spacecraft Mass 1950.5 kg mass (at Lift - off) 819.4 kg (Dry mass) Onboard power Total four solar panel of size 2.54 M x 1.525 M generating 2040 W (EOL), two 24 AH NiCd batteries for eclipse support Stabilization 3 axis body stabilised in orbit using sensors, momentum and reaction wheels, magnetic torquers and eight 10 N & 22N reaction control thrusters. Propulsion 440 N Liquid Apogee Motor with MON - 3 and MMH for orbit raising Payload Six upper extended C - band transponders Five lower Ku band transponders with regional beam coverage One lower...
Read more

Effective utilization of public finds is crucial to meet development goals

The Importance of Efficient use of Public Resources Effective utilization of public resources is critical to meeting development goals. Key programs in education and health are overwhelmingly conducted within the public sector. And although private provision of infrastructure has expanded in areas like telecommunications and energy, private investors remain wary of socially-oriented sectors, such as water and sanitation, and also show little willingness to invest in the poorest countries. At present, though, research indicates that increases in public spending are only weakly correlated with the achievement of development outcomes in most developing countries. Government ineffectiveness — in the form of waste, inefficiency and corruption — is largely responsible.  Reasons for under-utilization and mis-utilizations of funds:  • Corruption: The large sum of money earmarked from public activities are taken away by officials as well as politicians in form of bribes. This results i...
Read more

the policy taken by the government of India to meet the challenges of the food processing sector

Image
Almost more than 60% of India’s population is directly or indirectly dependent upon agriculture and allied activities, but contributes only about 17% to the GDP. For a country like India which has a vast population to feed and maximum workforce is dependent on agriculture, it becomes imperative to increase productivity in this sector. Food processing sector is one of the sectors which can increase the quality of the produce as well as its value. For it, Government of India has launched numerous initiatives.  Initiatives taken by government to develop food processing sector in India  • Mega Food Parks: Under this scheme, government provides capital grants of 50% for all states and 75% to special status states. Since its inception, 42 mega food parks were given in-principle approval. However, only five projects have started operations, including the North East Mega Food Park in Assam. Hence, it can’t be called a proper success. Whereas, its predecess or Food park scheme was qui...
Read more

Representation of People Act, 1951 and remedies available to such person against his disqualification.

The Representation of the People Act, 1951 is an act of Parliament of India to provide for the conduct of election to the Houses of Parliament and to the House or Houses of the Legislature of each State, the qualifications and disqualifications for membership of those Houses, the corrupt practices and other offences at or in connection with such elections and the decision of doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with such elections.  Grounds for Disqualification  • On conviction for certain election offences and corrupt practices in the election.  • Conviction for an offence punishable under certain acts of Indian Penal Code, Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, Prevention of Terrorism Act 2002 etc.  • Conviction for any offence resulting in imprisonment for not less than two years such legislator shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue t...
Read more

TSPSC Group-1 (Mains) | Paper-5 Science & Technology and Data Interpretation

I. The role and impact of Science and Technology.  1. Classical and Emerging areas of Science & Technology : Value addition by Science & Technology, Current Science & Technology developments in India and importance of Science & Technology as an engine for National Development ; Industrial development & Urbanization.  2. National Policy of Science & Technology: changes in Policy from time to time: Technology missions ICT: Basics in Computers, Robotics, Nano technology and Communication.  3. Space program in India and its applications with special reference to industrial, agricultural and other rural development activities, INSAT, IRS systems, EDUSAT and Chandrayaan-1 and future programme.  4. Application of Space Technology in India with references to Education, Agriculture and Industry. Climatic change, Floods, Cyclone, Tsunami, Natural and Manmade Disaster Management.  5. Energy Resources: Energy demands, Indian energy scenario- hydel, t...
Read more