The Fear Factory:
Are people’s attitude towards Nuclear Power justified?
This week Sarah Kennelly investigates the prospect of Nuclear Power as an alternative to Fossil Fuels.
We are all aware of the ever increasing demand for energy across the globe. Currently, our primary energy supply comes from burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. More and more we are searching for more efficient, cleaner, renewable sources to fulfil this role. There is one source of power that is clean, efficient and reasonably readily available, which already supplies 17% of the worlds power, but has the potential to supply a whole lot more. This source is nuclear power, but it is often immediately dismissed as being too dangerous and not environmentally friendly. The word “nuclear” seems to carry with it such a bad reputation that it cannot be included in everyday conversations without inciting fear. One such example of this is in the naming of MRI scans, the proper name being Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging. What has caused this fear of nuclear power and is it really justified?
People don’t often know or understand what actually goes on in a nuclear reactor or how the energy is produced. Nuclear fission is the main process involved in generating nuclear power. Most power stations use Uranium for this, but Plutonium can also be used. There is a mass of Uranium in the core of the reactor. This sample is bombarded with neutrons. When a neutron strikes an atom of Uranium, it is absorbed by the atom. This causes the Uranium to undergo induced fission. What this simply means is that the Uranium atom splits into two smaller atoms and releases two or three neutrons. These neutrons go and collide into more of the Uranium atoms and a chain reaction occurs. This process releases energy in the form of heat. This heats water into steam, which goes on to drive a turbine and generate electricity. This is an extremely efficient process. Just one pound of Uranium produces the same amount of energy as roughly one million gallons of gasoline.
There are no pollutants released directly into the atmosphere from nuclear reactors.
So let’s take a look at how fossil fuels perform, taking coal as a typical example. The coal is burned and the heat from this is often used to heat water to steam which then drives a turbine. However, as already pointed out this is an extremely inefficient process in comparison to nuclear fuels. But there is more to it than that. It is common knowledge that burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gasses and carbon dioxide. Environmentalists everywhere are constantly battling to reduce the planets production of these gasses which cause global warming. Sulphur oxides and Nitrogen oxides are also released in the burning of coal, these cause acid rain and are harmful to our health. Perhaps the most surprising emission though, and something which many people don’t know about is the emission of radioactive gasses directly into the atmosphere. Uranium and Thorium are released when coal and other fossil fuels are burnt. More importantly, most people are unaware that a coal fired power plant releases more radioactivity into the atmosphere than a properly functioning power plant.
It is certainly true that there are dangers associated with nuclear power, but these dangers are often over exaggerated because of high profile disasters such as the one in Chernobyl in 1986. Modern day reactors are held inside a concrete liner which acts as a radiation shield. This in turn is kept inside a steel containment vessel which prevents leakage of radioactive gas or fluids. The absence of this outer steel container is what made the Chernobyl disaster so catastrophic. The real dangers of nuclear power arise in mining the Uranium, with miners often developing lung cancers. There are also problems with disposing of the spent fuel. This stays toxic for centuries afterwards and needs to be kept somewhere safe, permanently.
While there are dangers associated with nuclear fuel, I feel it can be a much cleaner, safer and efficient energy source than fossil fuels. With our fossil fuel supply quickly running out, we need to look to other sources. Nuclear power is just one of these sources, but it can easily be overlooked due to the general public’s negative opinion of it. There are difficulties to be overcome in relation to it, but I feel the possible benefits certainly justify more research on the matter.
It is often said that people are afraid of things which they don’t understand. So hopefully next time you here the word “nuclear” you won’t just automatically assume it implies danger. Before you make up your mind on the matter of nuclear power, be sure to look at the real facts and decide for yourself if the pros outweigh the cons.
Friday, March 16, 2007
The Lunar Eclipse by Joseph Cullen
Did you happen to see it? Saturday March 3rd will certainly be a day to remember for quite some time because that was the night there was an almost perfect Lunar Eclipse for people all around the country to see. Luckily we had a beautiful night with hardly a cloud in the sky as the face of the moon became
covered in a black shadow.
Just in case you’re not sure of what exactly happened, this shadow that covered the face of the moon was caused by the Earth passing between the Sun and the moon and although this happens fairly regularly it’s not everyday that everyone gets such a great view of the event. For those of you who saw it you may have noticed the moon turning a deep red. This was my first time to witness this and it was very strange indeed, to see the familiar moon turning red right in front of me!
The reason this happens is because the sun is hidden behind the earth and although the moon should look black it turns red because light from the Sun actually hit’s the Earth’s atmosphere. Our atmosphere then reflects away the blue part of light and only the red light reaches the face of the moon!
Blue light is reflected away by our atmosphere because of the atmosphere’s composition, this is also why the sky is blue, because the atoms and molecules in the sky reflect he blue light towards the Earth’s surface and the red light away.
covered in a black shadow.
Just in case you’re not sure of what exactly happened, this shadow that covered the face of the moon was caused by the Earth passing between the Sun and the moon and although this happens fairly regularly it’s not everyday that everyone gets such a great view of the event. For those of you who saw it you may have noticed the moon turning a deep red. This was my first time to witness this and it was very strange indeed, to see the familiar moon turning red right in front of me!
The reason this happens is because the sun is hidden behind the earth and although the moon should look black it turns red because light from the Sun actually hit’s the Earth’s atmosphere. Our atmosphere then reflects away the blue part of light and only the red light reaches the face of the moon!
Blue light is reflected away by our atmosphere because of the atmosphere’s composition, this is also why the sky is blue, because the atoms and molecules in the sky reflect he blue light towards the Earth’s surface and the red light away.
Security by Obscurity: DRM Digested by Bart Busschots
With the pending court cases around Europe and Steve Jobs' recent open letter 'Thoughts on Music' there is a lot of talk about DRM at the moment, so, I thought now might be a good time to have a closer look at what it's all about. In this article I'll start by having a look at what DRM is, what effects it has on us, the consumers, and why I feel it will never work. I'll end by having a look at how DRM is counter-productive for the content producers and at some alternatives.
So what is DRM? The acronym stands for 'Digital Rights Management' and as the name suggests it refers to software systems designed to control what people can do with digital media like music and video. The idea is that the content is stored in an encrypted form and can only be played back by software that is approved by the authors of the DRM, the software controls the use of the media in accordance with the rules of the DRM in question. There are two things you should note about this, firstly, this immediately ties the consumer to certain programs, and hence certain platforms, and secondly, this entire system is dependent on the software being based around some form of secret (i.e. security by obscurity).
The motivation behind DRM is to prevent piracy. This is why it has been embraced by content producers like the big music labels and movie studios, they see it as a panacea that will end their perceived losses due to piracy. From the point of view of the consumer however, it is nothing other than an encumbrance. It gets in your way when you want to play back your content on your choice of platform or device, it gets in the way when you want to back up the music or movies you have legally bought, in short, it stops you doing what you want with stuff you have paid for. Because of DRM it is not possible to play the music you buy with any software you want, or with any portable player you want. Instead you have to use specific software which is generally not available on all platforms, and you have to use specific portable players. This is obviously nothing but an annoyance for consumers. In order to make this seem more palatable to the average consumer the large companies have come up with imaginative names for their DRM technologies like Fair Play and Plays for Sure but ultimately all DRM gets in your way, the only question is how much.
Because of the dominance of the iPod and the iTunes store the most common DRM technology you are likely to meet is Apple's Fair Play. I have an iPod, I use the iTunes Store and a lot of my music is 'protected' by Fair Play. Personally I don't feel it gets in my way too much except that I can only play my music with iTunes and on my iPod. I can't play it in Linux, or with the music software of my choice. I'm also a bit of a nerd so I have a lot of computers but Fair Play only lets me play my music on a maximum of five computers. For the average person that is probably enough, but I'm starting to run into problems!
Apart from being just annoying DRM can also have much more negative affects on consumers and their machines. Two examples in particular spring to mind. The first is the fiasco when Sony intentionally shipped music CDs that contained software to hack every PC that the CD was inserted into. The idea was to prevent that machine ripping the CD. The software that was installed was a root-kit and it had the nasty side-effect of leaving the PCs it was installed on open to malicious attack. Basically, in the name of DRM Sony illegally hacked people's computers and installed dangerous software. They were forced to pay some fines and replace the CDs but personally I think they got off FAR too lightly for a criminal act like that.
The other example is Windows Vista which has really gone DRM mad to the point that it is seriously getting in people's way. When you are playing DRMed content in Vista almost 100% of your machine's resources are diverted to protect that content, this means you can't do anything else on your machine other than watch the content, forget about multi-tasking, that's a thing of the past if you want to enjoy DRMed content! For all the details you could possibly want on the DRM technologies in Vista and full details on why it's bad for users check out episodes 74, 75 and 77 of the Security Now podcast.
It's obvious that DRM is not in the interest of regular people like you or me. We gain no advantage from being encumbered by DRM, only problems. Hence, the only possible reason for its existence is to keep the content providers happy. They believe that it is protecting them. It is certainly true that Apple could never have gotten permission to sell music online without implementing DRM, the big four record labels would never have stood for it! So, the reason we have ended up where we are is that the content providers believe DRM protects them. The question is, does it?
I'd say the evidence is pretty clear on that, and the answer is a resounding NO! If you don't believe me, fire up your favourite peer-to-peer file sharing software and search for what ever 's in the charts at the moment. It's easy to get at pirated content. It's everywhere! So why has DRM failed? It has failed because it is fundamentally flawed. The problem is that it depends on some form of secret to work. That secret means interoperability is not practical because secrets get out too easily when lots of people know them. It also means that any computer that can play DRMed content has software that KNOWS the secret installed on it, so smart hackers/crackers will always be able to figure it out. Windows Vista is a great example. It's jam packed full of the latest and greatest DRM technologies but it wasn't even out a wet week before reports came out claiming that the DRM had already been cracked! Bottom line, all DRM gets cracked because the ability to un-encrypt the protected content HAS to be on your machine. The reason no un-crackable DRM has yet been invented is because it's impossible to do! Security by obscurity is a fundamentally flawed concept.
Because DRM doesn't work, and indeed can't work, it is actually having the inverse effect to what it was intended to do. It is NOT preventing piracy, but rather, encouraging it! Consumers have a simple choice, they can either pay to have content they cannot use as they wish, or they can get un-restricted content for free. Which is the more appealing? Would you rather pay for music you can only play on one player and on one brand of portable player and on no more than five computers, or would you rather have content that you can use with any software, on any Operating System, on any portable player, and on as many machines as you want? This is why it's high time DRM came to an end. All DRM has managed to do is annoy people. It has not prevented piracy and never will. The more the content creators treat you and me and everyone else as criminals, the more people will fight back, and the less likely they will be to part with their hard-earned cash for restricted content.
So what's the solution? I think it's pretty simple, make it easy to buy music that consumers can actually use as they wish and you'll soon see a rise in legitimate music purchases and a fall in piracy. Since DRM can't be made interoperable without distributing it's secret and hence weakening it, the simplest option is of course to bin DRM and just give out totally un-restricted content. That may sound extreme but sites like eMusic are doing just that and it's working well for them. There are also other less drastic options for fighting piracy that do not restrict the consumer. I recently purchased an un-DRMed movie online. The download I got has a unique watermark in it that ties my copy of the movie to me via my credit card. If that copy is put on bit torrent or some other peer-to-peer network I'll be held responsible. However, I have a DRM free movie that I can use on any computer, with any operating system, and any player I want. The only requirement on me is that I not be a criminal. Sounds fair to me!
So what is DRM? The acronym stands for 'Digital Rights Management' and as the name suggests it refers to software systems designed to control what people can do with digital media like music and video. The idea is that the content is stored in an encrypted form and can only be played back by software that is approved by the authors of the DRM, the software controls the use of the media in accordance with the rules of the DRM in question. There are two things you should note about this, firstly, this immediately ties the consumer to certain programs, and hence certain platforms, and secondly, this entire system is dependent on the software being based around some form of secret (i.e. security by obscurity).
The motivation behind DRM is to prevent piracy. This is why it has been embraced by content producers like the big music labels and movie studios, they see it as a panacea that will end their perceived losses due to piracy. From the point of view of the consumer however, it is nothing other than an encumbrance. It gets in your way when you want to play back your content on your choice of platform or device, it gets in the way when you want to back up the music or movies you have legally bought, in short, it stops you doing what you want with stuff you have paid for. Because of DRM it is not possible to play the music you buy with any software you want, or with any portable player you want. Instead you have to use specific software which is generally not available on all platforms, and you have to use specific portable players. This is obviously nothing but an annoyance for consumers. In order to make this seem more palatable to the average consumer the large companies have come up with imaginative names for their DRM technologies like Fair Play and Plays for Sure but ultimately all DRM gets in your way, the only question is how much.
Because of the dominance of the iPod and the iTunes store the most common DRM technology you are likely to meet is Apple's Fair Play. I have an iPod, I use the iTunes Store and a lot of my music is 'protected' by Fair Play. Personally I don't feel it gets in my way too much except that I can only play my music with iTunes and on my iPod. I can't play it in Linux, or with the music software of my choice. I'm also a bit of a nerd so I have a lot of computers but Fair Play only lets me play my music on a maximum of five computers. For the average person that is probably enough, but I'm starting to run into problems!
Apart from being just annoying DRM can also have much more negative affects on consumers and their machines. Two examples in particular spring to mind. The first is the fiasco when Sony intentionally shipped music CDs that contained software to hack every PC that the CD was inserted into. The idea was to prevent that machine ripping the CD. The software that was installed was a root-kit and it had the nasty side-effect of leaving the PCs it was installed on open to malicious attack. Basically, in the name of DRM Sony illegally hacked people's computers and installed dangerous software. They were forced to pay some fines and replace the CDs but personally I think they got off FAR too lightly for a criminal act like that.
The other example is Windows Vista which has really gone DRM mad to the point that it is seriously getting in people's way. When you are playing DRMed content in Vista almost 100% of your machine's resources are diverted to protect that content, this means you can't do anything else on your machine other than watch the content, forget about multi-tasking, that's a thing of the past if you want to enjoy DRMed content! For all the details you could possibly want on the DRM technologies in Vista and full details on why it's bad for users check out episodes 74, 75 and 77 of the Security Now podcast.
It's obvious that DRM is not in the interest of regular people like you or me. We gain no advantage from being encumbered by DRM, only problems. Hence, the only possible reason for its existence is to keep the content providers happy. They believe that it is protecting them. It is certainly true that Apple could never have gotten permission to sell music online without implementing DRM, the big four record labels would never have stood for it! So, the reason we have ended up where we are is that the content providers believe DRM protects them. The question is, does it?
I'd say the evidence is pretty clear on that, and the answer is a resounding NO! If you don't believe me, fire up your favourite peer-to-peer file sharing software and search for what ever 's in the charts at the moment. It's easy to get at pirated content. It's everywhere! So why has DRM failed? It has failed because it is fundamentally flawed. The problem is that it depends on some form of secret to work. That secret means interoperability is not practical because secrets get out too easily when lots of people know them. It also means that any computer that can play DRMed content has software that KNOWS the secret installed on it, so smart hackers/crackers will always be able to figure it out. Windows Vista is a great example. It's jam packed full of the latest and greatest DRM technologies but it wasn't even out a wet week before reports came out claiming that the DRM had already been cracked! Bottom line, all DRM gets cracked because the ability to un-encrypt the protected content HAS to be on your machine. The reason no un-crackable DRM has yet been invented is because it's impossible to do! Security by obscurity is a fundamentally flawed concept.
Because DRM doesn't work, and indeed can't work, it is actually having the inverse effect to what it was intended to do. It is NOT preventing piracy, but rather, encouraging it! Consumers have a simple choice, they can either pay to have content they cannot use as they wish, or they can get un-restricted content for free. Which is the more appealing? Would you rather pay for music you can only play on one player and on one brand of portable player and on no more than five computers, or would you rather have content that you can use with any software, on any Operating System, on any portable player, and on as many machines as you want? This is why it's high time DRM came to an end. All DRM has managed to do is annoy people. It has not prevented piracy and never will. The more the content creators treat you and me and everyone else as criminals, the more people will fight back, and the less likely they will be to part with their hard-earned cash for restricted content.
So what's the solution? I think it's pretty simple, make it easy to buy music that consumers can actually use as they wish and you'll soon see a rise in legitimate music purchases and a fall in piracy. Since DRM can't be made interoperable without distributing it's secret and hence weakening it, the simplest option is of course to bin DRM and just give out totally un-restricted content. That may sound extreme but sites like eMusic are doing just that and it's working well for them. There are also other less drastic options for fighting piracy that do not restrict the consumer. I recently purchased an un-DRMed movie online. The download I got has a unique watermark in it that ties my copy of the movie to me via my credit card. If that copy is put on bit torrent or some other peer-to-peer network I'll be held responsible. However, I have a DRM free movie that I can use on any computer, with any operating system, and any player I want. The only requirement on me is that I not be a criminal. Sounds fair to me!
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