Environmental,economic and social risks of nuclear power engineering (the case of the southern part of the Ob-river basin)

The Siberian Chemical Combine, the largest nuclear plant not only in Russia but also in the world, which afforded ‘heat and electricity to our houses’, was built in 1954 in the south-east of Tomsk Oblast. Tomsk is in close proximity (10–12 km) to this plant located in the closed city of Severesk; hence the radiological situation in Tomsk may be estimated as potentially dangerous. The Russian Federation’s Ministry for Atomic Energy tries to continue developing the nuclear power industry in the region and suggests new projects including a plant for nuclear fuel production and development reactor BREST-OD-300, calling this an ‘innovative project’, a ‘breakthrough’. Where will this breakthrough lead us? Is the nuclear power industry really innovative and hi-tech? The paper focuses on the analysis of economic, ecological and social risks of the nuclear power industry; it also discusses whether it is worth developing in Siberia with its huge resource potential.     

Preparation of Sound‐Insulating Lightweight Ceramics from Aluminosilicate Rocks with High CaCO3 Content

A sound‐insulating lightweight ceramics with “pseudo‐open” porosity was obtained from calcite‐zeolite rock using energy‐saving procedure. A thorough analysis of chemical processes occurring during material preparation revealed that decomposition of CaCO₃ with extensive gas release destroys cellular structure of thermally softened material. The latter, however, can be overpassed by proper alkali activation, which leads to transformation of CaCO₃ into sodium carbonates (like trona and thermonatrite) with lower decomposition temperature. The reported results suggest that quality lightweight ceramics with sound‐insulating properties can be obtained even from poorly zeolitized rocks with high CaCO₃ content previously treated as unsuitable for such application.     

基于RSD的脉冲发生器破碎岩混材料实验仿真

为了总结用于破碎岩混材料的脉冲发生器其设计原则和规律。通过应用一种反向晶体管开关,研制脉冲发生器进行破碎岩混材料实验,并结合CST软件对电极放电过程进行仿真,确定脉冲发生器的最佳参数。经研究发现,基于RSD脉冲发生器的输出脉冲可高效破碎岩混材料,其具有安全可控无污染的优点,有望代替炸药爆破方式。     

Efficient Broadband Triplet–Triplet Annihilation‐Assisted Photon Upconversion at Subsolar Irradiance in Fully Organic Systems

The latest trend in solar cell technology is to develop photon managing processes that adapt the solar emission to the spectral range at which the devices show the largest intrinsic efficiency. Triplet–triplet annihilation‐assisted photon upconversion (sTTA‐UC) is currently the most promising process to blue‐shift sub‐bandgap photons at solar irradiance, even if the narrow absorption band of the employed chromophores limits its application. In this work, we demonstrate how to obtain broadband sTTA‐UC at sub‐solar irradiance, by enhancing the system's light‐harvesting ability by way of an ad‐hoc synthesized family of chromophores with complementary absorption properties. The overall absorptance is boosted, thus doubling the number of upconverted photons and significantly reducing the irradiance required to achieve the maximum upconversion yield. An outstanding yield of ≈10% is obtained under broadband air mass (AM) 1.5 conditions, which allows a DSSC device to operate by exploiting exclusively sub‐bandgap photons.     

Study of Carbon Dioxide Transport in a Samaria Aerogel Catalyst by High Field Diffusion NMR

Pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR employing a high magnetic field of 17.6 T was used to study self‐diffusion of carbon dioxide in alumina stabilized samaria aerogel, a promising porous catalyst for gas‐phase reactions. Such rare‐earth aerogels exhibit high porosity and surface area with active sites directly integrated into the pore framework. In the reported diffusion NMR studies, application of a high magnetic field was essential for obtaining sufficiently high signal‐to‐noise ratios under conditions of relatively low CO₂ densities in the primarily mesoporous catalyst particles. The diffusion studies were performed with the catalyst that was formed into the following two types of samples: macroscopic monoliths and beds of particles with sizes around 200 μm. The sorbate diffusivity inside the monolith was compared with the corresponding diffusivity in the bed under conditions of fast exchange of CO₂ between the particles and the interparticle voids of the bed. The two‐domain exchange model proposed by Kärger for zeolites was used to describe the latter diffusivity. The reported results are expected to be useful for elucidating an influence of possible transport limitations under reaction conditions in aerogel catalysts.     

A Critical Assessment of Li/MgO-Based Catalysts for the Oxidative Coupling of Methane

Li/MgO is one of the most frequently investigated catalysts for the oxidative coupling of methane. Besides catalytic testing, it is also a suitable system to perform surface science experiments and quantum chemical calculations, which is not possible for many other active catalysts. However, the real structure of Li/MgO, the nature of the active center and the structure - activity relationship remain unclear, despite all the research that has been done. The aim of this review is to summarize the available knowledge on Li/MgO to structure and accelerate and improve the ongoing work on this catalytic system.     

A detailed history of calcium orthophosphates from 1770s till 1950

Due to the chemical similarity with human bones and teeth, calcium orthophosphates are the inorganic substances of a special importance for the human being: they appear to be the excellent compounds to construct artificial bone grafts. In addition, calcium orthophosphates are necessary for both animals and plants as the source of important chemical elements. Obviously, these facts have not become apparent immediately; thus, providing the detailed annals of the knowledge development on the subject is the purpose of this review. The chosen time scale started with the earliest available studies of 1770s (to the best of my findings, calcium orthophosphates had been unknown before), passed through the entire 19th century and finished in 1950, because since then the amount of publications rapidly increased and the subject became too broad. In addition, since publications of the second half of the 20th century are easily accessible, other scientists have already reviewed the substantial amount of them. Many forgotten and poorly known historical facts, names, approaches, concepts and misconceptions have been extracted from the old publications. To maximize objectivity, an extensive quotation has been used. Then the old data have been systematized, reanalyzed and reconsidered from the modern points of view. The reported historical findings clearly demonstrate that many famous scientists of the past contributed to the subject. Furthermore, the significant quantity of the modern scientific facts, ideas and experimental approaches appear to have been known for very many decades and, in fact, a good deal of the recent investigations on calcium orthophosphates is just either a further development of the earlier studies or a rediscovery of the already forgotten knowledge.     

Measuring welfare loss caused by air pollution in Europe: A CGE analysis

To evaluate the socio-economic impacts of air pollution, we develop an integrated approach based on computable general equilibrium (CGE). Applying our approach to 18 western European countries shows that even there, where air quality is relatively high compared with other parts of the world, health-related damages caused by air pollution may be substantial. We estimate that as of 2005, Europe experienced an annual loss in consumption of about 220 billion Euro in year 2000 prices (about 3% of total consumption) with a range based on 95% high and low epidemiological response functions of 107–335 billion Euro and a total welfare loss of about 370 billion Euro (range of 209–550) including both consumption and broader welfare losses (around 2% of welfare level) due to the accumulated effects of three decades of air pollution in Europe. In addition, we estimate that a set of air quality improvement policy scenarios as proposed in the 2005 CAFE program would bring 18 European countries as a whole a welfare gain of 37–49 billion Euro (year 2000 prices) in year 2020 alone.     

Efficient metallation in diphenylether – A convenient route to luminescent platinum(II) complexes

The synthesis of luminescent platinum(II) complexes is described. The rapid platination of porphyrins and cyclometallating coumarins was performed in diphenylether using platinum(II) bis(benzonitrile)dichloride and platinum(II) bis(dimethyl sulfoxide)dichloride. Compared to conventional methods, the reaction times are lowered dramatically and yields are significantly improved. For the first time, a NIR-emitting platinum(II) complex with tetraphenyltetrabenzoporphyrin was obtained using a direct route starting from phthalimide and phenylacetic acid.     

The Role of Metal in Self-Organization of Carbon into Graphite- or Diamond-Like Nanotubes

The reasons of the self-organization of carbon-metal systems into graphite- or diamond-like nanotube were firstly discussed. Non-transition metals, which do not form carbide, have highly disposed free levels and the metal phase formation does not allow energy relaxation over metal phase, which evolves as a result of recombining carbon-carbon bonds. Therefore the energy is conserved as a metastable state such as diamond-like nanotubes or films. Transition metals, which cannot form stable carbides, produce fullerene and graphite-like nanotube structures because these metals produce relaxing the recombination energy of carbon atoms on forming the stable graphitic structures.