Tuesday 22 January 2013

Japan to replace Fukushima plant with world’s largest wind farm


In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan has decided to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm to replace the crippled nuke plant.
The country plans to build a total of 143 wind turbines on platforms 16 kilometres off the coast of Fukushima by 2020, which is home to the stricken Daiichi nuclear reactor that hit the headlines in March 2011 when it was damaged by a severe earthquake and tsunami.
The wind farm will generate 1 gigawatt of power once completed, and is part of a national plan to increase renewable energy resources following the post-tsunami shutdown of the country’s 54 nuclear reactors. Only two have since come back on-line, the ‘New Scientist’ reported.
The project is part of Fukushima’s plan to become completely energy self-sufficient by 2040, using renewable sources alone. The prefecture is also set to build the country’s biggest solar park.
The wind farm will surpass the 504 megawatts generated by the 140 turbines at the Greater Gabbard farm off the coast of Suffolk, UK - currently the world’s largest farm.
The first stage of the Fukushima project will be the construction of a 2-megawatt turbine, a substation and undersea cable installation. The turbine will stand 200 metres high. If successful, further turbines will be built subject to the availability of funding.
Project manager Takeshi Ishihara of the University of Tokyo insists that the area’s seismic activity won’t be an issue for the turbines.
His team have carried out computer simulations and water tank test to verify the safety of the turbines not just in the event of an earthquake or tsunami but also in other extreme conditions such as typhoons.
“All extreme conditions have been taken into consideration in the design. This project is important - I think it is impossible to use nuclear power in Fukushima again,” he said.
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the eastern coast of Japan in 2011, destroying the nuclear power plant that lay on the coast of Japan’s Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Lake Conditions of Bangalore city

A report on Bengaluru’s system of lakes and canal networks highlights how scientific urban planning can result in efficient use of a city’s natural resources, equitable benefit sharing among its citizens, cleaner environments and a richer urban biodiversity. It also illustrates how a well-planned system can develop fault lines if taken for granted.
The report, by ATREE’s Harini Nagendra, Ramesh Sivaram, Federation of Resident Welfare Associations of Ward 150 and Dr. S. Subramanya, ornithologist, expounds on the current status of the water bodies in Bengaluru’s Mahadevpura constituency, and steps that can be taken for informed and scientific reclamation and restoration of these. The report, currently being shared with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, under which the management of these lakes is consolidated, aims to inform planning at a constituency and ward level.

http://www.atree.org/sites/default/files/Mahadevpura_report_Feb2011_ATREE.pdf


The original network of kere (lakes) in Bengaluru was linked through a web of canals or kaluve, connected to the surrounding agricultural-wetland landscape. The network was made up of numerous tanks, ranging from less than a hectare in size; to medium sized tanks of tens of hectares, and a few large tanks of hundreds of hectares in area. All were rain fed. The small and medium tanks were seasonal; only large tanks were perennial.
During the monsoon, the water levels were at their highest. Wetlands, orchards and agricultural fields surrounded the lake, and these were irrigated by water from open wells that were dependent on the ground water table recharged by nearby lakes. Water was used for domestic purposes such as washing, for drinking water, and to replenish the ground water table. Fishing was also done. Idols were immersed in the tanks during festivals. Since most lakes were seasonal, and pollution levels were low, siltation was easy to control. The silt was extracted every few years. The wetland-agricultural-grazing orchard landscape surrounding the lake acted as a natural watershed basin to recharge the lake with fresh precipitation.

Saturday 5 January 2013

Story of honey on your table


Bees are older than us ,they have come on earth before 50 million years back(Human is 5 million years back).
We know more of its  Honey  and
less of its incredible help for our biodiversity through pollination.Nearly 80% of our vegetable ,flower crops depend on it for re productivity.
Bees are social beings,they are three types of bee in single family one is queen ,second male and third one is worker which cannot give birth to offsprings .
Male only job is to mate with queen for reproduction after they die in short time but the selfless worker  bees are tirelessly work for the colony and for  its betterment.

1.One of the interesting fact of the bee is its nest, buit in octogonal shape.Architects all over the world realized importance of octogen shaped settlement because of its effectiveness in space,a octogen shape building encloses 20 % more space than square shape building for same perimeter.
2.Octogen shape buildings allows more light since it has more directions to welcome light unlike square shaped buildings.In europe they built this octogen
shape buildings for recreation purpose as it allows 360 degree view and strenth is par with square shape buildings,bees knows this.
3.Bees security measures are highly complex and efficent,when bees identify the threat it attacks on enemy ,when it bites some kind of chemical secrets on enemy
body  which has smelling specialty attracts other bees to attack on particular enemy.
4.Bee will die once it bites enemy.
5.Honey of the bees are precious because 1kg of honey which is in your home collected from nearly 1 crore flowers .
6.The astonishing fact is that the honey which any plants produce in their flowers is only to attract insects like bees for pollination purpose .