Business emphasis at research council has Canada’s scientists concerned

The wirte up about funding cuts for basic science in Canada, this time is in Physics Today: http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v66/i7/p26_s1?bypassSSO=1 "Unveiled on 7 May, the new structure of the NRC has been in the making since the release nearly two years ago of the government-commissioned report Innovation Canada: A Call to Action, which said Canada should identify strategic areas, streamline its interactions with companies, and focus more on commercialization. The NRC response includes a reorganization from 21 independent institutes into 12 R&D portfolios falling into the three categories of engineering, emerging technologies, and life sciences. In the process, the NRC has shed at least two institutes: A medical diagnostics center in Manitoba was closed, and in April the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre was transferred to Atomic Energy of Canada. “This refocused NRC, with a business-led innovation mission, is pivotal to the future of Canadian jobs, economic growth, and our long-term prosperity,” said Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology.".... "Goodyear compares the refocused NRC to Germany’s Fraunhofer organization, a network of applications-oriented institutes. “In some sense that’s fine,” says Simon Fraser University biophysicist John Bechhoefer. “But what they don’t say is that Germany still has and funds the Max Planck Institutes. We don’t have anything like the Max Planck.”"

Want to kill fewer people? Go nuclear

Want to kill fewer people? Go nuclear: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/want-to-kill-fewer-people-go-nuclear-20130710-2pqbq.html "The record of deaths and diseases over the past 60 years shows nuclear power is safer than every other source of energy."

Canada’s first nuclear emergency response support centre planned for Ontario

Canada’s first nuclear emergency response support centre planned for Ontario: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Canada+first+nuclear+emergency+response+support+centre+planned/8637444/story.html

New study concludes nuclear generation is the best investment for Ontario's energy future

New study concludes nuclear generation is the best investment for Ontario's energy future: http://www.electricenergyonline.com/?page=show_news&id=171058 "A new detailed analysis concludes that investment in Ontario's nuclear generation capacity will deliver the greatest benefit to Ontario ratepayers and the economy while dramatically reducing future potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Ontario is in the middle of a review of its 2010 Long-Term Energy Plan (LTEP). Many observers have speculated that with slower than forecasted growth in energy demand in Ontario, building out the full capacity contemplated by the LTEP could result in higher than anticipated costs to ratepayers and an unacceptably large surplus of power generation capacity. New decisions on the future supply mix for Ontario may have to be contemplated.
To inform the LTEP review, the Power Workers' Union (PWU) and the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries (OCI) commissioned Strategic Policy Economics Inc. (Strapolec) to assess the economic and GHG emission impacts associated with two supply mix options. One scenario - Retained Wind − assumes that planned new wind generation goes forward while investments in nuclear power generation are curtailed. Under this scenario, additional gas-fired generation is needed as a backstop to the intermittency of wind generation. The other scenario - Retained Nuclear − assumes that the planned refurbishment of existing nuclear reactors and the building of new reactors would proceed while the proposed development of new wind generation would not.
The study shows that retaining the nuclear generation capacity as planned in the 2010 LTEP while reducing contemplated wind generation would:
•Produce $56 billion in direct benefits to Ontario's economy through $27 billion in savings to ratepayers and $29 billion in direct investment in Ontario. This represents a $60 billion net incremental benefit to Ontario as compared to the Retain Wind scenario.
•Generate $9 billion in greater direct employment income benefits than the Retained Wind scenario including the creation of more than 100,000 full-time jobs in Ontario, many in the advanced manufacturing sector.
•Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by more than 108 million tonnes, or 80 per cent less, compared to the Retained Wind scenario."

Cyclotron construction start announced

Cyclotron construction start announced: http://news.usask.ca/2013/06/07/cyclotron-construction-start-announced "The University of Saskatchewan is beginning construction this month of the province’s first cyclotron facility, a centre for advanced research that will also produce medical imaging isotopes.
To be located in the former Animal Resource Centre between the Canadian Light Source synchrotron and the Western College of Veterinary Medicine on campus, the U of S-owned cyclotron facility will be managed and operated by the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation, a U of S subsidiary. PCL Construction Management Inc. was awarded the contract to renovate and expand the resource centre building to accommodate the cyclotron.
Some $25.5 million has been provided for the project from the Government of Saskatchewan and Western Economic Diversification Canada. The facility is expected to be operating for research purposes by 2015, and will be fully operational by 2016. It will then supply medical isotopes for the new PET-CT (Positron Emission Tomography – Computed Tomography) scanner at Royal University Hospital, equipment that has proven effective for identifying many types of cancer.
The cyclotron will also provide state-of-the-art facilities for a broad range of research related to human, animal and plant diseases and other molecular imaging applications."

Scientists Bristle at Canadian Leader's Applied Research Push

Science Magazine's writeup about the recent Canadian gvnt's funding cuts for basic science: Scientists Bristle at Canadian Leader's Applied Research Push: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6140/1519.full?rss=1 ... you need subscription to read the article, I will try to post some...

"That response was the latest—and
quintessential—example of what Harper’s
critics have described variously as his “antiintellectual,”
“antievidence,” or
“antiscience” attitude. An economist
turned politician, Harper
became Canada’s 22nd prime
minister in February 2006.
According to his opponents,
Harper soon began waging a subtle
“war on science” that has only
intensifi ed since his Conservative
party captured a majority of Parliament
in 2011.
That war has operated on
many fronts, his detractors say.
Stagnant budgets for the country’s
three granting councils
have sent a message that academic
research is not a priority
for the Conservative government,
they say. Climate and atmospheric
research have been hit especially hard as
part of what critics regard as an assault on
environmental stewardship."

"However, Harper’s top-down
initiatives and his demand that
the academic community become
more directly involved in the commercialization
of research have
infuriated scientists. Some argue
that the government’s propensity
for large, elitist programs is an
assault on the fundamental tenets of investigator-
initiated research that is eroding the
health of the scientifi c base. Others are simply
queasy about being nudged into becoming
what some call “mercenaries for industry.”"

"Researchers say it’s no coincidence that
a policy requiring government scientists to
obtain permission from Harper’s offi ce before
speaking to the media seems so often to
impinge on environmental researchers. Last
year, 2000 researchers in lab coats descended
on Parliament Hill for a mock funeral for the
“death of evidence.” The policy has spurred
an ongoing investigation by the federal information
commissioner into whether Harper
has placed undue limits on the ability of federal
scientists to disseminate fi ndings."

"Abolishing the national science adviser’s
position was particularly egregious, says
Kennedy Stewart, science critic for the opposition
New Democratic Party. The result, he
says, is that the Harper government is now
crafting science policy “without getting
advice from scientists.”
The shift to a voluntary census, meanwhile,
prompted the resignation of then–
Chief Statistician Munir Sheikh. It was
ostensibly made because libertarian backbenchers
within Harper’s caucus were fretting
that a Canadian might be charged with
failing to fi ll out a census form. And many
fear that the elimination of the national health
council, part of a broader policy to leave the
provinces entirely in charge of health care,
puts Canada on the fast track to becoming
14 splintered systems."

"Gregory Marchildon, Canada Research
Chair in Public Policy and Economic History
at the University of Regina, says that
the “federal government is dismantling
key aspects of the scientifi c infrastructure”
and that it will take “a generation or two
to rebuild” the damage. The opposition’s
Stewart says that the Harper government
is coasting on investments past and that its
strategy of “barking an order at someone”
and telling them “to go from being a scientist
to somebody who does industrial applications”
is doomed to fail."

Westinghouse lands DOE funding for advanced reactor research

Westinghouse lands DOE funding for advanced reactor research: http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/energy/2013/06/westinghouse-lands-doe-funding-for.html?goback=.gde_46854_member_254022610 "Westinghouse is one of four nuclear energy companies awarded funding from the Department of Energy this week for research on advanced nuclear reactor projects.
The projects will receive up to $3.5 million in total plus a 20 percent cost share from the companies. Westinghouse’s project is an analysis of sodium thermal hydraulics in advanced nuclear reactor design, according to the DOE. Through this project the Cranberry-based company will provide tools to help quantify heat exchanger performance and improve component engineering for sodium-cooled reactor designs, according to the DOE.
Announcement of these public-private partnerships comes on the heels of President Obama’s climate action plan to lower carbon emissions. The three other projects in the award are:
General Atomic, of San Diego, which is researching silicon carbide composite material for fuel rod cladding in advanced reactor design.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, of Wilmington, N.C., which is researching high-temperature insulation materials and analysis tools to design and make electromagnetic pumps for liquid-metal-cooled reactors.
Gen4 Energy, of Denver, which is developing computer models to research natural circulation designs for advanced reactors using a lead bismuth coolant."

Crime Scene Investigation with neutron scattering

neat!!! Crime Scene Investigation with neutron scattering?!!! A new way of detecting and visualizing fingerprints from crime scenes: New fluorescent fingerprint tag aims to increase IDs from ‘hidden’ fingerprints on bullets and knives: http://www.ill.eu/news-events/press-room/press-releases/new-fluorescent-fingerprint-tag-aims-to-increase-ids-from-hidden-fingerprints-on-bullets-and-knives-3072013/ "A new way of detecting and visualizing fingerprints from crime scenes using colour-changing fluorescent films could lead to higher confidence identifications from latent (hidden) fingerprints on knives, guns, bullet casings and other metal surfaces. The technique is the result of a collaboration between the University of Leicester, the Institut Laue-Langevin and the ISIS pulsed neutron and muon source, and will be presented today at the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Faraday Discussion in Durham.
When your finger touches a surface, it leaves behind deposits of sweat and natural oils in a pattern that mirrors the ridges and troughs found on your fingertips. The odds of two individuals having identical fingerprints are 64 billion to 1, making them an ideal tool for identification in criminal investigations.
The greatest source of fingerprint forensic evidence comes from latent fingerprints, i.e. those not immediately visible to the eye, because they are less likely to be ‘wiped’. However, visualizing these prints with sufficient clarity for positive identification often proves difficult. Despite the availability of several enhancement techniques, only 10% of fingerprints taken from crime scenes are of sufficient quality to be used in court.
The classical approach to enhance latent print visibility is to apply a coloured powder that adheres to the sticky residue and provides a visual contrast to the underlying surface. However, these techniques require significant preservation of fingerprint material and are therefore vulnerable to ageing, environmental exposure or attempted washing of the fingerprint residue.
To address this, researchers from the University of Leicester have been working on a new technique that visualizes fingerprints by exploiting their electrically insulating characteristics. Here, the fingerprint material acts like a mask or stencil, blocking an electric current that is used to deposit a coloured electro-active film. This directs the coloured film to the regions of bare surface between the fingerprint deposits, thereby creating a negative image of the print. Unlike conventional fingerprint visualization reagents, the polymers used by the University of Leicester researchers are electrochromic, that is to say they change from one colour to another when subjected to an electrical voltage.
The technique is highly sensitive as even tiny amounts of insulating residue, just a few nanometres thick, can prevent polymer deposition on the metal below. As a result, much less fingerprint residue is required than is typical for other techniques. Also, because it focuses on the gaps between the fingerprint deposits, it can be used in combination with existing (e.g. powder-based) approaches."

China prepares to spend billions on science and technology

Unlike Canada which is continuing to cut funding to basic science, other countries are spending billions on science, this is a write up for China's grand plan for investing in science: http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v66/i5/p20_s1?bypassSSO=1 "The projects are part of China’s “mid- to long-term perspectives for the development of major national infrastructures in science and technology” stretching out to 2030. Through the end of the current five-year planning period in 2015, the total investment is expected to be about CNY19 billion (about $3 billion), more than three times the amount in the previous five-year plan. Individual facilities will get up to CNY2 billion. The construction money comes from the National Development and Reform Commission. Ongoing research is covered by other sources, says Lu Yu, a senior scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physics, so the new large projects do not threaten funding for laboratory-scale science.
Zhen Cao, the chief scientist for a new cosmic-ray observatory that made the cut, says that with the economy strong, “people are thinking this is the time for China to take responsibility for the development of basic science and technology.” The US and Europe, he notes, are both home to many large scientific experiments. “China is making major contributions to science too,” he says. “That is why China thinks we should have this concrete plan to build and grow as many big facilities as possible.”
Among the 16 selected projects, some are ready to go forward pending various permits, but others will be put up for bid. That’s the case, for example, for a user facility to study materials under extreme conditions. Proposals for such projects are due soon, and decisions are likely before the end of the year, says Yu."

Yes We Can - Dispose Of Nuclear Waste

For our southern neighbours: Yes We Can - Dispose Of Nuclear Waste: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2013/06/30/yes-we-can-dispose-of-nuclear-waste/