Leonor Matos

“The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking.”

“Nothing is certain.”

Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), printed his uncertainty principle - It’s impossible to determine with precision the position and the velocity of an eletron at the same time - in contemporary scientific consciousness.

Energy: - physics, energy is a property of objects, transferable among them via fundamental interactions, which can be converted in form but not created or destroyed.

Nuclear energy: - is the use of exothermic nuclear processes, to gene rate useful heat and electricity.

Science: Game of Truth and Error

Where are we?

“What I know, I believe.”Ludwig Wittgenstein

We believe that:

- We inhabit planet earth- Our earth moves around a suburbian sun-The sun is on the periphery of a peripheral

galaxy-This Galaxy is on the periphery of a mysterious

universe

Our Ecosystem

Ecosystem - is a community of living organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system.

The need to better consider long-term ecosystem health and its role in enabling human habitation and economic activity is urgent.

Natural resources are not invulnerable and infinitely available. The environmental impacts of anthropogenic actions, which are processes or materials derived from human activities, are becoming more apparent

"There is unprecedented interest in renewable energy, particularly solar and wind energy.”

World Nuclear Association, 2013

"The Abipiones have by custom, as they received from their ancestors, a way of doing everything according to his will, and not according to their chief.I can show them a way, but can't harm any of my own people without harming myself.If I tried to use my power by any means or force against my companions, they would turn back on me.I'd rather be loved than feared by them. "

Grand Chief Alaykin,warlord of Abipione tribe (choco Argentino)

Pro and con

- There is an ongoing debate about nuclear power.

Proponents, such as the World Nuclear Association, the International Atomic Energy Association and Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy contend that nuclear power is a safe, sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions.

Opponents, such as Greenpeace International and Nuclear Information Resource Service, contend that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment.

Ambivalence of Science Today

The knowledge of the physical and genetic engineering and the consequent ability to manipulate energy and human genome constitute risks and hope to the humanity.

The new powers created by the scientific activities raise questions about the power of scientific progress and the consequences of the technical bureaucratic appropriation of the results of the work of scientists.

The letter that launched the arms race

By the means of this letter Einstein sends a warning to President Roosevelt of the possibility of constructing "extremely powerful bombs of a new type” with hints that the German government might be doing just that.

Szilard and Einstein Together After the War

Nuclear weapons

By August 1945, the Allied Manhattan Project had successfully tested an atomic device and had produced weapons based on two alternate designs.

The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in August 1945. The two bombings were the first and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in wartime.

The 509th Composite Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces was equipped with a Silverplate Boeing B-29 Superfortress that could deliver them from Tinian in the Mariana Islands. A uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki on August 9.

- Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day.

- During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizeable garrison.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Cold War: is it over?!

• World War ll (1939 - 1945) • Manhattan Project (1942-1946)• Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945)

• Cold War/arms race(1947-1991)

• Cuban missile crisis (1962)• “Truce” (1991-2014)• Ukrainian crisis (2014)

The human costs: - Accidents and safetyNuclear power plant accidents include the Chernobyl accident (1986) with approximately 60 deaths so far attributed to the accident and a predicted, eventual total death toll, of from 4000 to 25,000 latent cancers deaths. The Fukushima Daiichi (2011) nuclear disaster ,the world's worst nuclear accident since 1986, displaced 50,000 households after radiation leaked into the air, soil and seaRadiation checks led to bans of some shipments of vegetables and fish.This nuclear disaster, has not caused any radiation related deaths, with a predicted, eventual total death toll, of from 0 to 1000. Cancer and other desisses from side effects are still to know.

Survival or Sustainability

Thinkg about alternative

solutions In our opinion, technical knowledge of the potential of

nuclear energy has not yet allowed safe handling for the planet and its inhabitants.

On the other hand, we belive that, renewable energy, the kind of energy that comes from natural resources such as sunlight , wind, rain ,seas and geothermal energy, is more sustainable and less pollutant. So, we hope to see this strategy more implemented and developed.

However, the study of nuclear fusion energy seems to indicate that the power of atoms may prove to be useful and safe for the Earth and their inhabitants, in the not too distant future...

- International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor - (ITER) www.iter.org

- A 13-year-old boy from Preston has become

the youngest person ever to successfully carry out atomic fusion.

Jamie Edwards built a nuclear reactor before successfully smashing two hydrogen atoms together, making helium through nuclear fusion.

http://youtu.be/U7iCPdbBGpM

Yes, we can.

The energy problem is a problem that concerns everybody and everybody should be concern with.

The solution or set of solutions to this problem requires civic awareness, policy and ethics based on access to information. To take a decision, beyond the reasonable doubt, one needs time and all the possible and available information. It's a question of education.

We belive, that the people, the so called Civil Society can and should contribute to the energy politics and decisions of their States. This can be the only way to stop the growing threat to the health of populations and the balance of the environment .

The Open Future

“The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessary solving of an existing one.”

“The position in which we are now is a very strange one which in general political life never happened. Namely, the thing that I refer to is this: To have security against atomic bombs and against the other biological weapons, we have to prevent war, for if we cannot prevent war every nation will use every means that is at their disposal; and in spite of all promises they make, they will do it.”

Albert Einstein, 1945

“The Earth isn't ours, we've just lend it from our children.”

Indian saying