ईरान ने संवर्धित यूरेनियम भंडार की तय सीमा तोड़ी
ईरान ने वैश्विक शक्तियों के साथ उसके परमाणु समझौते के तहत तय की गई संवर्धित यूरेनियम भंडारण की सीमा तोड़ दी है। यह जानकारी विदेश मंत्री जवाद जरीफ ने दी। इसके साथ ही माना जा रहा है कि ईरान पी5+1 और यूरोपीय संघ के साथ 2015 में हुए ऐतिहासिक समझौते को तोड़ने की दिशा में आगे बढ़ गया है जिस दौरान यूरेनियम भंडारण की सीमा तय की गई थी। उधर, परमाणु कार्यक्रमों पर नजर रखने वाली संयुक्त राष्ट्र की एजेंसी IAEA ने भी ईरान के इस कदम की पुष्टि कर दी है।
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants-hindi/20745-2019-07-02-05-06-34
#Iran #JawabJaffar #nuclear #IAEA #DonaldTrump #uranium #EuropeanUnion

BRI से मुकाबला
चीन का बॉडर रोड इनिशिएटिव (BRI) जहां अपने तय पैमाने और अपनी महात्वाकांक्षा से पिछड़ता दिख रहा है, वहीं भारत रियायती लाइन्स ऑफ क्रेडिट (LOC) पर आधारित विकासात्मक सहयोग साझीदारी के तहत 63 देशों में आर्थिक परियोजनाओं पर काम कर रहा है। मौजूदा समय में 63 देशों को 279 लाइन्स ऑफ क्रेडिट दिया गया है।
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants-hindi/20744-bri
#BRI #LOC #China #VMuralidharan #India #economic #BoulderRoadInitiative

अफस्पा के तहत पूरा नगालैंड 'अशांत' घोषित
अफस्पा के तहत पूरे नगालैंड को और छह महीनों (दिसंबर अंत तक) के लिए 'अशांत क्षेत्र' घोषित कर दिया गया। सशस्त्र बल (विशेषाधिकार) कानून (AFSPA) के तहत सुरक्षा बल कहीं भी कार्रवाई और बिना पूर्व नोटिस किसी को भी गिरफ्तार कर सकते हैं। नगालैंड में कई दशकों से अफस्पा लागू है।
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants-hindi/20743-2019-07-02-05-06-12
#AFSPA #turbulent #Nagaland #disturbedarea #JammuandKashmir

Teachers reservation bill Passed
Lok Sabha on 1 July 2019 passed a bill that proposes to make university or college as a unit instead of department for the purpose of providing reservation for filling teachers posts in central education institutions.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/20750-teachers-reservation-bill-passed
#SC #EWS #LokSabha #ScheduledCaste #AllahabadHighCourt #NarendraModi

Assam NRC date extended
The government has given the process an extension of one month. The final list of National Register of Citizens in Assam was to be published on July 1. It will now be published on July 31.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/20749-assam-nrc-date-extended
#Assam #NRC #India #HimachalPradesh #citizens

ILO report on Climate change
As climate change worsens, growing heat stress on workers in agriculture and other sectors will cause a productivity loss equal to 80 million full-time jobs over the next decade, the UN warned 1 July 2019. A report from the International Labour Organization estimated that in 2030, 2.2 percent of total working hours worldwide will be lost because of higher temperatures.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/20748-ilo-report-on-climate-change
#ILO #agriculture #Organization #worldwide #Asia

Iran breaches stockpile limit
Dubai | Vienna: Iran has breached the limit of its enriched uranium stockpile set in a 2015 deal with major powers, foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on 1 July 2019, according to the ISNA news agency, defying a warning by European co-signatories to stick to the deal despite US sanctions.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/20747-iran-breaches-stockpile-limit
#Iran #UF6 #IAEA #MohammadJavadZarif #ISNA #stockpile #Dubai

Garuda Exercise
Indian Air Force (IAF) landed at Mont-de-Marsan Air Base in France to participate in the two-week ‘Garuda’ exercise with the French Air Force starting on 1 July 2019.
According to the embassy of France, as part of their Indo-Pacific cooperation, the fortnight-long Garuda exercise, will take place at Mont de Marsan (southwest of France).
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/20746-garuda-exercise
#GarudaExercise #IAF #India #IndianAirForce #C135 #aircraft

Today's Headlines - 09 August 2023
Nuclear-powered rocket cut travel time to Mars
GS Paper - 3 (Energy)

In less than three years, NASA could be testing a nuclear rocket in space. The space agency and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced that Lockheed Martin had been selected to design, build and test a propulsion system that could one day speed astronauts on a trip to Mars. The program is named DRACO, short for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations.

What if a spacecraft could get to Mars in half the time it currently takes?

Every 26 months or so, Mars and Earth are close enough for a shorter journey between the worlds. But even then it is a pretty long trip, lasting seven to nine months. For most of the time, the spacecraft is just coasting through space.
But if the spacecraft could continue accelerating through the first half of the journey and then start slowing down again, the travel time could be slashed.
Current rocket engines, which typically rely on the combustion of a fuel like hydrogen or methane with oxygen, are not efficient enough to accomplish that; there is not enough room in the spacecraft to carry that much propellant.
But nuclear reactions, generating energy from the splitting of uranium atoms, are much more efficient.
The DRACO engine would consist of a nuclear reactor that would heat hydrogen from a chilly minus 420 degrees Fahrenheit to a toasty 4,400 degrees, with the hot gas shooting from a nozzle to generate thrust. Greater fuel efficiency could speed up journeys to Mars, reducing the amount of time astronauts spend exposed to the treacherous environment of deep space.
Nuclear propulsion could also have uses closer to home, which is why DARPA is investing in the project. The technology may allow rapid maneuvers of military satellites in orbit around Earth.

Flashback

Nuclear propulsion for space is not a new idea. In the 1950s and 1960s, Project Orion — financed by NASA, the Air Force and the Advanced Research Projects Agency — contemplated using the explosions of atomic bombs to accelerate spacecraft.
At the same time, NASA and other agencies also undertook Project Rover and Project NERVA, efforts that aimed to develop nuclear-thermal engines similar in concept to those now being pursued by the DRACO program.
A series of 23 reactors were built and tested, but none were ever launched to space. Until the end of this program in 1973, NASA had contemplated using nuclear reactors to propel space probes to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond, as well as to provide power at a lunar base.
The technical capabilities, including early safety protocols, remain viable today, Tabitha Dodson, the DRACO project manager, said in a news briefing on 2 August 2023.
A key difference between NERVA and DRACO is that NERVA used weapons-grade uranium for its reactors, while DRACO will use a less-enriched form of uranium. The reactor would not be turned on until it reached space, part of the precautions to minimize the possibility of a radioactive accident on Earth.

#upsc #news #headline #nuclear #rocket #travel #mars #energy #space #propulsion #system #trip #darpa #astronauts #DRACO #demonstration #agile #cislunar #spacecraft #earth #journey #engines #hydrogen #methane #fuel #oxygen #uranium #DARPA #technology #NERVA

Today's Headlines - 03 September 2023
Largest indigenously developed N-plant starts ops
GS Paper - 3 (Energy)

The third unit of the indigenously developed 700-megawatt electric (MWe) nuclear power reactor at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project (KAPP3) in Gujarat has commenced operations at full capacity. This comes a little over three years since the unit achieved its ‘first criticality’ – a technical term that signifies the initiation of a controlled, but sustained nuclear fission reaction – in July 2020. On 30 June this year, the unit had started commercial operations.

More about the News

In India’s civilian nuclear programme, this is seen as a landmark event, given that KAPP-3 is the country’s first 700 MWe unit and the biggest indigenously developed variant of the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR).
The PHWRs, which use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as moderator, constitute the mainstay of India’s nuclear power fleet.
Till now, the biggest reactor of indigenous design was the 540 MWe PHWR, two of which have been deployed in Tarapur, Maharashtra.
For India, the operationalisation of its first 700MWe reactor is a significant scale up in technology, both in terms of the optimisation of its PHWR design — the new 700MWe unit addresses the excess thermal margins and also marks an improvement in the economies-of-scale, without significant design changes to the 540 MWe reactor.
Flashback

As India works to ramp up its existing nuclear power capacity of 7,480 MWe to 22,480 MWe by 2031, the 700MWe capacity would constitute the biggest component of this expansion plan. Currently, nuclear power capacity constitutes around 2 per cent of the total installed capacity of 4,17,668 MW (May 31).
Significantly, as India’s civilian nuclear sector gears up to its next frontier — building a 900 MWe Pressurised Water Reactors (PWRs) of indigenous design – the experience of executing the larger 700MWe reactor design would come in handy, especially with respect to the improved capability of making large-size pressure vessels, alongside India’s own isotope enrichment plants being developed to supply a part of the required enriched uranium fuel to power these new generation reactors over the next decade or so, according to DAE officials.
The first ‘pour of concrete’ for laying the foundation of KAPP-3 happened in November 2010 and this unit was originally expected to be commissioned in 2015.

#upsc #news #headline #largest #indigenously #devloped #Nplant #energy #megawatt #kakrapar #atomic #powerproject #gujarat #firstcriticality #india #civilian #nuclear #programme #heavywater #PHWR #tarapur #capacity #pour #concrete #DAE #uranium #fuel #maharashtra #moderator #fission #first #initiation #thirdunit #electric #landmark #pressurised #thermal #margins #economies #november