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Whilst procrastination on global issues can allow us to accumulate more knowledge relevant to decision making, it can lead to disastrous consequences. If we “wait and see” what happens to our world from climate change affects, nuclear waste storage and energy shortages will we still have the world as we know it? The researchers at the Institute for Risk and Uncertainty are working to understand and find solutions to global problems, and they invite you to an evening of learning more about their work and discussing how to future-proof the world.
Time heals all radioactive waste
Dr Edoardo Patelli
(Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering and Industrial Design)
The issue of what to do with spent nuclear fuel produced by reactors has been discussed for more than 60 years. Different engineering solutions have been suggested in the past including sending the waste to space or digging a big hole! All of them have been rejected. There is still no final repository for spent fuel not just because of the issues around keeping such dangerous materials contained but also because it is a waste of resource. Time helps. Wait long enough & all the radioactivity will disappear, technology will evolve & what we now consider waste may represent the fuel of the future
Dawn of a new era: Renewable energy and Hydrogen fuel
Dr Suraj Gupta
(Commonwealth Rutherford Fellow)
Energy is the new global currency and the nations with abundant energy resources are going to be the new super powers. Are the present energy resources everlasting? If not, how can we meet our ever-increasing energy demands? With depleting energy, will there be a probable dark age? Come and witness the rise of new-world energy resources, especially the emergence of Hydrogen as the “Fuel of the future”. The talk will give you an interesting preview of the future of renewable energy technologies.
Procrastinating acting on climate change: How our glaciers are melting
Dominik Fahrner
(PhD Researcher)
Tidewater glaciers in Greenland are retreating: how significant is the impact of global warming on glacier behaviour & how is the local economy affected by climate change? By researching the past behaviour of tidewater glaciers using remote sensing & cloud computing, Dominik & his team found new trends that suggest the glaciers have been retreating for almost two decades & identified some of the key changes in the climate that are driving this. In this talk discover the effects of climate change on glaciers in Greenland as well as on the local population & potential solutions to future change.
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