The Summary of GengXin’s Article (Done by Fan Lei)

In this essay written by GengXin, he wrote mainly about the future development of the nuclear power and he focus mainly on one specific nuclear techonology – VHTR.

At the beginning of the essay, he argued typically about the current global tendency of the exhuasting energy sources. If such energy as oil and fossil fuels are comsumed at present rate, they can only be available for at most another century whithout saying that they are being used at increasingly fast speed. Hence, GengXin raise the importance of making use of another type of energy – nuclear power.

Among the six major design of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP), as what he figured out, VHTR is the most practical and workable one. Then following this statement, he presented some of the advantages of this design to support its future development. For instance, it is more efficient, environmentally-friendly and safe since there are less radiation in the remaining reacting sources.

However, in this part, even though he successfully persuaded me that the VHTR is the most possible way and provided me with some of the interesting things I have never know, these things are so professional, and as a reader, I want to hear his own voice. When he is introducing this technology, besides some theoritical thing, he can still tell us about what opinion he personally hold upon this operation. In that way, I will be more interested and even inspired, because what I know through his essay is not merely some knowledges but also some arguments I can do futher thinking.

Anyway, this essay is well-written, I think. If he can suitably cut the information part and add more thoughtful and discriminant things to it, it will surely be a good job! (*^_^*)

Summary of ‘The Great Ice Age: Climate Change and Life’

The article ‘The Great Ice Age: Climate Change and Life’ by R. C. L. Wilson, S. A. Drury, J. L. Chapman explains the natural climatic and remarkable changes that have occurred during the past 2.6 million years, outlining the emergence and global impact of our species during this period. Exploring a wide range of records of climate change, the writers demonstrate the interconnectivity of the components of the Earths climate system, show how the evidence for such change is obtained, and explain some of the problems in collecting and dating proxy climate data. One of the most dramatic aspects of humanity's rise is that it coincided with the beginnings of major environmental changes and a mass extinction that has the pace, and maybe magnitude, of those in the far-off past that stemmed from climate, geological and occasionally extraterrestrial events. This article reveals that anthropogenic effects on the world are not merely modern matters but date back perhaps a million years or more. This article was also able to throw light on the fact that evolution of mankind has not only had its good affects like globalization but also the changing habits of mankind throughout these many years have resulted in catastrophic climatic problems that we are facing today.

Nuclear Power's New Dawn

Nuclear Power's new dawn gives a vision of the future nuclear industry and how would it possibly impact the future energy structure.
Personally, I think nuclear power still has large potentials to exploit.
First of all, nuclear power has an advantage over other fuels that it can provide huge energy with only very little resources. Many conventional energy sources, such as oil, are predicted to run out in 40 to 60 years and by 2020, the world will begin to feel some pressures in oil supply. However, the resources for nuclear reactions used to generate electricity in nuclear plants, such as uranium, are relatively abundant. If we can well exploit this advantage, the nuclear plant can play a leading role in solving the energy demanding problem in the future.
Secondly, given the worsening environmental situations and the fast pace of climate change, nuclear power provides a good way to meet the energy demand without harming the environment. Nuclear power is a non-carbon-emission energy providing method. Therefore, if we can increase the portion of nuclear power in our energy structure, the climate change problem could be mitigated largely.
Nonetheless, there are many challenges facing the nuclear industry. One common challenge is the new material needed to develop the next generation of nuclear reactors. And we also need to make it more competitive economically to other energy supplies.
In conclusion, there are potentials and challenges existing for the future development of nuclear power. If we can overcome the challenges, the nuclear power can play a leading role in solving the future energy supply problem.

Peer Review of Pulkit Agarwal

Shao Tu's essay really impressed me at the first instance as it was pretty straightforward and coherent. The essay as a whole reflected the kind of research that has gone into it. Shao Tu's though seems to go off the topic in the sense that I felt that he is not answering the question that has been asked. Shau Tu seem to be trying to merge too many sentences together thus I feel that he might be making some punctuation errors ex use of excess commas.

Though the essay seem to be very well connected such that there is a constant flow has been maintained throughout the essay. The entire essay has been broken into well-organized points that portray the various aspects of the problem of climate change. The points are very well supported by the facts that Shao has very viciously picked up from the article itself.

Moreover I found out there were some grammatical errors in the essay like the use of has and have that were pointed out to him at some places. Apart from that I strongly feel that besides stating so many facts, Shao Tu should have included some real life examples to support his arguments.

Overall it was a very systematic and crisp essay which was able to clearly state all the points that needs to be addressed with the immediate affect.

Summary of ' Nuclear power's new dawn'

In face of the global energy crisis, human beings are now paying more attention on a set of new energy, among which nuclear power is the most controversial.

In the article, Nuclear power's of new dawn, however, the author seems quite optimistic. An imaginary description of Generation Four is given at the very beginning. But go back to reality, the horrible memories, like the 1986 accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine, have shown that to make use of the nuclear, the public will take some convincing.

Compared with fossil fuels, nuclear is not a source of carbon dioxide. It can be treated as "safe, abundant, reliable, inexpensive and proliferation resistant" only if technical hurdles can be overcome. That is to say, a renaissance to nuclear power is badly needed.

In the second part of the article, the author mainly introduced two GIF concepts, Very-High-Temperature Reactor(VHTR) and Supercritical-Water-Cooled Reactor(SWCR). The VHTR is the most efficient concept so far. Meanwhile hydrogen can be split as a beneficial biproduct. The SWCR, on the other hand, come up with a quite effective solution deal with the new coolants which play a vital role in the high temperature reactor.

Next comes the core issue. The author pointed out that large amounts of defects exist in the pebble bed reactor which is not accepted for a modern reactor. Still costs must be cut by a quarter so that substantial numbers of new plants will be built.

To draw a conclusion, technological challenges are great to make nuclear cheaper, cleaner and safer. In addition, this newly industry has to adapt to the rapidly changing global environment. It is like the early morning jogging before new nuclear dawn. Hope exists.

SUMMARY FOR GENGXIN'S ARTICLE

In this article, named “Common Yet Differentiated Responsibilities”, Gengxin discussed separately upon the responsibilities the developed and developing countries should shoulder when the problem of fighting against the climate change is taken into consideration.

To begin with, as the developed countries take 80 percent of the proportion of the emission of green house gases, it is undoubtedly responsible for them to cut the release of it and offer strong help to combat global-warming.

Furthermore, since the developed countries are more capable financially and technologically, they can deal with the climate problems efficiently, while the developing countries would rather spend money to improve their people’s living condition.

For developing counties, they also should escape their responsibility. While they are in the process of industrialization, they may contribute more in the future to the global-warming. In that case, they still have tasks to take.

In conclusion, as the conflict between the developed and developing countries are being the barrier of the ultimate agreement, the problem can only be solved when these two nation groups take common yet differentiated responsibility.

Summary from Gengxin

The essay begins with a introduction which give us an idea of how serious the forests have been degraded and how serious the result will be if we let it continue happening. Then it reveals its main idea in the last sentence of the essay: "However, to fight against global warming, what we need is much more than such human efforts."
There are four paragraphs in the body of the essay, each of which has a clear topic.
The first paragraph of the body is an overall statement about what else do we need to combat climate change other than the human efforts, and we know the answer here: the integrated biodiversity.
Then, the following part is divided into to two part. to state the authors' views on the use of the integrated biodiversity.
The first part is the authors' call on more use of the integrated biodiversity and the benefits it would bring about.The second part tells us the importance of the biodiversity and the consequence if we fail to do so.
Then, in the conclusion part of the essay, it reiterate the importance of the use of the integrated biodiversity in combating climate change.
In the essay, transition sentences like "to begin with" are used, which makes the essay quite smooth.Sufficient supporting ideas are given to make it more persuasive.And the unity and coherence of the essay is generally good.
To conclude, my peer did a good job in doing this essay.