NE 571 | Final Project | Engaging in a critical review of the nuclear power industry

Final Project Assignment: Engaging in a critical review of the nuclear power industry

This project asks you to:

  1. Form teams of two.
  2. Identify a topic of interest.
  3. Data mine & analyze.
  4. Start a conversation.

DELIVERABLES: 

  1. 10pt. Create a multi-faceted description of a topic that can engage nuclear technologists and audiences from outside the nuclear engineering field. Please document this in the form of a 4-page report.
  2. 10pt. Create an artifact that represents the spatial information that you’ve analyzed.
  3. 5pt. Propose a means of community engagement that is appropriate to the topic you’ve identified and to the target audience you’ve identified. Document this in a one page letter to somebody who can execute your community engagement, then send the letter. 
  4. 3pt. Lead a 10-minute discussion at the mini-symposium (during the scheduled final exam time): engage your audience.
  5. 2pt. Write a personal reflection (individual submission).
  6. Total: 30 pts. The project is 30% of your final grade.

TIMELINE

  • Monday 3/19: post at least one idea to the #ne571-project channel, so that you can form a team with somebody with a complementary interest.
  • Wednesday 3/21: start brainstorming the project title with your partner.
  • Friday 3/23: submit your project topic and names by posting them to #ne571-project.
  • Friday 4/6: submit for comment a plan for data collection and analysis and preliminary progress.
  • 4/13: submit for comment analysis results, and plan for artifact
  • 4/20: due: submit an artifact test-run. you will receive your results by 4/23.
  • 4/27: submit for comment you community engagement letter.
  • 5/3: submit final artifact files, so that we can produce them for you.
  • 5/4: last class
  • 5/10: 10 minute showcase. One-page letter sent.  4-page report submitted. final artifact in-hand.
  • 5/11 by 5pm. personal reflection sent. 

GUIDELINES:

  1. 10pt. Create a multi-faceted description of a topic that can engage nuclear technologists and audiences from outside the nuclear engineering field.
    • Please document this in the form of a 4-page report. Your report can be shorter than 4 pages, but it may not be longer. Your report must include all of the following sections:
      • Cover page: Title, authors, date, 100-word abstract, graphical abstract. (not included in 4 pages)
      • Page numbers, 11-pt font, 1 inch margins, Times New Roman.
      • Problem definition: what did you choose to analyze and why?
      • Data collected: what data did you collect, why this data, is it credible, what are the gaps in the data, what are the limitations of the data, what is the original source of the data?
      • Analysis & discussion: provide all equations used. Provide a discussion and interpretation of the results.
      • Conclusions: what questions were you able to answer? what questions remain open? what data gaps did you identify?
      • Define the impetus for community engagement, as supported by your analysis. Explain who you select as your target audience and why. Explain who you address the one-page letter to, and why.
      • Explain the artifact you’ve created and why.
      • Cite all references in a standard citation format (citations are excluded from the 4-page count)
      • All figures must have captions below. All tables must have captions above. Use appropriate significant figures, give uncertainty whenever possible to calculate or available, define all variables the first time that they are used, define acronyms the first time they are used and don’t spell out the words at any other point in the document.
      • Number your subheadings in a nested fashion (1, 1.1, 1.1.1 etc). Be consistent in terminology across the report.
      • Include all data and details of calculations and calculation results as appendices (does not count towards the 4-page page-count). If more than two appendices, include a Table of Contents for the Appendices.
  2. 10pt. Create an artifact that represents the spatial information that you’ve analyzed. You artifact can be: a poster map, a pamphlet, a laser-cut map, an interactive website, a video, a 3D print, a decal, a bumper sticker, a virtual reality file, a stencil for spray-painted graffiti.
    • Josie, Robert and Raluca can work with you generate the product, once you’ve generated the necessary files. For example, if you want a poster printed, give us the PDF. If you want a map laser-cut, give us the illustrator file.
    • Your artifact must be informative, legible, and engaging.
  3. 5pt. Propose a means of community engagement that is appropriate to the topic you’ve identified and to the target audience you’ve identified.
    • Please document this in a one page letter to somebody who can execute your community engagement, then send the letter. 
    • The subject of your letter must be a question that distills the topic that you have analyzed. For example: “When should we invest in spent fuel management?” “How can nuclear power best serve society?” “How can nuclear power best serve rural communities?” “How can nuclear power support agriculture?”
    • For example, Dear Chair of the ANS Student Chapter…., Dear Chair of the Nuclear Engineering Program …., Dear Third Way…., Dear Nuclear Innovation Alliance….., Dear Department of Energy Secretary…., Dear Senator Baldwin…., Dear Representative Duffy…., Dear High-School Teacher…., Dear NuScale Power…., Dear Southern Company…., Dear Dominion….., Dear Wisconsin Energy Institute…., Dear John Oliver…., Dear International Atomic Energy Agency Director…., Dear Priscilla Atansah…
    • ….I believe that it is very important to engage [your target audience] in a [conversation, debate, discussion….] about…[your topic of choice]. It’s important to bring this topic to the forefront of conversation and define [target audience’s] opinions about…. [your topic] because….[the impetus].
    • ….To initiate this conversation I propose…[ your community involvement idea]… This could have the impact of …[ a few outcomes that you would define as a success]. To enable this community involvement, I have prepared [… your artifact…].
    • Thank you for your consideration of this request….
  4. 3pt. 10-minute discussion at the mini-symposium: engage your audience. [more guidelines were provided during class discussion]
  5. 2pt. Write a personal reflection (individual submission). [guidelines linked here]
  6. Total: 30 pts. The project is 30% of your final grade.

Your project is not successful if:

  1. It is one-sided. The purpose of this assignment is to open a conversation, not to advocate for one point of view.
  2. The analysis is not substantiative to support a meaningful conversation.
  3. Your audience is not clearly defined.
  4. You have not formulated a well-posed question for the conversation you are seeking to start.
  5. You have not written a personal reflection.

RESOURCES:

  1. You may always make an appointment with Raluca, Josie, or Robert by sending us a message on slack. We are available for consultation for all the steps of your project, from brainstorming through the final project.
  2. You may engage feedback from your colleagues in the class by posting messages on slack. I have created #NE571-project for this purpose.
  3. You will be provided with functioning datasets pertaining to HWs 1, 3-6. Please remember to use the “sources” document to cite where the data came from and who compiled it.
  4. You have access to ArcGIS in four ways, and Adobe Illustrator in three ways.
  5. Josie, Robert and Raluca can work with you generate the product, once you’ve generated the necessary files. For example, if you want a poster printed, give us the PDF. If you want a map laser-cut, give us the illustrator file.
  6. Engineering librarians can help you data mine. Map library librarian, Jamie Martindale, can help you data mine. Josie, Robert, and Raluca can help you data mine.
  7. View map feedback from Assignments 5 & 6 here.
  8. Raluca can help you develop your analysis. The readings for the class will serve as resources. Colleagues in the class can help provide feedback on your analysis.
  9. Need more resources? Ask Raluca.
  10. More resources below.
  11. Have fun!

Suggestions for how to approach your project:

  1. Identify a topic related to the nuclear industry that is of interest to you, and critically review it. Begin to collect information and perform analysis that will help you identify a specific question or issue that is interesting to you to critically review. Questions to consider:
    • What aspects are well managed, what aspects are not well managed, what aspects do not have sufficient transparency to decide?
    • Of what nature are the shortfalls? Identify some of the short-falls of technology, policy, market, or business models.
    • Of what nature are the successful aspects? Identify some of the successful technologies, markets, policies, business models, public communications elements that are successfully done.
    • Identify some topics on which it is difficult to find information.
  2. From among the data that you have collected, what stands out to you as surprising? What is a topic that merits discussion?
  3. Propose a way of engaging a broader public on a critical review of the nuclear industry. For the topic that you have selected, what is an audience that you would like to engage in conversation?
  4. Propose a way by which to engage your audience through maps that represent information related to your narrow topic of choice. Some ideas include creating a poster that you display in a specific venue, creating a jig-saw puzzle that you donate to a kinder-garden or elementary school, creating a website and a means of advertising your website (for example, the ANS nuclear cafe).

An example:

  • Management of accidents that lead to large radioactivity release beyond the site-boundary is a general topic or interest. I would begin by collecting a map of all civilian nuclear facilities, and I would try to estimate the source term (i.e. radioactive material inventory) at each site. I would collect information about historical events that lead to radioactivity release, and maybe plot on the map the land areas affected by the release.
  • To collect and analyze data, I might start by looking up the land area that is contaminated by a severe accident at a nuclear power plant, and I would find that a 50-mile radius is the food-sampling area in the US, that the Chernobyl exclusion zone has a radius of about 17 miles, and that the Fukushima had about a 20-mile radius for shelter-in place recommendations. Then I would take a world map of all the nuclear facilities and mark an area of those sizes, and find that there are quite a number of them that fall on the borders of countries or states.
  • So the question I might ask is “When is it acceptable to have nuclear sites close to country or state borders?” or “In who’s back-yard is it OK to build a nuclear power plant?” or “How large is it OK for the once-in-a-million-years contamination zones to be?” or “What property costs allow insurers to ensure power plants for severe accidents?”
  • Then I might go back and collect more data and refine my analysis.
  • As an example, Raluca will show you the outcome of this project as part of Case study 1, in Week 10.

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