CZ:Featured article/Current: Difference between revisions

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
imported>Chunbum Park
imported>John Stephenson
(template)
 
(239 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Image|Tecun_Uman_statue-Quetzaltenango.jpg|right|250px}}
{{:{{FeaturedArticleTitle}}}}
 
<small>
'''Tecum Umam''' was a legendary figure of [[Guatemala]]n and [[K'iche']] history.  Despite a debate over his historical reality, Tecum Umam is at once a symbol of the state and a symbol of the peoples within the state.  Whether in the candlelit ceremonies of ''sacerdotes Mayas'' or in the chambers of the national congress, Tecum Umam's presence is felt in nearly every niche of the daily life of the Guatemalan people.  He is celebrated by poets and invoked in ritual and festival contexts throughout the highlands.  He has been raised to the status of national hero of Guatemala and commemorated on its currency.  And he is known as the defender of the K'iche' people and a symbol of indigenous resistance because he refused to surrender to the Spanish conquest of his homeland.
==Footnotes==
 
{{reflist|2}}
The legend of Tecum Umam says that he commanded the thousands of K'iche' warriors who met the army of invading Spanish and indigenous warriors under [[Pedro de Alvarado]] on the plains of El Pinar in February of 1524.  In the midst of the fray, Tecum Umam and Alvarado met face to face, each with weapon in hand.  Alvarado was mounted on a horse and clad in armor while Tecum Umam wore the feathers of his [[nagual]] (animal spirit counterpart), the [[Resplendent quetzal|quetzal]]. A battle ensued that claimed the life of the K'iche' hero.
</small>
 
Taking to the sky in the form of an eagle, Tecum Umam struck down Alvarado's horse believing man and animal to be one and the same.  He realized his error and turned for a second attack but Alvarado's spear pierced his opponent's chest and Tecum Umam fell to the ground dead.  Then a quetzal landed on the fallen hero's chest, staining its breast feathers red with blood; the bright colors of the quetzal continue to remind us today of the great deeds of Tecum Umam.

Latest revision as of 10:19, 11 September 2020

After decades of failure to slow the rising global consumption of coal, oil and gas,[1] many countries have proceeded as of 2024 to reconsider nuclear power in order to lower the demand for fossil fuels.[2] Wind and solar power alone, without large-scale storage for these intermittent sources, are unlikely to meet the world's needs for reliable energy.[3][4][5] See Figures 1 and 2 on the magnitude of the world energy challenge.

Nuclear power plants that use nuclear reactors to create electricity could provide the abundant, zero-carbon, dispatchable[6] energy needed for a low-carbon future, but not by simply building more of what we already have. New innovative designs for nuclear reactors are needed to avoid the problems of the past.

(CC) Image: Geoff Russell
Fig.1 Electricity consumption may soon double, mostly from coal-fired power plants in the developing world.[7]

Issues Confronting the Nuclear Industry

New reactor designers have sought to address issues that have prevented the acceptance of nuclear power, including safety, waste management, weapons proliferation, and cost. This article will summarize the questions that have been raised and the criteria that have been established for evaluating these designs. Answers to these questions will be provided by the designers of these reactors in the articles on their designs. Further debate will be provided in the Discussion and the Debate Guide pages of those articles.

Footnotes
  1. ↑ Global Energy Growth by Our World In Data
  2. ↑ Public figures who have reconsidered their stance on nuclear power are listed on the External Links tab of this article.
  3. ↑ Pumped storage is currently the most economical way to store electricity, but it requires a large reservoir on a nearby hill or in an abandoned mine. Li-ion battery systems at $500 per KWh are not practical for utility-scale storage. See Energy Storage for a summary of other alternatives.
  4. ↑ Utilities that include wind and solar power in their grid must have non-intermittent generating capacity (typically fossil fuels) to handle maximum demand for several days. They can save on fuel, but the cost of the plant is the same with or without intermittent sources.
  5. ↑ Mark Jacobson believes that long-distance transmission lines can provide an alternative to costly storage. See the bibliography for more on this proposal and the critique by Christopher Clack.
  6. ↑ "Load following" is the term used by utilities, and is important when there is a lot of wind and solar on the grid. Some reactors are not able to do this.
  7. ↑ Fig.1.3 in Devanney "Why Nuclear Power has been a Flop"

Retrieved from "https://citizendium.org/wiki/index.php?title=CZ:Featured_article/Current&oldid=759442"