On nuclear energy and municipal solid waste

• Mugabe goes nuclear after uranium discovery

• US pressures China on Zimbabwe

• Mugabe's tiger diplomacy with China

• Mugabe visits old pal Castro

• China in Mugabe financial rescue

• Mugabe gets Chinese honorary professorship

• Mugabe goes begging in China

• SA approves US$1bn credit line for Zim

• Zimbabwe faces economic meltdown

• South Africa busts Zimbabwe arms sanctions

• Chinese technology for Mugabe's spies

• Air Zimbabwe buys 2 Chinese aircraft

• Mugabe splashes in six Chinese fighter jets

• Chinese radar, anti-air missiles for Mugabe

• Mugabe wants Zimbabweans to learn Chinese

• Mugabe hails China

• Mugabe looks to China

• Parliament seeks clarity on China jets

• Mugabe spends US$200m on new jets

• Mugabe rolls out red carpet for Iranian leader

• Iran to build gas power plant in Zimbabwe

By Isaac Nyambiya

ZIMBABWE is a country at the cross-roads and is afflicted with all sorts of social, psychological, political and economic ills that it would seem insurmountable to get out of the kind of abyss that its citizens find themselves in.

Amongst such shortages are oxygenates such as ethanol used for a variety of things such as spiking beers, solvents, blending with petroleum products to produce gasoline as well as in a transesterification process to produce the much vaunted bio diesel.

Production of ethanol from agricultural and forestry residues, municipal solid waste, and other forms of lignocellulosic biomass could improve energy security, reduce trade deficits, decrease urban air pollution and contribute little, if any, net carbon dioxide accumulation to the atmosphere.

Municipal solid waste consists of everyday items such as product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps, waste papers, appliances, paint and batteries. On average 80% of it consists of organic material, which is defined as biodegradable portion of household refuse, markets garbage, yard rubbish, animal and human waste.

When the amount of organic agricultural waste such as corn stalks, leaves and wheat straws from wheat-processing facilities, sawdust and other residues from wood-mills is also considered, this component of solid waste could be a principal resource for bio development.

Other material such as metals, rubber and plastics can then be recovered from use from this waste for recycling.

Both Tony Blair of the UK and President Robert Mugabe “incidentally” have announced the need to go into the production of energy from radioactive nuclear sources at the same time. It was revealed on Channel 4 News by Jon Snow, its News anchor, that Tony Blair is “privately convinced” on the use of nuclear energy for sustainable energy use.

The coincidence is striking if not spectacular given that these two leaders belong to opposite camps in the arena of international politics .

Nuclear energy is touted as the energy for the future with the capability to reduce carbon dioxide emission to the atmosphere which are responsible for global warming. In the United Kingdom, it is said that it will reduce emissions by 6%.

Roger Higman of Friends Of The Earth said on Channel Four Monday night that the world needs to reduce carbon emissions by about 60-80% but he is not convinced that the world should go the avenue of nuclear energy as it is not a renewable source of energy. Opposing arguments are that both nuclear energy and renewables such as bio-fuels are issues on the opposite side of the same coin and will both reduce carbon emissions.

On the other hand nuclear energy in the hands of bad leaders can be a threat to global security as this may lead to proliferation of nuclear weapons and an arms race, not to mention the possibility of another Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Even when nuclear is used for peaceful purposes such as generation of electricity, the premium on health and safety is high because any leaks from radioactive waste can be catastrophic.

A case in point is the Chernobyl Disaster of on April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). It is regarded as the worst nuclear accident in the history of nuclear power, producing a plume of radioactive debris that drifted over parts of the Soviet Union , Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, UK, and eastern USA resulting in the evacuation of more than 200 000 people.

Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of roughly 200,000 people. About 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus. Radioactive exposure leads to gene mutation that is not only fatal, but can lead to several generations of children being born with absent and/or deformed limbs.

Some critics may ask why I write about such issues to tabloids and not contribute to academic journals. My philosophy is that science should have social relevance to its citizens than be an esoteric subject which is removed from reality, when in actual fact it is common sense.

And it's not so much for the fact that Zimbabwean people cannot think for themselves on such issues that appear obvious to the rest of the world.

Isaac Nyambiya , PhD in Chemistry Student in Belfast , UK and can be contacted at isaacuz@yahoo.com. He acknowledges that some notes were extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org, Bio-resource Technology Journal , Trends in Biotechnology
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com