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Books > Business & Economics > Industry & industrial studies > Energy industries & utilities > Coal & solid fuel industries
Originally published in 1987. The Chernobyl disaster intensified the whole debate on the nuclear power industry. There was great public concern about the industry regulation, about the siting of nuclear facilities, including the dumping of nuclear waste, and about the alleged secretiveness of the industry. This book examines these and many other important aspects of the industry worldwide and provides much important original research. It focuses in particular on the political processes which control the industry, on waste disposal and on the social impact.
Originally published in 1986. Nuclear power is now regarded as essential to survival in the twenty-first century. But the safety of nuclear power stations is a highly controversial topic, and where they will be sited is a most vital question. In this independent critique, based on four years of research, Stan Openshaw argues that reactor siting provides a simple means of offering additional, design-independent margins of safety. Reactor siting policies in the UK and USA are examined and it is suggested that UK siting practices need to be updated. The large number of potential alternative sites should be used to devise new planning strategies - strategies which will minimise both the residual health risks from accidents and the danger that a future change in public opinion might lead to calls for the closure of many existing sites on safety grounds.
Deep in the heart of the southern West Virginia coalfields, one of the most important environmental and social empowerment battles in the nation has been waged for the past decade. Fought by a heroic woman struggling to save her tiny community through a landmark lawsuit, this battle, which led all the way to the halls of Congress, has implications for environmentally conscious people across the world. The story begins with Patricia Bragg in the tiny community of Pie. When a deep mine drained her neighbors' wells, Bragg heeded her grandmother's admonition to "fight for what you believe in" and led the battle to save their drinking water. Though she and her friends quickly convinced state mining officials to force the coal company to provide new wells, Bragg's fight had only just begun. Soon large-scale mining began on the mountains behind her beloved hollow. Fearing what the blasting off of mountaintops would do to the humble homes below, she joined a lawsuit being pursued by attorney Joe Lovett, the first case he had ever handled. In the case against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Bragg v. Robertson), federal judge Charles Haden II shocked the coal industry by granting victory to Joe Lovett and Patricia Bragg and temporarily halting the practice of mountaintop removal. While Lovett battled in court, Bragg sought other ways to protect the resources and safety of coalfield communities, all the while recognizing that coal mining was the lifeblood of her community, even of her own family (her husband is a disabled miner). The years of Bragg v. Robertson bitterly divided the coalfields and left many bewildered by the legal wrangling. One of the state's largest mines shut down because of the case, leaving hardworking miners out of work, at least temporarily. Despite hurtful words from members of her church, Patricia Bragg battled on, making the two-hour trek to the legislature in Charleston, over and over, to ask for better controls on mine blasting. There Bragg and her friends won support from delegate Arley Johnson, himself a survivor of one of the coalfield's greatest disasters. Award-winning investigative journalist Penny Loeb spent nine years following the twists and turns of this remarkable story, giving voice both to citizens, like Patricia Bragg, and to those in the coal industry. Intertwined with court and statehouse battles is Patricia Bragg's own quiet triumph of graduating from college summa cum laude in her late thirtie and moving her family out of welfare and into prosperity and freedom from mining interests. Bragg's remarkable personal triumph and the victories won in Pie and other coalfield communities will surprise and inspire readers.
While much of the current research on the extractive industries and their socio-environmental impacts is region specific, Resource Extraction, Space and Resilience: International Perspectives critically explores the current state of the extractive industries sector from a uniquely global perspective. The book introduces a more dynamic idea of sustainability in evaluating mineral extraction and its impacts, and provides a spatialized understanding of the evolution of the extractive industries to help visualise the interlinkages across space, regions and scales. Professor Kotilainen responds to these theoretical challenges by analysing the potential for resilience of mining activities from multiple perspectives across scales, exploring why it is only possible to achieve temporary balance and stability for the whole resource extraction system. Taking a global perspective, the book explores the interlinkages of the industry, investigates the similarities and differences in how the industry operates and examines the social and environmental impacts it has. By providing an explicitly theoretically informed analysis of the state of the extractive industries, this text will appeal to a wide range of scholars with an interdisciplinary interest in the extractive industries and natural resource management, including human geographers and social scientists with a focus on the relations of humans and societies with their physical environments.
World coal production will increase up to 2040 and world energy consumption will be very much dependent on coal. For a better planning of coal mining operations, it is essential to know the strength, cuttability and workability of coal, which are interrelated. The main objective of the book is to combine the research studies and compile the book oriented to the coal industry, research students, practicing engineers, and coal mine panning teams. Key Features Covers all the subjects related to coal properties, mining and excavation in one book Presents a summary of physical and mechanical properties of coal belonging to a wide range of countries Includes typical examples of using physical and mechanical of coal in mine planning and in its industrial applications Explains use of cuttability characteristics of coal Describes planning of coal production using ploughs, shearers and surface miners
Originally published in 1984. This annotated bibliography will serve as a starting point for information on the issue of nuclear power. Arranged for easy use into three sections - Pro-Nuclear, Anti-Nuclear, and Neutral - the book cites over a hundred of the most important books on the subject, offering for each full bibliographic data and a lengthy annotation that is balanced and informative. This work, which features author, title and subject indexes, is simultaneously a collection-building tool, a guide for non-specialist library patrons and an invaluable aid for research.
Originally published in 1980. A clear understanding of how radioactivity moves through the environment is essential to discussions on nuclear power. This book describes, in didactic rather than polemic style, the nature of radioactivity, how it arises in the day-to-day running of nuclear reactors, how and why a small fraction is introduced into the environment in a controlled manner, and on what basis judgements on these processes should be made.
Originally published in 1983. The Indian nuclear power programme, both the earliest in the Third World and also one of the most comprehensive, is an important and instructive subject for a wide-ranging and detailed study. This book examines the origins and rationale of the Indian programme in the context of energy resources and consumption. It traces the progress of its historical development and leads up to an evaluation of its performance, in both technical and economic terms of both individual reactors and the programme as a whole. In addition, the book discusses India's nuclear explosion of 1974 and the possibilities for novel developments in nuclear power and other energy sources, such as coal, biogas, hydro and solar power. The author then sets the Indian programme into the world picture by comparing developments in India with those of the Third World (including developments in China and South Africa) and discusses the overall prospects for the Third World. This extremely informative account will appeal to readers with interest in energy, science, technology and Third World developments.
The coal industry has been and continues to be of critical importance for China's economic modernization. With its huge labour force, country-wide infrastructure, and vital strategic importance for the economy, the industry presents special problems for reformers, and epitomises the problems of reform in the state industrial sector as a whole. This book examines the changes in the structure and operation of the Chinese coal industry from the mid-19th century to the present, concentrating on the years of reform. Although the focus is on the economics of the industry, the book also provides many insights into China's socio-political development.
Originally published in 1987. The Chernobyl disaster intensified the whole debate on the nuclear power industry. There was great public concern about the industry regulation, about the siting of nuclear facilities, including the dumping of nuclear waste, and about the alleged secretiveness of the industry. This book examines these and many other important aspects of the industry worldwide and provides much important original research. It focuses in particular on the political processes which control the industry, on waste disposal and on the social impact.
Originally published in 1986. Nuclear power is now regarded as essential to survival in the twenty-first century. But the safety of nuclear power stations is a highly controversial topic, and where they will be sited is a most vital question. In this independent critique, based on four years of research, Stan Openshaw argues that reactor siting provides a simple means of offering additional, design-independent margins of safety. Reactor siting policies in the UK and USA are examined and it is suggested that UK siting practices need to be updated. The large number of potential alternative sites should be used to devise new planning strategies - strategies which will minimise both the residual health risks from accidents and the danger that a future change in public opinion might lead to calls for the closure of many existing sites on safety grounds.
By making available the almost unlimited energy stored in prehistoric plant matter, coal enabled the industrial age - and it still does. Coal today generates more electricity worldwide than any other energy source, helping to drive economic growth in major emerging markets. And yet, continued reliance on this ancient rock carries a high price in smog and greenhouse gases. We use coal because it is cheap: cheap to scrape from the ground, cheap to move, cheap to burn in power plants with inadequate environmental controls. In this book, Mark Thurber explains how coal producers, users, financiers, and technology exporters drive this supply chain, while fragmented environmental movements battle for full incorporation of environmental costs into the global calculus of coal. Delving into the politics of energy versus the environment at local, national, and international levels, Thurber paints a vivid picture of the multi-faceted challenges associated with continued coal production and use in the twenty-first century.
First published in 1986, this book challenges the notion that the miners' strike of 1984-5 was 'Scargill's Strike'. It shows some of the ways in which the strike, though nominally directed from above, was determined from below by multitudinous and often contradictory pressures - the lodge, the village and the home. The focus is essentially logical and gives particular attention to family economy, kin networks and intergenerational solidarity. At the same time it is concerned with the mentality of the strike - its ruling fears and passions. The first-hand testimonies that comprise the book attest to the attachment to 'traditional ways' as well as the potency of the influences corroding them.
Originally published in 1984, this book develops a quantitative model designed for use in the evaluation of the relative merits of alternative energy R&D programmes. It is used to compare the merits of major energy-technology R&D programmes during the 1970s in the USA: Liquid-metal fast breeder reactors, synthetic fuels derived from coal and oil shale and improved efficiency in end-use technologies. The benefits/disadvantages are analyzed in terms of economics, security and the environment. Although published some years ago, the economic benefit assessed is in terms of the impact that commercialization of a particular energy-technology would have on the total 60 year cost of the US energy supply system. The security benefit is measured in terms of the reduction of crude oil imports and the environmental factors are measured here by the total tonnage of coal and oil shale that is extracted each year. All of these issues continue to be relevant today.
This book offers a multidisciplinary analysis of approach in the field of energy studies of Japan, examining post-closure coal mining towns in Japan and their gentrification. It considers the impact of closures on the agricultural industry, the re-absorption of laid off coal miners into service and industrial sectors, and the gentrification of former coal mines into agricultural farms and communities. It also considers the historical process of gentrification in terms of origins, social history, continuity/discontinuity and cooperation/resistance. The historical background of coal mine closures analyses nostalgic recollection about mine closures and Sakubei's UNESCO drawings of life in the coal mines and other cultural materials related to coal energy and the mining industry in general in Japan.
Regulatory Governance and Risk Management will be the first book addressing the diffusion of risk-based governance in the coal mining industry from a health and safety standpoint. More specifically, it aims to understand a puzzling phenomenon. Since the 1990s, the approach of risk-based governance has been widely adopted in almost all developed countries in Europe and commonwealth countries. It, however, has diffused much more slowly in the U.S. Using a diffusion approach and comparisons between Australia and the U.S., this book examines mechanisms that both drive and prevent the diffusion of risk-based governance in the coal mining industry. This book has two major selling points. First, this is a timely work given the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion occurred in April, 2010. After this disaster, many asked why an enhanced level of enforcement after 2006 has not prevented catastrophic accidents from occurring and why risk-based governance, which helps other countries achieve better safety performance, has been largely ignored in the U.S. This book answers these questions and makes recommendations on how to remove barriers in moving toward risk-based governance. Second, this book is readable because it embeds theories into storytelling and gives particular emphasis on the influence of key strategic individuals.
The story of the miners of Zonguldak presents a particularly graphic local lens through which to examine questions that have been of major concern to historians-most prominently, the development of the state, the emergence of capitalism, and the role of the working classes in these large processes. This book examines such major issues through the actual experiences of coal miners in the Ottoman Empire. The encounters of mine workers with state mining officials and private mine operators do not follow the expected patterns of labor-state-capital relations as predicted by the major explanatory paradigms of modernization or dependency. Indeed, as the author clearly shows, few of the outcomes are as predicted. The fate of these miners has much to offer both Ottoman and Middle East specialists as well as scholars of the developing world and, more generally, those interested in the connections between economic development and social and political change.
The story of the miners of Zonguldak presents a particularly graphic local lens through which to examine questions that have been of major concern to historians-most prominently, the development of the state, the emergence of capitalism, and the role of the working classes in these large processes. This book examines such major issues through the actual experiences of coal miners in the Ottoman Empire. The encounters of mine workers with state mining officials and private mine operators do not follow the expected patterns of labor-state-capital relations as predicted by the major explanatory paradigms of modernization or dependency. Indeed, as the author clearly shows, few of the outcomes are as predicted. The fate of these miners has much to offer both Ottoman and Middle East specialists as well as scholars of the developing world and, more generally, those interested in the connections between economic development and social and political change.
Designed for clinicians from a variety of backgrounds, this handbook provides useful information regarding long-term treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. It is intended not only for psychiatrists and neurologists, but also for primary care physicians and non-physician mental health professionals. The book examines maintenance treatment for a comprehensive list of mental illnesses including biopolar disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and dementia. It provides the clinician with the information needed to select and manage the effective long-range treatment of their patients.
With only a handful of British coalmines remaining active and with targets set to reduce carbon emissions, the coal industry now seems to be heading towards extinction. Yet, it was coal that turned Britain into a world-leader during the Industrial Revolution and established the conditions for the modern state. In the 20th century, it generated building programmes on a massive scale concerning miners' welfare, settlements and housing. The form, space, organisation, and aesthetics of architecture became of critical importance not just to the process of the industry's modernisation but also how it was perceived and understood both within and outside its workforce. But despite the centrality of coal mining and its workers to the development of modern Britain, as well as the contemporary recognition that aspects of its innovative architecture received, its built legacy has often been overlooked and physically almost completely erased. Divided into three parts, this is the first book which provides a critical and comprehensive examination of the architecture of coal in Britain and how it responded to the needs of the industry and, perhaps more significantly, its labour force. Part I explores the relationship between the architecture of coal and the provision of welfare. While this produced a series of enlightened built projects for miners and their communities especially between the wars - educational buildings, reading rooms, holiday camps, welfare institutes, sports grounds, swimming pools, medical centres, children's playgrounds, etc. - it focusses on the paradigmatic integration of aesthetics and programme seen most emphatically in the creation of over 600 pithead baths. Part II looks at settlement and the relationships between responses to often adverse conditions within domestic environments in mining settlements and the development of broader and influential theories and practices concerning housing. Finally, Part III explores the modernisation of the industry during the post-war period arguing that that architectural design and representation became pivotal to the functional and symbolic requirements of the newly Nationalised entity and its position within, and singular contribution to, post-war society.
Employing scientific explanations and hard data, this book shows why coal is such a problem, how the pro-coal forces got to be so powerful, and how those forces might be defeated through political activism. Coal provided the energy to build modern civilization. This energy source raised standards of living, multiplied the earth's population, and enabled people in developed countries to enjoy leisure time. Today, we know that if we burn all the coal available, climate change will continue to increase. But the use of coal isn't purely an environmental issue; there are also political and economic forces at play. This book examines the politics and environmental impact of coal production and distribution, presenting a clear point of view-that we must shift away from coal use-backed by hard data and supplying specific prescriptions for opposing and regulating the coal industry. Author John C. Berg explains how ending the burning of coal (and of oil and natural gas) is a political problem rather than a technical one; explodes the "clean coal" myth, providing scientific documentation of how burning coal emits more greenhouse gases per unit of energy than any other fuel; and describes how controlling coal use in the United States will also serve to restore the possibility of a meaningful international climate agreement. Additionally, readers will understand the critical importance of activism-from local to international-in spurring government regulation to control the coal industry, which can only be defeated politically. Examines scientific data to provide a clear explanation-in layman's terms-of the relation of coal to climate change Illustrates how activism can lead to meaningful government policy change Provides non-expert readers with a clear understanding of the political issues surrounding coal mining and coal burning as well as the domestic and international politics of coal and climate Shows the interconnection of coal's role in labor exploitation, the environmental destruction of Appalachia and other coal areas, and the acceleration of climate change
Based on extensive original research, Globalisation, Transition and Development inChina explains China's development strategy and its underlying forces, and the success of this strategy. It examines China's gradualist approach which emphasizes development first and regards transition and globalization as secondary, enacting liberalization of domestic markets and integration into the world economy in a paced way, avoiding dramatic changes which might impede or even reverse development, and argues that this approach is broadly correct. It considers China's failures, including the failure to build large globally competitive corporations despite the intention to do this, and shows how China's economic strategy has been implemented in detail with a case study of the large and important coal industry.
Regulatory Governance and Risk Management will be the first book addressing the diffusion of risk-based governance in the coal mining industry from a health and safety standpoint. More specifically, it aims to understand a puzzling phenomenon. Since the 1990s, the approach of risk-based governance has been widely adopted in almost all developed countries in Europe and commonwealth countries. It, however, has diffused much more slowly in the U.S. Using a diffusion approach and comparisons between Australia and the U.S., this book examines mechanisms that both drive and prevent the diffusion of risk-based governance in the coal mining industry. This book has two major selling points. First, this is a timely work given the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion occurred in April, 2010. After this disaster, many asked why an enhanced level of enforcement after 2006 has not prevented catastrophic accidents from occurring and why risk-based governance, which helps other countries achieve better safety performance, has been largely ignored in the U.S. This book answers these questions and makes recommendations on how to remove barriers in moving toward risk-based governance. Second, this book is readable because it embeds theories into storytelling and gives particular emphasis on the influence of key strategic individuals.
Few areas of labour history have received as much attention as the coal industry, with miners often finding themselves at the centre of studies on working-class political and industrial history. Yet whilst much has been written about the struggles of miners and their unions in particular countries, their national confrontations and political organization, much less work has been done on the regional communities and how they related both to the national and international picture. The central theme of this volume is to transcend such over-arching national models and to focus instead on local coal mining societies which can then be compared and contrasted to similar communities elsewhere. In so doing the book is able to tackle a number of familiar labour history themes in a more nuanced way, exploring issues of political activism and class relationships from the perspectives of gender, ethnicity, race and specific localized cultural traditions. As the chapters in this volume illustrate, such an approach can offer rich and often surprising conclusions, in many cases challenging the accepted notion of miners as the vanguard of militant working-class political activism. Adopting a regional approach that compares coalfield communities from five continents, this volume reflects coalfield experiences on a truly global scale. By looking at what made communities unique as well as what they shared in common, a much fuller understanding of the workplace, neighbourhood, family, identity and political organization is possible. Underlining the strong connections between politics, community and identity, this work emphasizes the challenges and opportunities available to labour historians, pushing forward the boundaries of the discipline in new and exciting ways.
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