2011 news highlights - ENAC
© 2011 Photos.com
Sustainability, clean energies, responsible architecture and engineering—just some of the fields explored by the ENAC researchers. Here’s a selection of the year’s headlines.
January: Man has been provoking climate change for thousands of years!
Humans didn’t wait for the industrial revolution to provoke environment and climate change. They have been having an influence for at least 8000 years. Scientists have developed a model that demonstrates the link between population increase and deforestation.
February: A large African dam modeled in EPFL laboratory
The dam creating Lake Kariba, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, has been modeled at EPFL. The school has been commissioned to study the erosion caused by the high-velocity jets issuing from the spillway gates during floods. In the bed of the Zambezi river, a huge scour hole is now 70 to 80 meters deep.
May : Underground waters resist forced depollution
The Federal Office for the Environment records no less than 50,000 polluted sites, including 4,000 that have been declared “contaminated”. A study recently conducted at EPFL Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory, has just shown that a process, which aims to “boost” the bacteria in the ground, risks extending the lifespan of a particularly carcinogenic substance, vinyl chloride (or chloroethene).
July: How will Swiss radioactive waste be disposed of?
Switzerland has been using nuclear energy for nearly 40 years. The Swiss government has recently decided on a gradual phasing-out of atomic energy, and the existing nuclear power stations will be decommissioned over the next twenty years. The federal law on nuclear energy stipulates that nuclear waste must be managed in Switzerland. So how should we prepare for the safe and definitive storage of our nuclear waste?
October: EPFL scientists in Haiti to combat cholera transmission
Two EPFL laboratories have rallied round Terre des Hommes Lausanne. They have created a working group with the aim of developing tools capable of predicting how the bacteria will spread in the water to better organize healthcare initiatives in Haiti.
November: 200-meter-long bridges without expansion joints: is it possible?
Expansion joints are a nightmare in the maintenance of highway bridges and EPFL scientists are attempting to do away with this costly technique. A life-size experiment has been set up to explore the possibility of designing a large bridge without using expansion joints.