Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, do you know about the 'Maas Valley Smog Incident'?" This is also a serious environmental pollution incident and one of the eight major environmental pollution incidents in the world; however, it did not occur in later generations, but in December 1930. Industrial area of ​​Maas Valley, Belgium.

Naturally, Speer had also heard of this. "I know, Your Highness."

The Maas Valley is a 24-kilometer-long river valley next to the Maas River in Belgium. The middle part of this section is low-lying, with 100-meter-high mountains confronting each other on both sides, making the river valley in a long and narrow basin. The Maas Valley area is an important industrial area, with 3 oil refineries, 3 metal smelters, 4 glass factories and 3 zinc smelting plants, as well as electricity, sulfuric acid, fertilizer plants and lime kilns. Industrial area All in a narrow basin.

Starting on December 1, 1930, the entire Belgium was covered by heavy fog due to abnormal climate changes, and a strong temperature inversion layer appeared. Generally, the higher the airflow rises, the cooler the air temperature is. But when the climate is abnormal, the air temperature at the bottom will be lower than the air temperature at the upper level, causing a "temperature reversal" phenomenon. This reversal of the atmosphere is called a "reversal layer." The reversal layer will affect air convection and inhibit the rise of smoke, causing harmful gases and soot dust emitted by the factory to accumulate in large quantities near the ground, unable to diffuse, and accumulate under the reversal layer, causing air pollution.

On the third day when the temperature inversion layer and heavy fog combined, thousands of residents in the Valley Industrial Zone suffered from respiratory illnesses, and 63 people died within a week, which was five times the normal number of deaths during the same period. Those affected include men and women of different ages. Symptoms are mostly tearing, sore throat, hoarseness, cough, shortness of breath, chest tightness, nausea, and vomiting. The main symptoms are coughing and shortness of breath. Most of the deceased were elderly and patients with chronic heart and lung diseases. Autopsy results confirmed that damage to the lining of the respiratory tract by irritating chemicals was the cause of death. There is no toxic effect on other tissues and organs.

At the same time, many domestic animals also suffered from similar diseases, and many died. It is speculated that during the incident, the concentration of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere was as high as 25 to 100 mg/cubic meter, and the air also contained harmful fluoride.

This incident caused a sensation. Although similar smog pollution incidents have occurred in many parts of the world in the future, the Maas Valley smog incident was the earliest air pollution tragedy recorded in the 20th century.

"If the Ruhr Industrial Area is allowed to develop like this, it will happen again in the Maas Valley within a few years. Other cities and even the whole of Europe will suffer from environmental pollution. We have worked hard to build a vast The territory is so large, but I can’t even let the children breathe fresh air and play in the clear river water, then I, the future emperor, am too incompetent.”

What he said was a bit harsh, and everyone in the room stood up to apologize. Speer's face was even covered in cold sweat. "As long as His Highness orders us, we will immediately control this pollution. However, I'm afraid this is not a small project." Not to mention the whole of Europe, Germany alone has thousands of thermal power stations and tens of thousands of large and small factories. It is necessary to control these All rectification is indeed not a small project.

Yannick certainly knew that, after all, it took Western countries in the original time and space nearly half a century to control this pollution. "I know that this cannot be accomplished in a month or two. It will take several steps. Ten years should be enough."

Speer couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "Your Highness is wise."

"The first step is to establish the Imperial Ministry of Environment, as well as local subordinate departments; Your Excellency, Prime Minister, please formulate a relevant plan for me. Then introduce a set of relevant laws. I will sort out a few key points and formulate them based on these key points. We also need to develop filtration devices and purification equipment suitable for various types of enterprises.”

After saying several things at once, Yannick remembered what Speer had just said about building a new thermal power station. "As for those thermal power plants, let's change them to nuclear power plants." The environmental protection of nuclear power will be recognized by the world in later generations. Nuclear power is the best source of 'base load' power stations that keep the grid running, and it emits very little carbon, making it a very environmentally friendly source of electricity.

Those who oppose nuclear power plants in later generations are not worried about its environmental protection, but about nuclear pollution caused by disasters such as major earthquakes. However, this is more of a safety issue than an environmental issue.

As for safety issues, the safety of nuclear power plants is also guaranteed, certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Only two major accidents occurred in later generations, one was the Chernobyl accident and the other was the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.

Both accidents had human factors.

In 1981, the Israeli Air Force raided the Iraqi nuclear reactor, giving the Soviet Union a moderate stimulus. The top Soviet officials decided to test their response in the event of an attack on the nuclear power plant. Fuel rods require a large amount of water to cool, and water needs to be pumped out. So what if the reactor is attacked and stops operating, and the water pump fails to work?

It is possible to use a high-power diesel generator to continue supplying the water pump, but it takes 1 minute from the reactor to stop working to starting the diesel generator, and this 1 minute is enough to cause the fuel rods to melt themselves.

So how do you fill this minute gap? Scientists thought that when the reactor stopped working, the steam turbine continued to rotate due to inertia, so could the power provided by this inertia be used to fill this minute?

So the Soviet Union began experimenting with the idea.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accepted this task and conducted three experiments in 1982, 1984 and 1985, but all failed without exception. By 1986, engineers at the nuclear power plant decided to conduct a fourth experiment.

But as luck would have it, a small power station near the Ukrainian capital suddenly shut down, causing power shortages in Kiev. Therefore, the Kiev Electricity Bureau informed the Chernobyl Power Station not to conduct shutdown experiments yet and to continue generating electricity to ensure normal power consumption during the day. This is why experiments that were supposed to be conducted during the day were conducted 10 hours later in the early morning.

The technical backbone of nuclear power plants (that is, senior engineers) generally only work during the day and go home from get off work at night, leaving only the novices at night. Among the command and dispatch personnel, the ones who have the most say are all thermal power workers. The blind command of the chief engineer and factory director, who came from a thermal power generation background, was the direct cause of the accident.

And the island country is even more terrible. The island country is located in the (Pacific Rim) seismic zone. About 1,000 felt earthquakes occur every year. 10% of the world's earthquakes occur in the island country and its surrounding areas. But the people of the island country dare to build nuclear power plants in such places, and there are not just one or two. There are 20 nuclear power plants and more than 50 nuclear reactors in the land of 370,000 square kilometers, with an average of one nuclear power plant per 850,000 square kilometers.

The fuse of the Fukushima nuclear power accident was the tsunami, but the source was the approval of the life extension of the aging and backward boiling water reactor. The catalyst was the operator's unwise response to the accident conditions. The fermentation and escalation of the accident was due to the incompetent handling of the competent authorities and government departments.