Destruction be monitored from space . Ah, all that and more coming up now on dw Science Magazine tomorrow, today. In the war in ukraine has been raging since february 2022. The attacks have been especially brutal in the east of the country. Like here and sue me. Astronaut mathias, mom, i was able to observe the war from the International Space station than at man. I never explosion. I just little flashes from the ground and we knew they were missiles. Actually during the day when we flew over the country, i saw a huge columns of smoke over maria pole for that it was so visible. And on the one hand, were so far away from earthly problems, were traveling through space. Its. On the other hand, its only 400 kilometers away and i could see what was happening on the ground with my own eyes. And its very depressing and frightening. Looking for saturday nights also monitoring the impact of the war in ukraine. The data could help to rapidly assess the destruction and aid rescuing effort the battle of mosul in 2017 images, such as these provide any a glimpse of the devastation, but they can be something of the humanitarian catastrophe. Experienced by millions of people there. Satellite images show the extent of the destruction like in the city of rocca before and after the battle against islamic state. Chow, we land from the International Committee of the red cross or i, c. R. C. Analyzes images such as these. For security reasons, she can show images of current conflicts. My word for the i say i see is to support alcholay on the ground to assess the situation, to, to know what to expect when they go on the ground. To also document the type of damages that happened. Either a civilian the buildings, hospitals were hit, its painstaking work. Shes an expert on interpreting High Resolution images. Theyre expensive and thats not all me. We dont get an image every all the day on a specific spot and not all the context are covered by dis, a High Resolution said like imagery and as well we miss maybe a global picture. A new technology could help to develop it. The i c r c teamed up with researchers from the university of zurich, and e t. H durham. John greg, known his team also analyzed satellite images with the aid of artificial intelligence. That motion in is a Machine Learning works well here, because it can recognize very subtle patterns within a large amount of data comb, often better than humans, ceaseless damage. The researchers are working with images from europe sentinel to satellites. Theyre available free of charge and they cover wide areas of the earths surface every 5 days, supplying images in all the relevant spectrums of light. But the Spatial Resolution leave something to be desired. So far, the data has been used to monitor forests in Agricultural Land and their change over time. To train the a i program to analyze images of war time destruction, data analyst book of fi, fleur draws and images of former combat regions that were carefully documented by staff at the un. I wouldnt say cancer and if i do look to south 20th comments, badge busying from law. So this here is mosul, quite not. And the dance identify the coordinates of where the city suffered damage. Surely that you can also see that in july and large areas of the city were completely destroyed. These red dance identify areas of destruction via it. And this data, which tells us pretty much exactly where there was destruction can be used to train the algorithm with them. In the goal is to link the various colored areas on the map to the satellite image. Also, by drawing on the many thousands of data points, the ai system will eventually learn how to reliably identify this kind of destruction. Lisa will, even using sentinel, choose somewhat lower resolution images, but it wont completely replace human intelligence. When i witness somebody minutes history on, for example, if an algorithm identifies that a building was destroyed with a 50 percent confidence level. Although then the algorithm just isnt sure the size and then a human needs to take a close look out and figure out what really happened on the ground it was on. Thats not the case. If the algorithm is 95 percent, certainly bershana cut seizures. How we learn is collaborating with young wagner on the project, her expertise in analyzing war time images will also flow into the algorithm. They hope to have the initial version of the a i supported system within the next 2 years. The i c r c analyst is cautiously optimistic in someone who is really pragmatic. So i want to see the quality of the results and, and, ah, devil to exchange with my colleagues on the ground. If this is something that they can use, ah, concretely, in their work, the researchers have even bigger plans. They hope that the ai system will one day be used to support ceasefire agreement, or even peace negotiations. And not just in conflicts like the war in ukraine. Theyre also hoping to help diffuse conflicts that arent in the global limelight conflict analyst, valerie sch, deja advises the zurich project and is convinced it could make a difference. It is on the bed for peace negotiations. Its important to look at what happened during the war a i can help provide that overview. And later it could act as an Early Warning system to monitor whether the warring hardiest are sticking to their agreements or whether some other kind of intervention is needed. On the perhaps one day seen the new a i system will be able to help find ways out of wars. Like for wanting me upgrade at the war in ukraine. Has d stabilized Energy Supplies in many european countries. They want to become independent of russian gas. The challenge is to find alternatives. Liquid natural gas or l n g is one alternative, but there is no infrastructure in place. Some of you that coal and Nuclear Power should continue to be used, but could now be the perfect time to make the switch to green energy. Of course, ill main sources of energy have always been changing over the years. Humans have been using fire for around a 1000000 years. They burned would pete and dung. Its been a source of heat and a way to prepare food. It was even used to harden wouldnt spears, but our ancestors only learned how to light fires themselves in the last few 1000 years. Still for more than 5000 years, people have been using oil lamps to bring light to the darkness. These early lamps, mostly round unfashionable oils, religious ceremonies were often illuminated in this way. Candles made of wax tallow, or fat, also started to be used. In ancient times, charcoal burners refined wood into charcoal and their smoking kills vis, allowed higher firing temperatures, which made it possible to process metal and make new ceramics. The romans used charcoal on an industrial scale clearing entire forests and releasing huge amounts of pollution due to the economic boom and population growth at the end of the middle ages. Wood for Building Materials and fuel became scarce in many places. A new source of energy was needed. Thats when coal mining became important and eventually fueled the industrial revolution. Hard working steam engines had an almost insatiable hunger for energy. And massive amounts of coal were burned. The construction and operation of a growing Railway Network added to the need for coal. Millions of tons of coal were being used. The release of significant amounts of c, o 2 had begun. The world would never be the same. Another Energy Transition was on the horizon because an important fuel for lamps whale oil was beginning to dry up. Whalers had ruthlessly killed the animals for 3 centuries. Their oil was the main source of energy for lighting. In the 19th century, gas lamps became the standard for lighting and urban areas. The fuel was made out of coal, but since gas lamps were so expensive to operate and maintain, starting in the 19 twenties and electric lighting became more popular. Coal fired power plants provided the necessary electricity. At the same time, the horse drawn carriage was replaced by the automobile. A new Energy Hungry machine. Huge amounts of crude oil were soon needed to meet the worlds additional need for gasoline and diesel. After world war 2, private households were increasingly electrified refrigerators, electric stoves, washing machines and personal electronics. The demand for electricity skyrocketed and was mainly covered by comb or oil fired power plants. All of this nearly came to an end with the oil crisis in the 1970s High Oil Prices paralyzed industry and halted traffic. This opened the door for Nuclear Power plants, a way to produce electricity at home without depending on other countries. Nuclear energy was all the rage, but more and more people in europe opposed the development leaving nuclear and fossil fuels behind. Thats the rallying cry today. Renewables are meant to provide power for a clean or electric tech civilization. Will this be our last Energy Transition . Looking back, its not likely since the start of the war in ukraine, the focus has been on Nuclear Energy. Russian troops have taken over the Nuclear Reactor in a preacher. The fighting has compromised its safety. In other countries, Nuclear Energy represents the solution to the energy crisis. Even in germany where all Nuclear Power plants are due to be shut down by 2023, 3 generators. Annella said to remain in operation. Could Nuclear Energy also help fight Climate Change . A terrifying threat to the planet. But for others, a risk worth taking Nuclear Power is divisive. China and india have been ramping up. That capacity used to get electricity to hundreds of millions, more people without raising emissions. Other countries from germany to japan has been switching off plants because that read about safety. Do we need Nuclear Energy to stop Climate Change and should we risk it . Weve probably all heard of the infamous cannibal disaster in 1986. A reactor went out of control and blew up after overheated uranium melted through protective barriers. The disaster channel was the worst in the history of Nuclear Power generation. Lets fast forward 25 years. In 2011 an earthquake and c nami struck the coast of japan, killing mold and 19000 people and funding 3 nuclear reactive at the fukushima plant in to meltdown with disasters like these. Its no surprise people find Nuclear Power apocalyptic. But take a look at the numbers and that fear doesnt hold up compared to renewable sources of energy. Nuclear has killed more people for each terror. What our of electricity than its generated. But lets put that in the context of fossil fuels. The death rates from burning gas, oil, and coal make nuclear seem almost as safe as solar or wind. Thats because burning fossil fuels release is toxic particles, but damage our lungs and hearts. The appellation they call kills an estimated 8000000 people a year. Comparing nuclear and coal is like comparing planes and cars. While we obsess about plane crashes, far more people die on the road than in the air for every kilometer they travel. But plane crashes make the headlines and so they seem even scarier, same goes for nuclear disasters. If you compare them to clarion this you, although in industry certainly you are fuzzy foods are the number of that that, that it is, is the minimum. But so far there have been few nuclear designs to in history. And you catastrophe could change the entire discourse beyond that radioactive waste could claim many lives in the future. More about that later. Ah, the fact that Nuclear Energy is safer than fossil fuels is one reason why some people at changing their minds about Nuclear Power. The big one is that in terms of Climate Change, nuclear is clean it c, o 2 emissions are about as low as solar and wind over its lifetime. And it also provides a pretty constant supply of electricity as countries kick fossil fuels out of the energy grids. Nuclear could provide a steady baseload for when the sun is shining in the winds, not blowing. 10 years ago i changed my mind about Nuclear Energy. I realized that we needed Nuclear Energy to solid Climate Change. But does quitting nuclear mean burning more fossil fuels . Lets look at germany. Its been shutting down Nuclear Plants for decades, but 2 of 3 remaining ones will remain operational in case an emergency occurs. If you hear guns office, i want to say completely openly here as a supporter of the peaceful use of Nuclear Energy. My view on Nuclear Energy has changed since the events of japan. Shortly after the fukushima disaster, german chancellor angle america announced the Nuclear Phase out a decision that may have proved costly. A study in 2019 estimated that quitting nuclear float, germanys coal exit so much for that lead to 1100. 00 more depth than expected from breathing dirty air each year. The annual social cost is 12000000000. 00 but thats only half the story. Germanys electricity emissions actually later fell as Renewables Push coal out of the mix and Energy Experts say the massive expansion of renewables was only politically possible because the government agreed to quit nuclear. You can argue with both ways. Probably germany would have been able to reduce the clinician the be quicker if it, frankly, but all the best. I think of renewable. Although not only in germany, but this is really again, yorba an expert on Nuclear Power. She says Renewable Energy. Is it cheaper than building new Nuclear Plants . Its not the same as keeping existing Nuclear Plants online for longer. Building new Nuclear Capacity is agatha groups now very expensive. It took me twice of expensive ira prolonging now. But theres a catch year. Old react is a more dangerous and needs to be retrofitted to stay safe. And what about the Nuclear Waste . Spent fuel rods stay radioactive at tens of thousands of years . And its not only the roads, all the concrete and metal exposed to radiation cant just be thrown away. Decommissioning a Nuclear Plant can take decades. The problem is even after 70, as of Nuclear Power generation, nobody has found a proven way to get rid of the waste for good. My name is joe, correct, recovery, suffering for europe. This is have a come on a boat in 2018 trying to stop in Nuclear Plant. He fears could end up dumping radioactive waste into the ocean. Nuclear waste is something even nuclear advocate. So sometimes on shore, about its toxic radioactive and in the wrong hands could even be used for radioactive or dirty bombs. Everything scope to gender in high reactive waste needs to be kept hobby farm for protein. No, that is really big. A real big chunk. The industry solution for Nuclear Waste to bury it deep, underground, isolating the waste inside Rockwell Clay to stop radiation reaching the surface. Finland is set to open the wells, thus deep geological Storage Facility in 2023 to permanently deal with its Nuclear Waste. We think deep in the finish, but druck 450 meters deep in a kind of concrete. Ah, parcher petrocca is the safest place to put them down there. Uh huh. Its always better there. Lot in temporary storage is on the ground level. Oh, this is patsy to a hema from perceiver, the company that designed the facility. But if the site perceiver is building up, okay, latoya west and finland is the only one in the world. And it hasnt even been built yet. Can we really trust that the technology will work for ever while, of course, if it hasnt been started, there hasnt been a prototype, but it has been tested. Even in all kilo that we have been doing 30 years of research. And its all kind of possible. I leaks and things that might happen. They are considered that might not convince environmentalists worried about contamination and even potential terror attacks in the distant future. But even they agree, the idea needs research. The world already has half a centurys worth of Nuclear Waste to deal with. So what does this all mean for us . Do we really need Nuclear Power to stop Climate Change . Well, it can clearly help. Nuclear is as safe as Renewable Energy in terms of lives lost and could balance out a clean energy mix. But we still cant be sure the waste wont come back to hurt us in the future. Huh. Ah. To understand the debate better, just a few points. How does need in 80 work items, mostly uranium 235 and plutonium are split in a Nuclear Reactor with the help of neutrons. This process releases entity the energy heats motor, which then gives off steam. Christine powers the turbine, which is connected to a generator, and that produces electricity. Nothing is burned in a Nuclear Reactor