 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy. Today is 11th of March 2022. Before getting into our news article discussion, we have a small announcement for you. We are happy to inform you that we are starting the next prefit batch. This batch is called as prefit rapid batch. The entrance test will be conducted on 20th of March 2022. The entrance exam can be attempted in both online and offline mode. The entrance exam time will be from 2.30pm to 4.30pm at all Shankar IAS Academy centers and online. The program starts on 28th of March 2022. In order to facilitate students, there are morning and evening batches in both online and offline formats. The course duration is from 28th March 2022 to 29th May 2022. You will be having a total number of 45 tests. This includes three mock tests as well. The course fees for prefit general is Rs. 2004.99 and the course fees for prefit with scholarship based on the performance in entrance exam is Rs. 1250. For more information and registration, please use the link given in the description. With this information, let's get into our daily news analysis. These are the list of topics we are going to discuss today. In this first topic, we are going to discuss about India's three stage nuclear program. In the second topic, we will be discussing about urban heat island. And regarding the third topic, we will be discussing about the crater on the moon. And then we will discuss about medical termination of pregnancy act. And then we will end our discussion by solving preliminary practice questions. Now, let's start the discussion. Now, look at this news article. This article talks about the Kudankulam village panjayat. See, a resolution was taken against the AFR facility at the Kudankulam nuclear power project site for storing nuclear waste. See, the AFR facility here refers to away from reactor facility. The AFR facility is used for permanently storing the spent fuel generated in the reactors. Now, what is spent fuel? You know how a nuclear power plant uses nuclear fuel and chain reactions to produce electricity, right? And we know that the fuel becomes very hot and very radioactive as it is used in the reactor core to heat the water. And after about five years, the fuel is no longer useful and is removed. And this nuclear fuel that is no longer useful is called spent fuel. So, what happens to that fuel when it is removed from the reactor? Here is where the AFR facility comes in. The spent fuel is stored safely in the AFR because although the spent fuel can no longer sustain a chain reaction, it is still highly radioactive and has to be managed properly, okay? See, the villagers are worried about the radioactive threat posed by the AFR facility to the region. They are worried that the radioactivity could spread and affect the groundwater and the drinking water. This is all about the news article. See, guys, we extensively covered the AFR facility and types of storage of nuclear spent fuel very recently on 17th February 2022 daily news analysis and you can go through it. And since we covered this part very recently, we can now revise about India's three-stage nuclear program. See, in 1950s, Dr. Homi Baba gave India a roadmap for the development of nuclear energy. And he is the one who came up with the three-stage nuclear program of India. We all know that India has huge thorium reserves and the thorium containing mineral is called monazite. See, the AMD, that is the atomic minerals directorate for exploration and research has so far established 11.93 million tons of in situ resources of monazite in the country. That is the thorium bearing mineral in the country. It contains about 1.07 million tons of thorium. Here you can see the statewide distribution of monazite in this table. You can go through it. Here you can see that Andhra Pradesh has the highest reserves of monazite in the country. And to sum up, a quarter of world's thorium reserves are found in India. Here note that uranium can be used directly as a nuclear fuel in a reactor. But thorium alone cannot be directly used as nuclear fuel in the reactor. See, this is because uranium is a fissile material, so it can be directly used in the fission reaction. Whereas thorium is a fertile material and it has to be converted into a fissile material to be used in the nuclear fission process. Here note that uranium 235, uranium 233 and plutonium 239 are fissile materials. Whereas uranium 238 and thorium 232 are fertile materials. So this is why thorium cannot be directly used as a nuclear fuel. And it must be converted into uranium 233 to be used as a fuel. And this is where India's three-stage nuclear program comes into picture. Now let's see the three stages of India's nuclear program one by one. First, let's see the first stage. See, the first stage involves the creation of a fleet of pressurized heavy water reactors. It uses natural uranium that is uranium 238 to produce energy and plutonium as a byproduct. Since the natural uranium is used here, there is no need for enrichment. Note that in India, pressurized heavy water reactor is located in Kakarapar atomic power station in Gujarat. Now moving on to the second stage. See the second stage would see the setting up of several fast breeder reactors that is FBRs. If you see these fast breeder reactors would use a mixture of plutonium and the reprocessed spent uranium from the first stage as a fuel. That is it will use the mixture of plutonium and spent uranium. This will produce energy that is electricity and it also produce more plutonium as the uranium will get converted into plutonium. Note here that the fast breeder reactors does not use moderators. In a nuclear reactor, the moderator helps slow down the neutrons. And only by slowing down the neutrons, the fission reaction in the nuclear reactor is sustained. See in fast breeder reactor, there is no need to slow down the neutron because fast neutrons are more efficient in transmuting uranium 238 to plutonium 239. Now look at this image. As I already said, the fast breeder reactor uses a mixture of plutonium and the reprocessed spent uranium from the first stage as a fuel. And in this, the plutonium 239 is used to sustain the reaction. The nuclear reaction produces energy and the fast moving neutrons. And these fast moving neutrons are made to bombard the spent uranium that is uranium 238. See we already saw that uranium 238 is fertile and not fissile. And after the fast neutron bombard uranium 238, it is transmuted into plutonium 239. And this plutonium 239 is a fissile material. And through this process, the fast breeder reactor produces more plutonium than it consumes. That is why it is called breeder reactor. The surplus plutonium bred in each fast reactor can be used to set up more such reactors in our country. One sufficient inventory of plutonium 239 is produced. Thorium that is abundant in our country can be introduced as a blanket material in the reactor. Now the fast neutron when bombarded into the fertile thorium 232 converts it into uranium 233. And the uranium 233 is fissile. And it is used as a fuel in the third stage of our nuclear program. See India has a prototype fast breeder reactor in Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakam near Chennai. Now coming to the third stage. See here the third stage uses the advanced heavy water reactor. This advanced heavy water reactor uses thorium 232 mixed with uranium 233 produced in the second stage in the form of mixed oxide as a fuel. Here the overall design of the advanced heavy water reactor is to utilize large amounts of thorium reserves found in India. So through these three stages India aims to be self-sufficient in nuclear energy. Now we will do a quick recap. We have seen that a quarter of the world's thorium reserves are found in India. Also we have seen that uranium can be directly used as a nuclear fuel in a reactor but thorium alone cannot be directly used as a nuclear fuel. Then we saw that uranium 235, uranium 233 and plutonium 239 are fissile material whereas uranium 238 and thorium 232 are fertile material. Then we have covered about India's three stage nuclear program which is very important. The first stage involves the creation of a fleet of pressurized heavy water reactors which use natural uranium that is uranium 238 to produce energy and plutonium as a byproduct. And the second stage is the setting up of fast breeder reactors. The fast breeder reactors would use a mixture of plutonium and the reprocessed spent uranium from the first stage as a fuel. This will produce electricity and more plutonium as the uranium will get converted into plutonium. Now the third stage uses the advanced heavy water reactor. The advanced heavy water reactor uses thorium 232 mixed with uranium 233 produced in the second stage in the form of mixed oxide as a fuel. And through these three stages India aims to be self-sufficient in nuclear energy. And that's all regarding this news article. Now we will move on to next news article discussion. Look at this news article. This news article talks about the key findings of a study titled Monitoring Spatial Temporal Dynamics of Urban and Periurban Land Transitions. See this is the case study of Chennai metropolitan area and this is done by the Center for Water Resources of Anna University. The key findings is that the impact of urban sprawl is felt in the city suburban areas. The reason for this is the decadal changes in land use and urban sprawl. See this has led to warmer temperature and increasing urban heat island effect spreading to periurban landscape. In this context let's discuss about the urban heat island in detail. Now first of all what is meant by urban heat island effect. See it is a phenomenon whereby cities experience higher air temperature than the surrounding countryside and this effect can be quite noticeable. On average cities tend to be 127 degree Fahrenheit warmer during the daytime and this difference continues well into the night during which cities can still be as much as 5 degree Fahrenheit warmer than the areas around them. And note that scientists refer these areas afflicted by these higher temperatures as urban heat islands. Now let's see the causes of urban heat island. See the main cause is that the replacement of natural surfaces like trees, ponds and soil by new developments such as roads and buildings and this change is due to the growth of the cities. This results in a corresponding change in the local climate because these natural surfaces help moderate the air temperatures right. For example trees and other plants can lower air temperatures by providing the shade. This vegetation along with soil and water helps to cool down nearby air through evaporative cooling. This evaporative cooling is a natural process by which evaporating water absorbs heat but the man-made surfaces that replaces these features does not have cooling effects. Instead they tend to absorb and re-emit more heat which makes the surrounding warmer. Most of the heat comes from the sunlight and there is also another source of heat. This heat is due to the human activities like power generation and the use of cars and air conditioners. The geometry of the cities can also contribute to heat islands. See the narrow spaces between tall structures known as urban canyons can block the wind and trap heat right. Now let's see what are all the risks caused due to this urban heat island. Firstly they can pose significant health risk. What are they? See the high air temperature and intensifying heat waves can cause heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Not only this it might even cause hot attacks. Secondly heat islands can harm the environment but how? See to cope with higher temperature cars and buildings consume more energy via air conditioners. This further worsens the air pollution and contributes to climate change. So far we have seen the causes and effects of urban heat island. Now we will see how to fight the urban heat island effect. Firstly we have to reintroduce vegetation. See cities can expand parkland and plant the trees and install green roofs which are designed to harbor plant life. One study found that the presence of vegetation can lower nearby air temperature by as much as around 4 degree fahrenheit. Secondly we have to build cool roofs and pavements. See cool roofs feature bright coatings that reflect more sunlight. Therefore it absorbs less heat. Then you take the cool pavements. They work similar to cool roofs. See cool pavements are made of brighter materials like concrete and light color aggregates or they have been treated with reflective coatings. Thus the urban heat islands are one of the most pressing issues faced by the cities today. Due to the urban heat island residents are feeling the heat. Hence environment friendly approaches can help the cities keep their cool even during the climate change. See in this discussion we have discussed about what is meant by urban heat island effect. It is a phenomena whereby cities experience higher air temperature than the surrounding countryside. Then we have seen the causes and risks posed by urban heat island. Mainly the replacement of natural surfaces like trees, ponds and soil by new development projects such as roads and buildings contributes to urban heat island and they pose a significant health risk including heart attacks. And lastly we have seen some of the ways to fight the risk posed by urban heat island. The first way is to reintroduce vegetation and the second way is by building cool roofs and cool pavements. That's all about this news article. Now we will move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this news article. This news article is taken from the text and context page and it talks about the newest crater on the moon and this crater is created after a space junk hit the moon. See according to astronomer gray this is the first recorded unintentional case of a space junk hitting the moon. In this context let's discuss about what is a crater and the difference between the crater and the earth and the moon. Then we will see what is a space junk and how it creates a crater on the moon. Before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. You can go through it. Now first of all what is a crater. See a crater is nothing but a bowl shaped depression and it may be produced by the impact of a meteorite or a volcanic activity or an explosion. In other words a crater is a roundish dent left in the surface of something by the impact of something else. For example look at these images of a moon. These are the craters created in the moon due to the impacts over million of years. Now let's see about the difference between the crater and the earth and the crater and the moon. See the crater on earth as processes that can erase almost all evidence of past impacts. But when you take the crater and the moon pretty much any tiny dent made on the surface is going to stay there. See three processes help the earth to keep its surface crater free. The first process is called erosion. See the earth has weather, water and plants and these weather, water and plants act together to break apart and wear down the ground. Eventually erosion can break a crater down to virtually nothing. When you take the moon it has almost no erosion because it has no atmosphere. That means it has no wind, it has no weather and it certainly has no plants. Almost nothing can remove marks on its surface once they are made. Now the second process it is called tectonics. Tectonics are processes that can cause our planet surface to form new rocks and to get rid of old rocks and because of tectonics the surface of the earth is recycled many times throughout its long history and when you take the moon the tectonics are absent. Hence on the moon's surface there will be no formation of new rocks or a shift in the existing surface patterns. Now the third process it is called volcanism. See the volcanic flows can cover up impact craters. This is a major way in which the impact craters gets covered up and when you take the moon it has been without volcanism for around 3 billion years. Hence it is impossible for craters on the moon to be covered. So far we have seen about the craters and the difference between the craters on the moon and the craters on the earth. Now let's see what is a space junk and how it creates a crater on the moon. See a space junk or a space debris is any piece of machinery or debris left by humans in space. It can refer to big objects such as dead satellites that have failed or been left in the orbit at the end of their mission and it can also refer to smaller things like a bit of debris or a paint flecks that have fallen off from a rocket. See some human made junk has been left on the moon too. Now how does this space junk get into space? See almost all space junk is the result of us launching objects from the earth and it remains in the orbit until it re-enters the atmosphere. Here some objects in the lower orbits of a few hundred kilometers can return quickly. That is they often re-enter the atmosphere after a few years and for the most part they will burn up so they don't even reach the ground. But see the debris or satellites left at a higher altitude can continue to circle earths for hundreds or even thousands of years and some space junk results from collisions or anti-satellites test in the orbit. See when two satellites collide they can smash apart into thousands of new pieces creating a lot of new debris and several countries including the USA, China and India have used the missiles to blow up their own satellites and this creates a thousands of new pieces of dangerous debris. Now let's briefly see about the new crater on the moon that is mentioned in this news article. See a leftover piece of a spacecraft was flying through the space reportedly and it hit the surface of the moon last Friday. Thus it created a new crater in the moon and this crater may be around 65 feet wide and this piece of a space junk was earlier believed to be a SpaceX rocket but was later said to be the third stage booster of Chang'e-5T1. This Chang'e-5T1 is a lunar mission launched by the China National Space Administration in 2014. However China denied the responsibility. The reason given by China is that the third stage booster of Chang'e-5T1 safely entered the earth atmosphere and was completely incinerated. But according to astronaut Gray it resembles the Chinese rocket and not that of a SpaceX. This was even confirmed by a team at the University of Arizona. Now we will do a quick recap. Firstly we saw about the crater. Crater is nothing but a bowl shaped depression produced by the impact of a meteorite or volcanic activity or explosion. Then we have seen about space junk. It is a piece of a machinery or debris left by humans in space. It can refer to big objects such as dead satellites that have failed or been left in the orbit at the end of their mission. It can also refer to smaller things like a bit of debris or paint flags that have fallen off from a rocket. Then we saw about a space junk mentioned in the news. The piece of a space junk was earlier believed to be a SpaceX rocket but was later said to be the third stage booster of Chang'e-5T1. This is a lunar mission launched by China National Space Administration in 2014 but China has denied the responsibility. And that's all regarding this news article. Now we will move on to next news article discussion. Look at this news article. The Kerala High Court on Thursday asked the health authorities to take appropriate decision on the pregnancy of a 10-year-old rape survivor. The High Court directed the health authorities to take action in accordance with the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act. In this context, let's see some important points about the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Act 2021. See, India has a separate legislation to regulate the termination of pregnancy or abortion. In India, abortion was regulated using the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971. This act was enacted in India to reduce the mortality that is associated with unsafe abortions in the country. Here, the unsafe abortion is defined as a procedure that is performed by persons who lack necessary skills or procedure that is performed in an environment that lacks minimum medical standards or both. So, the MTP Act 1971 entitles women to have access to safe abortion services under certain specific conditions. The MTP Act lays down the criteria for which a pregnancy can be terminated. See, this MTP Act 1971 was amended last year. This amendment made some key changes. Let's see the changes one by one. See, the first major change is the increase in the upper limit for the legal termination of pregnancy. According to the latest amendment, the upper limit for termination of pregnancy has been increased from 20 to 24 weeks for certain category of women. According to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Rules 2021, these categories include survivors of sexual assault or rape or incest, minors and women whose marital status changes during an ongoing pregnancy. That is, women who are widowed are diverse during pregnancy and finally, this category includes women with physical disabilities. The second major change is regarding the requirement of opinion of medical practitioners or doctors. Earlier, abortion required the opinion of one doctor if it is done within 12 weeks of conception and two doctors if it is done between 12 and 20 weeks. After the amendment, the opinion of one doctor was needed for the termination of pregnancy up to 20 weeks of gestation. For termination of pregnancy from 20 weeks to 24 weeks of gestation, the opinion of two doctors are required. Now, the next major change is regarding the fetuses with substantial abnormalities. The amendment removed the upper limit in cases of substantial fetal abnormalities. According to the changes made through the amendment, a state-level medical board will be set up to decide if a pregnancy may be terminated after 24 weeks in cases of fetal malfunction. Now, the medical board will also examine the women and her reports if she approaches for medical termination of pregnancy. After the examination, the medical board will provide its opinion with regard to the termination of pregnancy. See here, the medical board can also reject the request for termination within three days of receiving the request. The next change made by the amendment is the change in regards to confidentiality classes. The new amendment made sure that the name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated cannot be revealed except to a person authorized by law. The MTP Act 1971 had only a provision for fine up to 1000 rupees in case of breach of confidentiality. After the amendment, the punishment for breach of confidentiality can be a fine or imprisonment up to one year or both. Now, finally, the change is in regards to termination of pregnancy due to failure of contraceptive method or device. See earlier, only married women can apply for termination of pregnancy due to failure of contraceptive devices. After this amendment, it is extended even to unmarried women. So, after the amendment, both married and unmarried women can have access to termination of pregnancy in case of failure of contraceptive methods. It is up to 20 weeks of gestation. These are some of the major changes introduced by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 2021. Now, we will quickly recap the changes. First is that, there is an increase in upper limit for legal termination of pregnancy. The upper limit has been increased from 20 weeks to 24 weeks for certain categories of women. Now, the second major change is regarding the requirement of opinion of doctors. That is, the opinion of one doctor was needed for the termination of pregnancy up to 20 weeks of gestation and for the termination of pregnancy from 20 weeks to 24 weeks, the opinion of two doctors are required. The next major change is regarding the fetuses with substantial abnormalities. And finally, there is a change in regards to termination of pregnancy due to failure of contraceptive method. Now, both married and unmarried women can have access to termination of pregnancy in case of failure of contraceptive methods up to 20 weeks of gestation. And that's all regarding this news article. Now, we will move on to the next part of our discussion that is the preliminary practice questions. Now, look at the first question. Consider the following statements regarding the prototype fast breeder reactor in Kalpaka. The first statement, the reactor is built by Bhavani that is Bharatya Nabikya Vidyut Nigam Limited. The second statement, the reactor use heavy water as coolant. The third statement, the reactor does not have control rods since breeding activity requires fast neutrons. And you have to find the correct statement. A, one only, B, one and two only, C, two and three only and D, one and three only. See here, the statement one is correct because the reactor is built by Bhavani. It is a wholly owned enterprise of government of India under the administrative control of department of atomic energy. It was established with the intent of building and constructing 500 megawatt fast breeder reactor in India. Note that Bhavani will be the second power utility in India after the nuclear power corporation of India to use nuclear fuel sources to generate power. So, statement one is correct. And regarding statement two, it is incorrect. See this is an important point. Please note it. The fast breeder reactor uses liquid sodium as coolant. And it is the pressurized heavy water reactor that uses heavy water as both coolant and moderator. Since the question is about the fast breeder reactor, it uses liquid sodium as coolant. So, statement two is incorrect. And regarding statement three, it is also incorrect. See the reactor does not have the moderator. Since breeding activity requires fast neutrons. But the fast breeder reactor has controlled rods made of boron carbide. See a controlled rod is a device that is used to absorb neutrons so that the nuclear chain reaction taking place within the reactor core can be slowed down or stopped completely. So, here the reactor does not have moderator but has controlled rods. So, our final answer will be option A one only. Now, look at the second question. Consider the following statement with reference to urban heat island. Cool roofs can be used to reduce the urban heat island effect. Urban areas with more buildings causes urban heat island. You have to find the correct statement. This is a very simple question. Take it as a quiz question, find the answer and post it in the comment section. Now, we will move on to the third question. Consider the following statements regarding medical termination of pregnancy amendment act 2021. The first statement it aims to regulate the termination of pregnancy or abortion. The second statement according to the act the upper limit for termination of pregnancy is 24 weeks for all women. And you have to find the correct statement. See regarding this question the statement one is correct. We have seen this in our discussion right. The main aim of the act is to regulate the termination of pregnancy or abortion. And regarding the statement two it is incorrect. See according to the act the upper limit for termination of pregnancy is 24 weeks for certain categories of women. According to the medical termination of pregnancy rules 2021 these categories include survivors of sexual assault or rape or incest, minors and women whose marital status changes during an ongoing pregnancy. That means the women who are widowed or divorced during pregnancy or finally this category include women with physical disabilities. So this upper limit for 24 weeks is not for all women. It is only for certain categories of women. So here statement one is correct and statement two is incorrect. So our answer here option A one only. The main question is displayed here write your answer and post it in the comment section. If you like the video hit the like button post your comments and share the video with your friends. 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