Discusses the nature of post-fission radioactive waste, the operations that spent fuel goes through after it is discharged from a reactor, and the problem of waste management

Radioactive Waste Management and Regulation

Politics & Social Sciences

Lester, Richard K.

Willrich, Mason

Social Sciences

Free Pr

Experts outline a plan to overhaul the U.S. energy innovation system for accelerated, large-scale adoption of reliable, low-cost, low-carbon energy technologies.
Energy innovation offers us our best chance to solve the three urgent and interrelated problems of climate change, worldwide insecurity over energy supplies, and rapidly growing energy demand. But if we are to achieve a timely transition to reliable, low-cost, low-carbon energy, the U.S. energy innovation system must be radically overhauled. 
Unlocking Energy Innovation outlines an up-to-the-minute plan for remaking America's energy innovation system by tapping the country's entrepreneurial strengths and regional diversity in both the public and private spheres. “Business as usual” will not fill the energy innovation gap. Only the kind of systemic, transformative changes to our energy innovation system described in this provocative book will help us avert the most dire scenarios and achieve a sustainable and secure energy future.

Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System (Mit Press)

Arts & Photography

Hart, David M.

Individual Artists

MIT Press]

Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge

Made in America identifies what is best and worth replicating in American industrial practice and sets out five national priorities for regaining the productive edge.
What went wrong and how can America become second to none in industrial productivity? This long awaited study by a team of top notch MIT scientists and economists - the MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity - takes a hard look at the recurring weaknesses of American industry that are threatening the country's standard of living and its position in the world economy. Made in America identifies what is best and worth replicating in American industrial practice and sets out five national priorities for regaining the productive edge. Unlike other studies that prescribe macroeconomic cures, Made in America focuses on the reorganization and effective integration of human resources and new technologies within the firm as a principal driving force for long term growth in productivity. Made in America examines the relationship between human resources and technological change in detail and singles out the most significant productivity weaknesses from the myriad causes that are typically cited. These include shortÂtime horizons and a preoccupation with the bottom line, outdated strategies that focus excessively on the domestic market, lack of cooperation within and among U.S. firms, neglect of human resources, technological failures in translating discoveries to products, and a mismatch between governmental actions and the needs of industry. Looking ahead Made in America asserts that industrial performance would improve substantially simply by building on what is best in U.S. industry. It describes representative systems of production that can serve as models of best industrial practice for niche producers, price competitive specialized producers, and flexible mass producers. Among the goals singled out as national priorities are the creation of a new economic citizenship that involves wellÂeducated workers as active partners in the reproduction process, a new strategic focus on production, finding a better balance between cooperation and individualism, learning to live in an increasingly international economy, and making proper provision for the future both in terms of capital and human resources. The findings and goals of Made in America are based on such measures of productivity performance as product quality, innovativeness, time to market, and service in eight manufacturing sectors - semiconductors, computers, and office equipment; automobiles; steel; consumer electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals; textiles; machine tools; and commercial aircraft. These measures revealed a large gap between the best and average U.S. practice.

Business & Money

Solow, Robert M.

Dertouzos, Michael L.

Economics

Mit Pr

Energy innovation offers us our best chance to solve the three urgent and interrelated problems of climate change, worldwide insecurity over energy supplies, and rapidly growing energy demand. But if we are to achieve a timely transition to reliable, low-cost, low-carbon energy, the U.S. energy innovation system must be radically overhauled. 
 Unlocking Energy Innovation outlines an up-to-the-minute plan for remaking America's energy innovation system by tapping the country's entrepreneurial strengths and regional diversity in both the public and private spheres. "Business as usual" will not fill the energy innovation gap. Only the kind of systemic, transformative changes to our energy innovation system described in this provocative book will help us avert the most dire scenarios and achieve a sustainable and secure energy future.

Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System

The MIT Press

Analyzes the causes of the national decline in industrial productivity and discusses organizational and individual changes required to increase productivity

The Productive Edge: How U.S. Industries Are Pointing the Way to a New Era of Economic Growth

Industries

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Making Technology Work: Applications in Energy and the Environment

Fifteen interdisciplinary case studies on the application of technology in the energy and environment sectors include applications of solar, wind, fuel cell, nuclear, and other coal combustion and emission control technologies. The case studies reveal the interrelationships among technical and non-technical factors, and demonstrate that the successful application of new technologies requires the synthesis of technical, economic, political, environmental, and social aspects.

Deutch, John M.

Cambridge University Press

Amid mounting concern over the loss of jobs to low-wage economies, one fact is clear: America's prosperity hinges on the ability of its businesses to continually introduce new products and services. But what makes for a creative economy? How can the remarkable surge of innovation that fueled the boom of the 1990s be sustained? 
 For an answer, Richard K. Lester and Michael J. Piore examine innovation strategies in some of the economy's most dynamic sectors. Through eye-opening case studies of new product development in fields such as cell phones, medical devices, and blue jeans, two fundamental processes emerge. 
 One of these processes, analysis--rational problem solving--dominates management and engineering practice. The other, interpretation, is not widely understood, or even recognized--although, as the authors make clear, it is absolutely crucial to innovation. Unlike problem solving, interpretation embraces and exploits ambiguity, the wellspring of creativity in the economy. By emphasizing interpretation, and showing how these two radically different processes can be combined, Lester and Piore's book gives managers and designers the concepts and tools to keep new products flowing. 
 But the authors also offer an unsettling critique of national policy. By ignoring the role of interpretation, economic policymakers are drawing the wrong lessons from the 1990s boom. The current emphasis on expanding the reach of market competition will help the analytical processes needed to implement innovation. But if unchecked it risks choking off the economy's vital interpretive spaces. Unless a more balanced policy approach is adopted, warn Lester and Piore, America's capacity to innovate--its greatest economic asset--will erode.

Innovation--The Missing Dimension

Piore, Michael J.

Harvard University Press

Amid mounting concern over the loss of jobs to low-wage economies, one fact is clear: America's prosperity hinges on the ability of its businesses to continually introduce new products and services. But what makes for a creative economy? How can the remarkable surge of innovation that fueled the boom of the 1990s be sustained? 
For an answer, Richard K. Lester and Michael J. Piore examine innovation strategies in some of the economy's most dynamic sectors. Through eye-opening case studies of new product development in fields such as cell phones, medical devices, and blue jeans, two fundamental processes emerge. 
One of these processes, analysis--rational problem solving--dominates management and engineering practice. The other, interpretation, is not widely understood, or even recognized--although, as the authors make clear, it is absolutely crucial to innovation. Unlike problem solving, interpretation embraces and exploits ambiguity, the wellspring of creativity in the economy. By emphasizing interpretation, and showing how these two radically different processes can be combined, Lester and Piore's book gives managers and designers the concepts and tools to keep new products flowing.
But the authors also offer an unsettling critique of national policy. By ignoring the role of interpretation, economic policymakers are drawing the wrong lessons from the 1990s boom. The current emphasis on expanding the reach of market competition will help the analytical processes needed to implement innovation. But if unchecked it risks choking off the economy's vital interpretive spaces. Unless a more balanced policy approach is adopted, warn Lester and Piore, America's capacity to innovate--its greatest economic asset--will erode.

Innovation-The Missing Dimension

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lester, Richard K.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Lester, Richard K.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lester, Richard K.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Radioactive Waste Management and Regulation

Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System (Mit Press)

Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge

Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System

Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System

The Productive Edge: How U.S. Industries Are Pointing the Way to a New Era of Economic Growth

Making Technology Work: Applications in Energy and the Environment

Making Technology Work: Applications in Energy and the Environment

Innovation--The Missing Dimension

Innovation-The Missing Dimension