acidburnNSA

8 ms·

91.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
We still use a lot of the same software for nuclear reactor simulations. They just run a lot faster.
92.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
Ahh, good times. I ran a "college dorm floor" website off my computer for a while and included a 997-word marquee on it, just rambling and talking about girls, depression, and philosophy. At the very end there was an exclamation p
93.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
Here's congressional testimony on the topic from a top Pentagon Weaponeer named Lowell Wood, who I can personally assure you is well credentialed in this area. https://spp.fas.org/starwars/congress/1999_h&#x2F
94.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
There's a pretty slick film on nuclear propelled cruise missiles as well: https://youtu.be/8qMuS5kaDBI
95.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
Two of them actually! Those are HTRE-1/2 and HTRE-3 mentioned in the transcript, (and shown back in the day here [1]). HTRE-1 was disassembled and turned into HTRE-2 which is why you only see two of them now. [1] https://you
96.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
If you like nuclear powered flight, you'll also really enjoy this other one that I got digitized in February: "Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion: Manned Aircraft Progress Report" [1]. It's actually from back in the 50s and dig
97.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
Banana equivalent dose is 0.01 mrem, so 0.1 rem = 100 mrem = 10,000 bananas.
98.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
Not sure about neutrons. Gammas, or x-rays at least, could come from bremmstrahlung.
99.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
No it's less! They switched from rem to millirem for the spouse.
100.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
For context, the 0.1 rem yearly dose to the patient is about 1/6th of the average background dose we all get every year. This Pu-238 is the same stuff that's powering the Voyager probes and a few Mars rovers. Note that it's n
101.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
I helped get a 1960 documentary film showing the details of how we eradicated the screwworm with radiation digitized and posted here [1]. Kinda gross but worth seeing to help emphasize how bad these things are. [1] https://www.yo
102.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
SMR is now a very general term, ranging a few megawatts to 450. We also have the term 'microreactors' now which are like 0.1-10 MWe or so. We have built dozens of microreactors and small reactors in these ranges in the past. Invar
103.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
It's a huge topic. The UAE is probably the biggest most recent example of what has to be done to set up the legal and regulatory pathway and then move into good technical execution. I think they did it really well; bringing in experts
104.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
No I don't think it'd help that much with a weapons program. The starter kit would be mostly focused on QA, compliance, configuration management, cost modeling, etc. and would not include any non-public information about like how
105.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
Thanks. I love your viz examples! Those are beautiful.
106.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
There's a ton of money pouring into nuclear power right now, both fusion and fission. There are dozens of small VC-funded startups now in addition to the more "traditional" billionaire-funded nuclear startups. Each of them ne
107.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
Not yet! Will probably show up in this org https://github.com/whatisnuclear
108.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
I wanted to do energy stuff and happened to be at a college that had a nuclear engineering dept. The peer advisor told me to take a class in the dept and I loved it.
109.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
I recently quit my salary job after 16 years and am consulting in nuclear engineering now. I have a few passion projects that I'm working on (between the somewhat substantial consulting work that came out of the woodwork): - Nuclear Re
110.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
This would probably be a lot easier if more digital instrumentation and controls were implemented. Of course then the bigger concern is unauthorized remote control.
111.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
I'm glad that the needs of AI and the sustainable capabilities of nuclear fission go well together.
112.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
In the last few releases they've polished the built in backup and restore features, which are available in the setting menu now. https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/backup/
113.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
My mom's area in northern Michigan got hit by a huge ice storm last month that took out hundreds of power lines and cable/internet. Facebook was the primary way the community communicated during the 5-15 day power outage. That was
114.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
Nuclear with breeder reactors can run with known resources for 4 billion years. Renewable doesn't mean infinite (nothing is infinite). The sun will run out of its wholly finite fusion fuel in about 5-6 billion years, and will consume e
115.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
New surveys just came out showing record breaking support for nuclear. 61% approval! It's even seeing potential revivals in Germany. There's strong bi-partisan support for nuclear in the US. I don't think calling it political
116.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
We have 2 billion new watts of nuclear on the grid in the last few years, and more coming with uprates and massive demand from hyperscalers. The goal here isn't wind and solar. It's clean energy in general.
117.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
It's that upregulation that's hard.
118.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
Project risk and financing is a big problem in nuclear for sure. Decommissioning nuclear is paid for by a decommissioning trust fund that is paid into by law by rate payers during operation of the plant. The recipe is sort of understood tho
119.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
"in current market conditions" Nuclear plants can load follow at around 3-5% full power per minute. They choose not to due to current market conditions that do not value their ability to provide 24/7 clean heat and electricit
120.
by acidburnNSA 1y ago
Doesn't mean hydro and nuclear don't make half of the clean energy being discussed. Also, expensive is debatable when you consider full systems costs, including transmissions and dealing with daily and seasonal intermittency.

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