pfdietz

5 ms·

91.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
All we need experts for right now is verifying the formalization of the statement of the problem is correct. The proof itself, that formalization is checked automatically.
92.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
The obvious solution to this issue is to destroy Pluto.(*) Many problems can be solved by application of sufficiently powerful explosives. (*) Or, possibly, eject it from the Solar System.
93.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
It's weird to believe he's lost credibility.
94.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
You can usually tell, though. Rare birds in the wrong place or time that come up only once are problematic, but if the bird is detected repeatedly there's a better chance. You should also be on the lookout for birds that mimic other
95.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
The reduction in biomass at the boundary was possibly much greater. For example, no coal was formed for 10 million years, and the shell part of marine sediments was reduced by 97%.
96.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
Liability for things like this was traditionally resolved by warfare.
97.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
We could mire ourselves in nirvana paralysis instead, insisting only problem-free solutions be adopted.
98.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
I could see countries drastically affected by heat doing it. If they experience mass death, or even in the case of island countries complete elimination, what threat would make them stop?
99.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
US corn and soybean crops are looking quite good. The corn harvest is projected to be the 2nd highest ever, the soybean harvest the best ever.
100.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
A world that gets 10% of its energy from nuclear and 90% from renewables is not substantially easier than one that gets 100% from renewables. The intermittency/seasonality issues are not solved by that relatively light sprinkling of
101.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
Since uranium at 3x the current price could supply the current world primary energy demand with burner reactors for only about 5 years, diverting climate change with nuclear would have required mass rollout of breeder reactors. These were
102.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
I wonder where they get that kind of nonsense? Do they not check, or they do they just not care?
103.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
Around Ithaca. If I go to https://www.drought.gov/ and look at New York state, there's only two fairly small patches of D0 (the lowest drought category, actually "pre-drought") in the state; the rest is not
104.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
Water-driven electrostatic generators are really easy to build. The key is to have droplets separate at a point where there's an electric field, which causes the detaching droplet to carry a charge. Properly arranged this can cause a
105.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
El Nino involves moving moisture around, not just reducing precipitation all over. So the opposite can also be seen in some places. The eastern US and parts of the midwest have had a very good year, an the US harvest of maize is projected
106.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
NuScale's putative safety improvement came from considerably larger cost. Safety and cost may not necessarily be related, but in NuScale's case they certainly were.
107.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
> The point being that these aren't civil projects once it's modular. But that's simply wrong. All the projects (except for silly microreactors which don't have a prayer of being competitive) involve substantial civi
108.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
Here's one of the meatier ones (Feb. 2023). https://idahofallsidaho.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_0...
109.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
There is no need in law for that. And if previous regulations were enacted in bad faith, it suck to be you if you depended on them.
110.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
The effects of this will be reduced by the realization that these regulations can be changed in the future. No one will make a large capital investment if it could be shut down in a few years.
111.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
It sure is. If the world were nuclear powered (all energy, not just grid) with burner reactors, estimates of uranium resources (not reserves) at up to 3x the current price would last about five years. A fully nuclear world needs to use nu
112.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
Hydrogen is one possibility for a 100% grid to cover Dunkelflauten and seasonal leveling (the former for wind, the latter for solar). To see the effects on overall cost per MWh, explore at https://model.energy/
113.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
> making sure If this is the goal, they're failing spectacularly.
114.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
Land is cheap. Even in Europe, the cost of land onto which renewables are put is small compared to the cost of the renewable energy equipment itself. Here in the US, it's common for the land to be just a few percent of the project co
115.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
TRISO is also more expensive, both in fabrication and disposal. It looks to me like another case of nuclear mis-optimizing for the wrong metric (safety vs. cost).
116.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
NuScale infamously failed to get their reactor funded in Utah (UAMPS and the CFPP), it was just too expensive. Costs kept rising, large utilities declined to sign up, and in the end those utilities remaining were going to hit the contractu
117.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
> Longer-term - it's mid-ocean ridges, not subduction zones, where you find all the volatiles and volcanoes. That's simply not true. Yes, there are volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges, but subduction zones also have plenty of activi
118.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
The cost for coal depends a lot on how the emissions are treated, and how deaths from CO2 are calculated. A general problem with the latter is these are global deaths, and foreign lives are valued far below domestic lives. Kind of horribl
119.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
The differences in deaths from (non-accident) nuclear and wind/solar are very small compared to the amount of energy produced. The effect of the statistical value of lives lost is tiny compared to direct differences in energy cost, an
120.
by pfdietz 2mo ago
I wish this subduction zone idea would just die. It's dumb. Things move so slowly it wouldn't help, and subduction zones have large amounts of volatiles coming back up via mud volcanoes and, later, actual molten rock volcanoes.

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