Peter Dutton has realised nobody is falling for his hype about Small Nuclear Reactors, so he's pivoted to large scale nuclear reactors.
The CSIRO has conclusively shown nuclear power is a dead-end technology — not fit for purpose in Australia — we need to accelerate our work with renewable energy such as wind and solar, and build more battery storage.
Russian forces have started military drills near Ukraine simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons in response to what Moscow deems threats from western officials about increased involvement in the conflict. Vladimir Putin ordered the drills earlier this month in a move Russian officials said was a warning to the west not...
Nick Cater in the Oz is impressed by #nuclear power in Finland, which has built one new plant this century, and has none currently under construction or even in planning stages.
OTOH, Finland has 7GW of wind, and much more is planned https://www.both2nia.com/en/news/almost-7-gw-wind-power-finland
Another bit of Brexit related attempted policy cherry-picking comes unstuck.
The UK would like to continue to be part of the world's largest nuclear fusion experiment (based in the EU).... but the EU is now insisting that this can only continue if the UK rejoins the bloc's Euratom research scheme.
Once again the UK hopes it can knit together a bespoke research collaboration, but it seems the EU has lost patience with such 'special arrangements'.
Having enough electricity in winter is the big challenge for climate neutrality in 2050. This requires gigantic – electricity storage systems or new nuclear power plants, says author Andreas Züttel. It is an explosive result: If Switzerland wants to be climate neutral in 2050, building six to eight #nuclear power plants is the cheapest alternative. That’s how it stands in a study a team led by Andreas Züttel, who researches at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).
The True Extent of US Spy Satellite Capability https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6uPjTTGHzE
A little bit on satellites that detect missile launches... as Annie Jacobsen mentions in 'Nuclear War A Scenario' #Nuclear
New #Blog post: Spending an Afternoon in the Sizewell Control Room Simulator
I'm a bit late in writing something, but @popey, @8none1, @sil got to spend an afternoon in the operations training centre at #Sizewell B #nuclear power station
"Rheinmetall Boss Says Ukraine Could Get Artillery Rounds with 100KM Range if Berlin Books Orders
Armin Papperger, CEO of Germany’s Rheinmetall said his company could deliver extended-range artillery munitions but only if Berlin guarantees large, multi-year orders to justify the investment. "
I've been seeing so many different cats, that I keep getting the "10,000-Year Earworm to Discourage Settlement Near Nuclear Waste Repositories" song by Emperor X stuck in my head:
In case you don't know the story: this song was commissioned by the 99 Percent Invisible podcast for their episode on how to warn people in the far future to stay away from nuclear waste deposits.
The idea is that no civilisation existed for as long as the time that radioactive waste remains dangerous. Hence, we need ways to warn people that are robust for lost of language, symbols, etc.
One idea was to breed cats that light up in the presence of radiation, and to then create a folk song about the importance of keeping cats, and the importance of leaving (with the cat) when the cat changes colour.
if i noticed something when talking with outspoken pro-nuclear people it's that you really can't trust anything they say. they are intellectually bankrupt, will use all kinds of shady argumentation tactics, ad hominems, and can't even be bothered to write their own arguments (instead using AI for that)
Why do PWR reactors use boric acid, as opposed to some random salt of boron? Apparently boron salts are often well soluble, from the nuclear POV we only care about boron being present, and I'd expect salts to cause fewer chemical problems due to their closer-to-neutral pH. In fact some random papers (https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/28/034/28034575.pdf) describe tradeoffs involved in maintaining pH as boric acid concentration changes.
There clearly must be some reason why boric acid is preferred over any simple boron salt. What is it?
yeah, the future of online discussions has arrived in the #fediverse as well: found the replies of a guy regarding #nuclear energy to be a bit too suspiciously samey sounding, so I checked with an #ai detector. lo and behold!
(is there maybe a browser plugin to detect this stuff automatically?)
Russia begins tactical nuclear weapon drills near Ukraine border (www.theguardian.com)
Russian forces have started military drills near Ukraine simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons in response to what Moscow deems threats from western officials about increased involvement in the conflict. Vladimir Putin ordered the drills earlier this month in a move Russian officials said was a warning to the west not...