The Nuke Cavalry Riding to the Rescue

Started by RE, Mar 01, 2024, 11:59 PM

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RE

Not surprisingly, with evidence of climate change and atmspheric CO2 becoming increasingly undeniable, along wth its anthropogenic origin in the burning of fossil fuels, support for nuclear power as a substitute form of "clean energy", even ostensibly "green democrats" have jumped on the bandwagon and becom cheerleaders for streamlining regulation and fast tracking the building of more nukes as a solution to our energy woes.  Of course  Diners well know that even if they throw the regulatory handbook out the window, nukes have no better chance of substituting for Oil than solar or wing power.

Even built at supersonic Chinese speed, enough reactors can't come online fast enough to keep up with the dwindling pool of affordable oil still left underground.  Beyon that, the power produced is electric, and to deliver it to all the neighborhoods around the FSoA it needs to get to can't happen without a vast upgrade of the transmission grid, which won't happen due to cost and resource availibility, mainly copper and aluminum.  It's use in battery powered EVs to replace the current fleet of ICE powered vehicles has shown its flaws, and individuals and corporation both are eschewing buying them because of mechanical problems , battery replacement costs and low resale value.  The cost of the reactors themselves is enormous, and even with fast tracking, where's the money going to come from?  How will banks recover the cost of the loans and make money by financing them?  The availability of fissionable isotopes and mining dependent of fossil fuel powered heavy equipment leaves the question of whether there will even be sufficient affordable fuel around to run them on.  There are still more problems beyond those, but that should be ennough to convince you that Nuke Pukes will NOT be our salvation.  It's just more technological Hopium a society obsessed with maintaining the conspicuous consumption of power needs to maintain it's standard of living.  Ain't gonna happen, but the technophiles and the futurists who still dream of the Profits to me made by selling this hopium to dimwitted power junkies who would sooner cut off their cocks than give up 150mph, 3000 lb chariots to drive to the grocery store in.  We all know a big, fast car is a substitute for a small penis, and the brains behind those tiny cocks is equally small.

 Congress is packed though with aging tiny cocks and brains the size of a flea though, so they passed in bipartisan unanimity this ludicrous bill to advance development of nuclear power.  A clear demonstration the both Reps and Dems are equally under endowed both upstairs and downstairs with flaccid brains unable to ejalate a decent idea and cocks which can't even ejaculate when injected directly with megadoses of Viagara.  Congress  is as impotent as its membership, and their members dysfunctional.

So, we'll waste more funny money and more resources building these White Elephants, which in all likelihood never get turned on before the Zero Point is reached and SHTF Day arrives.  So it goes.

https://www.deseret.com/2024/02/29/curtis-congress-advanced-nuclear-projects/

Congress passes bill to accelerate advanced nuclear projects

RE

K-Dog

#1
QuoteEven built at supersonic Chinese speed, enough reactors can't come online fast enough to keep up with the dwindling pool of affordable oil still left underground. 

Even if there were time, the wisdom of the market can't think that fast.  Only a planned economy could possibly bring nukes on line fast enough.  How much of a solution they can provide is another issue.

It is common to blame 'capitalism' for our problems.  I scream as loud as anyone else about this.  If capitalism as we know it is not replaced with a socially responsible means of organization.  No reform of the human condition is possible.  Capitalism is incompatible with our circumstances.

Capitalism reached peak prosperity when limits to growth were approached.  In overshoot capitalism is not the best system. Capitalism is only the best system when new lands are being settled and indigenous  people are being displaced.  Capitalism optimizes exploitation. That is the reason why.

Capitalist is not the root cause of the worlds problems.  The roots of the world problems are deep.  But capitalist essentially puts fertilizer on weeds.  Capitalism grows problems, but it can't grow solutions.  Only new organization can solve that contradiction.

Capitalism is about getting rid of regulation and putting money in charge.  Throwing the regulatory handbook out the window puts money in charge.  Capitalism gives problems from of a lack of regulation,  not from too much regulation.  Planning ahead is not part of optimizing profit.

Cheerleaders of the status quo want to get rid of regulation so the profit motive can sponsor new nuke plants.  In other words, their thinking goes:  The only way we can have new nuke plants regardless of their actual effectiveness in mitigating doom, is if we make more rich people in the  process

This is INSANITY.


QuoteHow will banks recover the cost of the loans and make money by financing them?

The answer to that question is easy.  one wordGROWTH! 

Which unfortunately can't happen because limits are reached.

Solve the problems caused by unregulated growth by getting rid of regulation and growing more is covered under the definition of insanity.

John Curtis (R-UT), visited the southern border, near Sierra Vista, AZ, on Feb. 9th to witness firsthand the worsening border crisis. This was Curtis' third trip to the border since coming to Congress.    "I visited the border and discovered a shocking truth: it's not the U.S. government but the cartels who are in control," said Rep. Curtis.  John C's bulb is dim.  He could use some extra energy himself.  Curtis is an active member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce

QuoteThe Committee on Energy and Commerce is the oldest standing legislative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and is vested with the broadest jurisdiction of any congressional authorizing committee. The committee was originally established on December 14, 1795, as the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures when the growing demands of the young nation required that Congress establish a permanent panel to exercise its constitutional authority to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States."

Keeping the tradition alive  .  Capitalism forever or 450 years which ever comes first.  This flag was first used in 1600.  Do the math.  I am an optimist today.

The United States flag started out as the flag of a private company. The tradition continues.

&

is a good read.



RE

Quote from: K-Dog on Mar 02, 2024, 07:30 AMCapitalism is only the best system when new lands are being settled stolen and indigenous people are being displaced murdered.


Fixed that for you.

RE

K-Dog

#3
Quote from: RE on Mar 03, 2024, 06:49 AM
Quote from: K-Dog on Mar 02, 2024, 07:30 AMCapitalism is only the best system when new lands are being settled stolen and indigenous people are being displaced murdered.


Fixed that for you.

RE

Thanks, the clarification is appropriate.

A bit of family history.  My mothers family settled in no mans land between the Dakota and Sioux in Minnesota in about 1850.  Neither tribe could kill the other on this land which is on the bank of the Mississippi river.  The family patriarch had the attitude that the Indians had been there first, and that they had a right to hunt on 'his' land.  They could get food no other way and were here first.  Other white settlers did not agree with my great-great-great grandfather and he knew everybody else was trying to starve the Indians out.  He would have no part of it.

When Minnesota had an Indian war, a posse rode to my ancestors farm and took him to town by force.  He had refused to leave his farm earlier because he said he had nothing to fear from the Indians, and they were all his friends.  It turned out the Souix war party that came through was not from the local area and would have not known my great-great-great grandfather.  They killed every white man they found and it is a good think my great-great-great grandfather went to town.  Later the local Indians told my ancestor that they had been just as much afraid of the war party as everyone else was.  They wanted no part of it.  The war party had been forcing young men to join up 'or else'.

That is the story as it was passed from my grandmother to my mother and then to me.

Is the story true?  Absolutely.  Have the facts been distorted.  Most certainly. 

My point of view is that this is personal family history which I can choose to accept or reject as my 'own'.  I totally accept it.  I can see myself telling a posse to go away because I don't have anything to worry about.  The important take-away is that my ancestors realized other white men were trying to starve the Indians out so they would move on, and they wanted no part of it.

Some black people moved into northern Minnesota in WWII to work at a place called Fort Ripley.  My mother was with my grandmother and her mother.  They heard some people talking and the 'N' word was being used.  My mother was told "We do not use that word.  These people are like everyone else, and they came up here to work because all our men are at war.  We should be nice to them.

Decades before civil rights became a thing, my family had their shit together.

My family had the attitude there was room for everybody, and that the Indians had a right to hunt.  What I learned from how it was related to me was that eliminating food to force local natives to move on was a open secret that nobody talked about.  It was also something that not every white person was all right with.

That is my takeaway.



Humanity is a mixed bag no matter what tribe you belong to.




RE

Current distribution of Nuke Puke power.

With all the talk about how China has been surging ahead with Nuke development, I'd have thought they would be closer to even with the FSoA by now.  Still only halfway there.

Also, despite claims of major advances in Fusion power, here's the Visual Capitalist opinion:

Scientists in South Korea recently broke a record in a nuclear fusion experiment. For 48 seconds, they sustained a temperature seven times that of the sun's core.

But generating commercially viable energy from nuclear fusion still remains more science fiction than reality.


48 seconds!  Wow!

If the Capitalist propaganda dept says this, it's definitely not going to be ready for prime time too soon.



https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-worlds-biggest-nuclear-energy-producers/

RE

RE

Those micro-nukes that are supposed to be a game changer may not be quite as good a solution as some of their proponents have claimed.

This is a particularly difficult area in the energy tech-solutions space to ferret out the truth, because it's very polarized.  The people who are anti-nuke are vehemently so, they claim huge insoluble problems.  The folks who are pro-nuke see it as well understood technology that can provide the energy we need safely without CO2 emissions.  They recommend going balls to the wall with nukes.

Although long term safety and environmental disasters are the biggest concern, short term the huge cost overruns all these projects seem to have are the biggest problem.  They just cost too damn much, and by the Kw, the smaller they are the more the juice costs.

Bottom line, probably not a solution hoped for by micro nuke proponents.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/engineering/small-reactors-dont-add-up/

Small reactors don't add up as a viable energy source

RE