chickenbig

7 ms·

1.
by chickenbig 13d ago
Zstandard is an awesome piece of technology. Even the very low compression levels -1, 1 or 2 (IIRC the default of 0 is actually a much higher number) can be very effective, especially for more situations where CPU is a bottleneck. It is par
2.
by chickenbig 15d ago
> Northern Germany is already overproducing electricity, leading to curtailment of renewables. Overproducing some of the time. And pulling electricity from Sweden and Norway at other times. > I love you now are trying to smear off-sho
3.
by chickenbig 15d ago
> desperately trying to poke holes Basic maths 2.2 * 1.25 * 1.1 = 3.025x LCOE for the first nuclear power station. 1.6 * 1.25 * 1.1 = 2.2x LCOE for the second plant. 1.0 * 1.25 * 1.1 = 1.375x LCOE for remaining plant. Wind/solar is
4.
by chickenbig 15d ago
> Where does Germany spend the next €100 billion today to avoid the most emissions? They could spend much less and restart some nuclear. https://www.radiantenergygroup.com/reports/radiant-energy-gr... > You do re
5.
by chickenbig 17d ago
> https://www.csiro.au/-/media/Energy/GenCost-2025-26-Final/Ge ... It is interesting to see how large-scale nuclear is handled. 120% and 60% increase in cost for FOAK and NOAK (Table 2-1), plus no lear
6.
by chickenbig 17d ago
> Not sure what relevancy a 2019 paper has today? The underlying demand and production has not changed so much since then. The requirements for storage still exist, and strongly depend on when the power is delivered as well as needed. &g
7.
by chickenbig 17d ago
> Ammonia does not require a plant to generate electricity. While fuel cells running on it OK, so it requires a plant of fuel cells. And the cost per kW (i.e. discharge capacity) is? And it requires some facility to produce the ammonia;
8.
by chickenbig 19d ago
> If solar becomes 2 times cheaper It would be good to see a techno-economic analysis of this. For instance, taken to the limit, if solar were free what would be the CAPEX and OPEX to produce the ammonia? In addition, the plant to cons
9.
by chickenbig 19d ago
> There is no way SMR could beat solar+battery power cost even now. Not a particular fan of this paper, but it does illustrate a point ... https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8867359 showed that for the UK to go 10
10.
by chickenbig 1mo ago
A concentrated problem is one that could have a concentrated solution. Sewage farms use microbes to generate the methane which goes back into the gas grid e.g. https://www.stwater.co.uk/news/news-releases/severntre
11.
by chickenbig 1mo ago
Does this mean we should be advocating for more intensive cattle rearing? Stockyards and special breeds may not be the worst way to meet demand and reduce environmental impact (measured by CO2/methane emissions as well as biodiversity
12.
Nuclear Turbines(nuclearturbines.com)
2 points by chickenbig 2mo ago|0 comments
13.
by chickenbig 2mo ago
> intentional Polonium 210 from decay chains What do you mean "decay chains"? Po-210 decays to Pb-206 which is stable. So you mean Po-210 decay. Let's shut down the chemical industry because someone attempted to poison The
14.
by chickenbig 2mo ago
> It is a complex answer, and heavily depends on decay product chemistry. The source you provided does not agree with that assessment. It is purely radiation damage. The Pu-238 (half life 87.7 years) and Pu-239 (half-life 24,110 years) e
15.
by chickenbig 2mo ago
> The "high level waste" is the stuff that takes 10k years to decay. Well, there are many definitions, for instance https://ukinventory.nda.gov.uk/information-hub/factsheets/wh... is from the UK. >
16.
by chickenbig 2mo ago
> there will be high level waste that needs to be disposed of Fortunately it is self disposing, decaying away. Unlikely plain old mercury or arsenic.
17.
by chickenbig 2mo ago
> if something is radioactive enough to be a hazard then it's radioactive enough to generate power Only under certain circumstances is it financially worth harnessing this power. I think of space probes and their RTGs. They use alph
18.
by chickenbig 2mo ago
> Which of the 14 isotopes are you referring too? In general, synthetic isotopes unknown in our evolutionary biology are far more toxic https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/aug/09/rorycarroll . Or does
19.
by chickenbig 2mo ago
> "Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24110 years" Great, that means it is not very radioactive, and an alpha emitter, so unless you ingest it is not particularly harmful. > societies have proven irresponsible with fuel life-c
20.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
> three other major events What is the measure of major? The INES scale? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Nuclear_and_Radi... > Sarov in 1997 One person died in the criticality accident in a weapons re
21.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
Prismatic (or cylindrical) TRISO also makes sense. There are lots of potential problems using pebble beds (circulation, grinding), whereas doing regular refuelling cycles avoids them, in exchange for down-time to refuel.
22.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
Even compression level 1 or 2 is pretty good. I once used https://github.com/google/riegeli and a low zstd compression level to store large quantities of protobuf data in an efficient manner (in terms of CPU, RAM and s
23.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
> Isn't Sizewell c already delayed? Citation needed. Delayed since FiD? Or since the project was originally announced? To me the latter is rather an unfair given planning permission issues and government changes.
24.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
Indeed, it might be said that they underestimated the cost and timescales to get the project off the ground. But this is generally the case with mega-projects. Guess we shall see how the construction of Sizewell C goes.
25.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
Siting of an SMR is somewhat different (albeit related) to the SMR concept itself. You might cluster them together (like the plans for 3 RR SMR at Wylfa and 3 at Ringhals in Sweden).
26.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
> almost as much engineering , plumbing, safety mechanism, personnel, maintenance, etc Sure, that is economics, not thermodynamics. I don't necessarily agree with the SMR manifesto, but it is conceivable that improved financing, con
27.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
> then neither the Russian invasion of Ukraine nor Hormuz blockade would have been a huge deal. The cost of energy is destroying your industrial base. Domestic heating has little to do with industrial base. Fertilizer prices would still
28.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
> One was eventually built after massive delays and cost overruns. Areva underbid on the fixed price contract to win against the ABWR, IIRC. Admittedly the Fins were not pleased at the time overrun, but the construction cost was historic
29.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
> You cannot make regular nuclear weapons out of thorium https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233880587_Nuclear_e...
30.
by chickenbig 3mo ago
> Thermodynamics are the reason why SMR aren't, and will never, be economical. And the link between thermodynamics and the price of electricity is what?

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