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Elsewhere
JoinedPosts by Elsewhere
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Traveling Wave Reactor - A possible solution to worlds energy problem
by Elsewhere inbefore i begin, i must add that we have all seen many "silver bullet" solutions to the worlds energy problem fizzle and go nowhere because they just didn't work... i'm hoping this new technology will not suffer the same fate.
what this technology has to offer is the ability to take what is currently dangerous nuclear waste and turn it into a safe energy source that would power the world, as if everyone consumed as much energy as americans, for over 1000 years.
article: http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22114/page1/.
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Remove DRM from iTunes M4P M4B M4V protected WMA WMV convert media formats?
by lussary inanyone who bought drm protected audiobook, music, and movies from itunes alike online stores wants to enjoy them without copyrights hurdling, but it is not easy to find an all-in-one drm removing solution..
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Elsewhere
I hate DRM and will not buy media with it.
Amazon.com has an excellent collection of MP3's that may be purchased at a reasonable price.
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Now That Spring's Here What Suggestions Do You Have To Get Into Shape?
by minimus init's gonna be 63 degrees tomorrow and for the rest of the week here in new england.
i'll be playing outdoor tennis pretty soon and i've got to get back into some semblance of shape.. what suggestions do you have?.
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Elsewhere
> Walk more. Eat less. Sylvia
That is an excellent plan. When you walk, ensure you walk fast enough to get your heart rate up.
Walking like this is almost as healthy as running.
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Traveling Wave Reactor - A possible solution to worlds energy problem
by Elsewhere inbefore i begin, i must add that we have all seen many "silver bullet" solutions to the worlds energy problem fizzle and go nowhere because they just didn't work... i'm hoping this new technology will not suffer the same fate.
what this technology has to offer is the ability to take what is currently dangerous nuclear waste and turn it into a safe energy source that would power the world, as if everyone consumed as much energy as americans, for over 1000 years.
article: http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22114/page1/.
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Elsewhere
> Does the article explain exactly what they mean by "Traveling Wave"?
They call it this because the reaction starts at one end of the fuel rod and over a period of 50 ~ 100 years travels to the other end.
Imagine one of those incense sticks. It starts burning at one end and gradually moves to the other until it is out of fuel.
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Frugality Thread for Luxury Lovers
by Open mind ini'm not a coupon clipper nor do i have an eagle eye for early bird dining specials.
i have nothing against those who do, it's just an area that i can currently afford to choose not to expend brain energy on.. .
i stumbled upon a website about a year ago that turns the mundane chore of shaving into a snooty, high-class activity.
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Elsewhere
I have a very thick beard and need something like Edge Shaving Gel, otherwise bad things happen when I shave.
I'm always up for a better way of doing something... but am concerned about how much it lubricates. Can you vouch for it?
> Cheap thrills.
I'm all for cheap thrills!
I look at my savings account balance the way most people look at a video game score. I'm always trying to get a new high score!
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Traveling Wave Reactor - A possible solution to worlds energy problem
by Elsewhere inbefore i begin, i must add that we have all seen many "silver bullet" solutions to the worlds energy problem fizzle and go nowhere because they just didn't work... i'm hoping this new technology will not suffer the same fate.
what this technology has to offer is the ability to take what is currently dangerous nuclear waste and turn it into a safe energy source that would power the world, as if everyone consumed as much energy as americans, for over 1000 years.
article: http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22114/page1/.
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Elsewhere
Before I begin, I must add that we have all seen many "silver bullet" solutions to the worlds energy problem fizzle and go nowhere because they just didn't work... I'm hoping this new technology will not suffer the same fate. Hoping.
What this technology has to offer is the ability to take what is currently dangerous nuclear waste and turn it into a safe energy source that would power the world, as if everyone consumed as much energy as Americans, for over 1000 years.
Article: http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22114/page1/
PDF with basic information: http://www.intellectualventures.com/docs/terrappower/IV_Introducing%20TWR_3_6_09.pdf
March/April 2009 TR10: Traveling-Wave Reactor A new reactor design could make nuclear power safer and cheaper, says John Gilleland. By Matt Wald Enriching the uranium for reactor fuel and opening the reactor periodically to refuel it are among the most cumbersome and expensive steps in running a nuclear plant. And after spent fuel is removed from the reactor, reprocessing it to recover usable materials has the same drawbacks, plus two more: the risks of nuclear-weapons proliferation and environmental pollution.
These problems are mostly accepted as a given, but not by a group of researcher s at Intellectual Ventures, an invention and investment company in Bellevue, WA. The scientists there have come up with a preliminary design for a reactor that requires only a small amount of enriched fuel--that is, the kind whose atoms can easily be split in a chain reaction. It's called a traveling -wave reactor. And while government researchers intermittently bring out new reactor designs, the traveling-wave reactor is noteworthy for having come from something that barely exists in the nuclear industry: a privately funded research company.
As it runs, the core in a traveling- wave reactor gradually converts nonfissile material into the fuel it needs. Nuclear reactors based on such designs "theoretically could run for a couple of hundred years" without refueling, says John G illeland, manager of nuclear programs at Intellectual Ventures.
Gilleland's aim is to run a nuclear reactor on what is now waste. Conventional reactors use uranium-235, which splits easily to carry on a chain reaction but is scarce and expensive; it must be separated from the more common, nonfissile uranium-238 in special enrichment plants. Every 18 to 24 months, the reactor must be opened, hundreds of fuel bundles removed, hundreds added, and the remainder reshuffled to supply all the fissile uranium needed for the next run. This raises proliferation concerns, since an enrichment plant designed to make low-enriched uranium for a power reactor differs trivially from one that makes highly enriched material for a bomb.
But the traveling-wave reactor needs only a thin layer of enriched U-235. Most of the core is U-238, millions of pounds of which are stockpiled around the world as leftovers from natural uranium after the U-235 has been scavenged. The design provides "the simplest possible fuel cycle," says Charles W. Forsberg, executive director of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Project at MIT, "and it requires only one uranium enrichment plant per planet."
The trick is that the reactor itself will convert the uranium-238 into a usable fuel, plutonium-239. Conventional reactors also produce P-239, but using it requires removing the spent fuel, chopping it up, and chemically extracting the plutonium--a dirty, expensive process that is also a major step toward building an atomic bomb. The traveling-wave reactor produces plutonium and uses it at once, eliminating the possibility of its being diverted for weapons. An active region less than a meter thick moves along the reactor core, breeding new plutonium in front of it.
The traveling-wave idea dates to the early 1990s. However, Gilleland's team is the first to develop a practical design. Intellectual Ventures has patented the technology; the company says it is in licensing discussions with reactor manufacturers but won't name them. Although there are still some basic design issues to be worked out--for instance, precise models of how the reactor would behave under accident conditions--Gilleland thinks a commercial unit could be running by the early 2020s.
While Intellectual Ventures has caught the attention of academics, the commercial industry--hoping to stimulate interest in an energy source that doesn't contribute to global warming--is focused on selling its first reactors in the U.S. in 30 years. The designs it's proposing, however, are essentially updates on the models operating today. Intellectual Ventures thinks that the traveling-wave design will have more appeal a bit further down the road, when a nuclear renaissance is fully under way and fuel supplies look tight.
"We need a little excitement in the nuclear field," says Forsber g. "We have too many people working on 1/10th of 1 percent change."
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Just got a job offer!
by daniel-p ini am one happy clam!
just got a job offer at almost 10k over my current salary plus another 10k after 2 years.
it's with an agency that would afford me many more professional opportunities, transferability, and promotion potential, and, most importantly, provides excellent benefits and job security and comes at a time when i need an offer since my current company is closing soon.. also, one of the more awesome things is that this job is under the dod, so i can stick it to the watchtower!.
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Elsewhere
> Yes! I am one happy clam! Just got a job offer at almost 10k over my current salary plus another 10k after 2 years. It's with an agency that would afford me many more professional opportunities, transferability, and promotion potential, and, most importantly, provides excellent benefits and job security and comes at a time when I need an offer since my current company is closing soon.
Awsome! Sounds like an all-around good deal!
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Elsewhere
> Re: Am I going to get destroyed by God for buying Girl Scout Cookies?
Yes.
To show just how nice of a guy I am, I'm willing to take the burden upon my self and eat those cookies for you.
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Before you read this: Which is the Fastest Growing Religion in America??
by Terry innew survey: those with no religion fastest-growing traditionmarch 09, 2009 11:34 am et | dan gilgoff | permanent link | printby dan gilgoff, god & country.
a major new survey of religion in america reports three huge trends: that "nones"people claiming no religionconstitute the only "religious" tradition that's growing in all 50 states, that nearly 40 percent of mainline protestants now also identify themselves as evangelical or born again, and that the nation's massive roman catholic population has shifted from the northeast to the southwest.
according to one survey's investigators, "california now has a higher proportion of catholics than new england.".
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Elsewhere
> I hope "no religion" continues growing.
I suspect it will.
All of this Christian related activity we are seeing in the Republican party, the Tea Baggers, the Texas School Board trying to inject Christian thought into school text books... it's all part of the death throws of organized religion.
Organized Religion in general knows its in trouble and is thrashing and rolling around on the floor as it watches it lose the people... especially the youth.
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When being Fiscally Conservative means Raising Taxes
by Elsewhere inmy politics boil down to two simple things:.
1. i'm fiscally conservative.
because the public wanted them, yet are not willing to pay for them through higher taxes.
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Elsewhere
> So the problem is this: how do you cut into that 20%, in order to help kill the deficit, without pissing off a huge percentage of the population and your most charitable campaign contributors?
One word: Education
Most people are under the impression that their Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid is "government money" that comes from some evil pile of dirty money, which is why people are eager to collect on it (stick it to the man!).
People need to understand that the money comes from taxes.
If people want the money, they must be willing to pay the taxes. If they are not willing to pay the taxes, then they should not expect to get the money back.
> You want to raise revenues. You need to grow the economy to do that. Not raise taxes. Which will shrink your revenue because it will slow the growth of the economy.
Representatives of Large Corporations and the Super-Wealthy (Republicans) have been saying that for decades. Back around 1991 I bought into that idea. I supported it at every opportunity. "Trickle Down Economics" is what they called it back then.
Over time I have seen that it simply does not work. All it does is reduce the number of people in the middle class while enriching the super-wealthy.
Lowering taxes for the wealthy destroys the middle class.
Lowering taxes for the wealthy only benefits the wealthy. No one else.
Anytime someone who is poor or in the middle class votes to lower taxes for the rich, that person is voting against his own interests and increasing the national debt. This is why under President George W. Bush, with his tax cuts for the weathly, the United States national debt increased more than all other previous presidents combined. Who will pay for that debt? Not the rich! It will be you and me... the poor and middle class.
