Humor Random Comments Thread

[Urwumpe]

I'm not a reactor tech at all (civilian or military), but from what I've read up on such things, I doubt a civilian plant would even try to recover within an hour, especially from a planned test scram. A military vessel has to be able to ride the razor-edge of safety to get power back ASAP in combat conditions, a civilian plant's first goal in such a situation is not to make its name synonymous with Three Mile Island or Chernobyl.

Does that sound about right, Cruiser?

Not being Cruiser there, but it sounds about right. Also Chernobyl is the prime example of what happens if you go from xenon poisoning to high power too fast.

Not sure if you can avoid the dangers of xenon poisoning in a reactor at all, even in a military one. If you trip from 100%, you have not even the chance to restart the reactor in the next 9 hours by pulling all control rods out. And the effect of Xenon decreases faster with increasing neutron flux, which is a nice chain reaction since less Xenon poisoning results in more neutrons again.

A liquid or gaseous fuel could maybe prevent this since you can remove the Iodine and Xenon there. Also PWRs react better to quickly dropping Xenon poisoning, because reactivity drops with steam voids, which can counter a bit of the increasing reactivity. Or you bombard the shut down reactor with neutrons from another source to neutralize the xenon while reactivity stays below 1.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Let me see if I remember from my hazy Navy days. This would mean the steam generator stops whir shut so you don't create slugs of cold water in the primary loops. You probably have to make sure your rods are all on the bottom, that you have backup power to your coolant pumps, and that your main breakers from the electric generators have opened up as they spin down.... well shoot, 12 years have eroded my casualty response memory to nearly zero. I can't remember what you have to do to be ready for a fast recovery. I hazily recall that a high power shutdown would mean you'd get significant xenon overshoot, which would mean you'd have to pull pretty hard to get the thing started up within an hour or so.

And of course, a commercial plant is probably completely different.

Commercial is waaaay different. And we can't do fast restarts at all. Or I should say that we don't do fast restarts.
We can trip the turbine independent of the reactor, but at 100% output (in our case around 1250 MW) a reactor trip follows the turbine trip nearly immediately. There's a time response test but I've never ran it. Supposed to happen within so many milliseconds.

Zenon... That's some shiny pipe stuff. I know the process but I typically concentrate on the greasy and oily parts. Turbines make the money. The nukes can make all the steam they want but if the turbine doesn't go spinny-spinny all the steam output doesn't do any good.


Plenty of Navy nukes around here. Some are pretty OK, but some of them are elitist . I'd call it a 50/50 split.

 

[Fabri91]

Friday evening after getting home my dad noticed how the car's cooling fan was staying on for much longer than planned and how the engine's coolant temperature didn't stay exactly at the normal 90°C, but creeped up a little, without any low coolant level indication, however.

So, after a quick check, sure enough the coolant level was low. Looking around we noticed a sort of red residue around a fitting, and with the coolant being red that probably was were it was seeping out. After a quick refill and start of the engine to make it circulate and to ensure that it wasn't just gushing out from somewhere, everything seemed in order, except for this small leak that would need to be taken care of.

Later that evening it just wouldn't start. The starter was doing its best, but to no avail. The following morning the mechanic came by with a jump battery and after a dozen or so attempts the engine began firing occasionally and finally running on all three cylinders as if nothing happened.

The car was then driven to the mechanic, and yesterday water was found in a cylinder. Since when it was started the car didn't become a one-ton smoke grenade it's probably a small leak, but still, in the best case the head gasket is leaky, and worst case I assume it's conceivable that there could be a crack in either the block or the head. So that's nice.

 

[orb]

[ame="https://twitter.com/SarcasticRover/status/759931943085408256"]SarcasticRover on Twitter: "Weird that no one’s noticed this before… https://t.co/01wSYLnCb0"[/ame]

 

[birdmanmike]

Good one - and I like SarcasticRover's pinned tweet!

 

[Quick_Nick]

Happy Anniversary Update, Windows 10!

For anyone wondering, you can still get Windows 10 for free.

If you use accessibility functions in Windows 7 or 8.1, even just hitting <Windows Key + U> and opening the on-screen keyboard, you're eligible for a free upgrade.
There are no other stipulations and no set end to this offer.*

(The only catch is, you probably don't want Windows 10!)

 

[tl8]

So the biggest software project in Australian history has just opened up to tenders.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/0..._bilion_bucks_and_seven_years_on_sap_project/

They are replacing the welfare payment system.

This is not a job I envy and the Project Manager must have cahones the size of the bloke's who jumped into the net. (Rumors now suggest the Hayne Plane might have a go at PM)

There was a big failure in QLD's health department payment project too. That is going to weigh on people's mind.

All I can say is good luck and if you see a fan, :leaving:

 

[jedidia]

They are replacing the welfare payment system.

Swiss government had a software project on a similar scale lately (though a bit less mission-critical. In effect, a new CMS to manage government websites). And because Switzerland is federalised to the bone, two different departments ordered two different solutions, except they were practically the same. And were made by the same developer.
I have a feeling Kaff Tagon is involved in the managment of that company somewhere... :lol:

 

[Urwumpe]

Swiss government had a software project on a similar lately (though a bit less mission-critical. In effect, a new CMS to manage government websites). And because Switzerland is federalised to the bone, two different departments ordered two different solutions, except they were practically the same. And were made by the same developer.
I have a feeling Kaff Tagon is involved in the managment of that company somewhere... :lol:

Same in Germany. Every state police has its own software system, which is incompatible to the systems of other states. Strangely, the systems are all made by the same small company with good relations to the German government.

 

[SolarLiner]

If you use accessibility functions in Windows 7 or 8.1, even just hitting <Windows Key + U> and opening the on-screen keyboard, you're eligible for a free upgrade.

I laughed when I saw that on reddit. This is some sort of weird genius... CTRL+C - CTRL+V is considered an accessibility function. Using Cortana is considered an accessibility function. They should have gone as far as using the mouse to be considered an accessibility function (you can navigate the UI with the keyboard!). :lol:

They really want everyone to upgrade to Windows 10. Why that is, is lost on me though.

 

[Urwumpe]

They really want everyone to upgrade to Windows 10. Why that is, is lost on me though.

Well, two good reasons for Microsoft:

- Less support needed for older versions and
- Microsoft can focus on earning money with the services based on Windows 10.

 

[n122vu]

I for one like Windows 10. I've been running it on my old gaming desktop and my archaic laptop for some time now. I have no complaints at all, other than the fact that it's not Windows 7. It's waaaay better than any version of Windows 8/8.1, and in my experience runs hella fast in comparison to both previous OS versions.

Having said that, I haven't upgraded my X-Plane machine, for one because I didn't get an upgrade prompt, but the main reason is simply because I have it stable and running smoothly, and I don't want anything changing on that machine right now.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Looks like their shut down from the aux control room worked swimmingly. So right now my group is woriking on one of the feed pumps. The speed governor sat for too long under pressure and a few of the moving parts were worn down (cup valve). This caused the pressure at operating RPM to be too low and there was no adjustment left due to the worn parts.

So I'm covered in turbine oil after rebuilding and reinstalling a speed governor. This job and a check valve with the generator hydrogen cooling is the high priority. So the managers are leaving me alone letting me do my thing. They pulled me off dayshift training to do this (violating their own procedures) and rolled me back to the midnight shift. My supervisor already warned the outage control managers not to annoy me.

He told me earlier that since I'm upside down on my eating/sleeping schedule, that if anyone comes over to "observe", to stop the job and come back to the shop for a break. Because of the training thing they are already in pretty hot water. Training, maintenance and operations are just three of the kingdoms. Others don't have walls that are nearly as high. Since maintenance upset training, several managers are loading trebuchets. It would seem I'm the lit match?


It's 102 degrees (F) standing on the feed pump oil tank. Had to come in for a break.

 

[Fabri91]

Now that it got proper extension support I'm even, gasp, trying out the Edge browser again.

 

[orb]

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[Urwumpe]

And another request for working on a Saturday. :beathead:

 

[n122vu]

"Ammonium dichromate looks pretty cool when you burn it."

Do you want Cthulu? Because that's how you get Cthulu...

 

[RisingFury]

And another request for working on a Saturday. :beathead:

If it's a request, you can always decline

Thought this kind of stuff was illegal in Germany...

 

[jedidia]

Thought this kind of stuff was illegal in Germany...

Not if it's paid accordingly and you get to compensate the hours at a convieniant time. A lot also depends on your exact contract. Me for example, I'm working on "anual time". That is, at the end of the year my hours must meet the working time for that period to within a hundred hours plus or minus. How that time distributes over the course of the year is a secondary concern.

 

[steph]

http://dmatoso.com/manowar-lyrics-generator/ seems legit