Humor Random Comments Thread

[N_Molson]

Hooray, free energy. Soon.

That would be a real good new because French nuclear reactor are currenly having some issues. Corrosion has been noticed on several reactors emergency cooling systems. Those reactors have been halted, which forced EDF (the partly state-owned electricity company) to lower the power production goal for next year. It seems to be happening on "young" reactors, which points to some pipes QC issues. Replacing those parts is a complex and delicate operation, it will take some time, probably a year or more.

EDF's Penly nuclear reactor suffering corrosion problems -BFM

One of two nuclear reactors at French utility EDF's Penly plant is suffering the same corrosion problem already detected or suspected on four other EDF reactors which have been halted, BFM TV reported on its website, quoting nuclear safety institute IRSN comments to French news agency AFP.

www.reuters.com

 

[Urwumpe]

That would be a real good new because French nuclear reactor are currenly having some issues. Corrosion has been noticed on several reactors emergency cooling systems. Those reactors have been halted, which forced EDF (the partly state-owned electricity company) to lower the power production goal for next year. It seems to be happening on "young" reactors, which points to some pipes QC issues. Replacing those parts is a complex and delicate operation, it will take some time, probably a year or more.

EDF's Penly nuclear reactor suffering corrosion problems -BFM

One of two nuclear reactors at French utility EDF's Penly plant is suffering the same corrosion problem already detected or suspected on four other EDF reactors which have been halted, BFM TV reported on its website, quoting nuclear safety institute IRSN comments to French news agency AFP.

www.reuters.com

Are you sure it is only about these younger reactors? I remember that others are ten years older, when similar issues appeared in 2016, with corrosion rapidly increasing in speed.


Shutdown so far because of the current corrosion issue in the emergency injection system are:

• Chivaux 1 and 2 (operational 2002)
• Chooz 1 and 2 (2000)
• Penly 1 and 2 (1992)

All are N4 type reactors, the generation before the ill-fated EPR. This list overlaps with the NPPs affected by the following event from 2016:

France’s Nuclear Storm: Many Power Plants Down Due to Quality Concerns

The discovery of widespread carbon segregation problems in critical nuclear plant components has crippled the French power industry.

www.powermag.com

It is noticeable in the european energy market statistics, that the amount of nuclear power produced by France is slowly dropping every year, another sign that the rather old nuclear reactors in France (50 years on the average) are approaching their limits.

The really bad news is, that this happens at a time, when France already has financial troubles for the nuclear power program: EDF has 50 billion Euro debts, the PLEX program already needs 100 billion Euro until 2030....

 

[N_Molson]

Are you sure it is only about these younger reactors?

Well those you listed are clearly amongst the "youngest" ones. Some are quite very old. What I heard is that a couple of decades ago a lot of skilled nuclear engineers searched jobs elsewhere because the pay wasn't up to the level of qualification, and overall some know-how was lost. Massive investments will be required to keep the reactors working and safe, anyway there is little to do about that. Energy prices will certainly steadily rise in the forecoming years. The good news is that there seems to be a decent monitoring job, those are controlled shutdowns and not disasters...

 

[Urwumpe]

Well those you listed are clearly amongst the "youngest" ones. Some are quite very old. What I heard is that a couple of decades ago a lot of skilled nuclear engineers searched jobs elsewhere because the pay wasn't up to the level of qualification, and overall some know-how was lost. Massive investments will be required to keep the reactors working and safe, anyway there is little to do about that. Energy prices will certainly steadily rise in the forecoming years. The good news is that there seems to be a decent monitoring job, those are controlled shutdowns and not disasters...

Weird, I thought all German nuclear engineers went to France. Except those who had been too incompetent and ended up in obscure pro-nuclear and anti-renewable lobby groups...

Well, Germany also shutdown three of the remaining reactors with the turn of the year (as planned in 2012) and still Europe did not go dark. Because of the stormy week, we even had almost 100% renewable at some times (except those powerplants also running for district heating). But we should better get more renewables, should Frances plans with the SMRs also backfire....

 

[N_Molson]

Well, Germany also shutdown three of the remaining reactors with the turn of the year (as planned in 2012) and still Europe did not go dark.

Yes, there's no imminent shortage threat, more like the perspective of escalating costs. Which, in any way, is going to happen, we'll need even more (clean) electricity for the generation of electric cars to come. Unless something miraculous happen like sustained nuclear fusion, but we're not there yet, and even then the construction and maintenance costs of fusion reactors would probably be extremely high.

 

[Urwumpe]

Yes, there's no imminent shortage threat, more like the perspective of escalating costs. Which, in any way, is going to happen, we'll need even more (clean) electricity for the generation of electric cars to come. Unless something miraculous happen like sustained nuclear fusion, but we're not there yet, and even then the construction and maintenance costs of fusion reactors would probably be extremely high.

Economically, unless some miracle happens, fusion is already dead. Its far too complicated to become cheap. Same for many 4th generation reactor concepts. Any reactor that wants to compete with renewables (which are simple and cheap now), will have to operate with less complexity and thus likely with reduced power levels and higher quality fuel elements (because the fuel for reactor is relatively cheap, while the operation costs are astronomic).

The good news I see, heat pumps are already around to reduce the requirements for building heating a lot and could also help cooling a building with changing climate.

 

[MaxBuzz]

nuclear power plants require constant management oversight, when Russian specialists arrived at the accident in Fukushima, they said that in Japan there is no such position as the Minister of Energy, there was anarchy at the nuclear power plant itself, it is not clear who is in charge. the station is collapsing, no one cares (there was a similar station nearby, but the necessary measures were taken there in time)

Liquidator interview at fukushima

 

[jedidia]

hey said that in Japan there is no such position as the Minister of Energy, there was anarchy at the nuclear power plant itself, it is not clear who is in charge.

It's weird to imagine that Japan of all countries would forget to put someone in charge of something...

 

[Notebook]

Neanderthal extinction not caused by brutal wipe out

New fossils challenge ideas that modern humans wiped out Neanderthals after arriving from Africa.

www.bbc.co.uk

Well, I didn't know that:

BBC News - Neanderthal genes 'survive in us'

news.bbc.co.uk

 

[jedidia]

I had heard the hypothesis that Neandertals mostly vanished due to assimilation and the ice age for quite a while now. Nice to see some tangible proof of it.
Comparing the physical build of Neanderthals to Homo Sapiens, it does seem rather questionable how homo sapiens could have wiped them out that quickly...

 

[Notebook]

So we are The Borg?

 

[Linguofreak]

I had heard the hypothesis that Neandertals mostly vanished due to assimilation and the ice age for quite a while now. Nice to see some tangible proof of it.
Comparing the physical build of Neanderthals to Homo Sapiens, it does seem rather questionable how homo sapiens could have wiped them out that quickly...

I think the idea was that we're supposed to have been less starvation-prone. The extra muscle is helpful in a fight if you can feed it.

 

[Urwumpe]

I had heard the hypothesis that Neandertals mostly vanished due to assimilation and the ice age for quite a while now. Nice to see some tangible proof of it.
Comparing the physical build of Neanderthals to Homo Sapiens, it does seem rather questionable how homo sapiens could have wiped them out that quickly...

Well, it looks like Neandertals never really reproduced in the needed masses. Even at their peak population, it was a very small and limited genepool. Maybe modern humans simply outnumbered them eventually, possibly by also surviving better in the changing world of that time. Neandertals died very young on the average. Maybe a few of them survived among the modern humans for some generations, before everything was one modern human race.

It does not look like the Neandertals died in a conflict - they simply disappeared where the modern human arrived.

 

[jedidia]

I think the idea was that we're supposed to have been less starvation-prone. The extra muscle is helpful in a fight if you can feed it.

Yes, that's where the ice age comes in.

 

[N_Molson]

Europe is Defcon 2, previous occurences were 1991 Gulf War and 1962 Cuban crisis.

This is not very good. ?

https://www.defconlevel.com/european-command-news.php

 

[Urwumpe]

Europe is Defcon 2, previous occurences were 1991 Gulf War and 1962 Cuban crisis.

This is not very good. ?

https://www.defconlevel.com/european-command-news.php

Expected begin of war is in 5 days. At least, from US reports. At least we can still watch Superbowl before grabbing our rifles and helmets.

Still no NATO alert BTW, everything quiet on the western front.

 

[N_Molson]

At least we can still watch Superbowl before grabbing our rifles and helmets.

Right now it looks like a bad movie... ?‍

 

[Urwumpe]

Right now it looks like a bad movie... ?‍

Of course. Excuse my acid sarcasm there.

As Europeans, we are pretty much shoved between Scylla and Charybdis right now.

 

[N_Molson]

Of course. Excuse my acid sarcasm there.

Well maybe you're being a bit partial again. Haha. ? Well in my case that the problem with being an idealist. It is very close from innocence. It makes sense I finally became a philosophy teacher.

Regardless, H-bombs have no care about partiality or who is supposed to win the war.

I might fill that backpack tomorrow. Far enough from a big town and there are the Pyrenees mountains 2 or 3 days south on foot. I can see them when the weather is clear. Plenty of caves that were used by our stone age ancestors, might last 2 weeks with a bit of luck, before radiation sickness really sets in. ?‍

 

[Urwumpe]

Well maybe you're being a bit partial again. Haha. ? Well in my case that the problem with being an idealist. It is very close from innocence. It makes sense I finally became a philosophy teacher.

Regardless, H-bombs have no care about partiality or who is supposed to win the war.

I might fill that backpack tomorrow. Far enough from a big town and there are the Pyrenees mountains 2 or 3 days south on foot. I can see them when the weather is clear. Plenty of caves that were used by our stone age ancestors, might last 2 weeks with a bit of luck, before radiation sickness really sets in. ?‍

Well, at least you had some time to enjoy it before we are back in 1984. At least the soundtrack of the movie could be good.

I would recommend you to get Iodine pills organized BEFORE others have the idea as well.

Sadly, my plans for 2022 do not include going into the mountains and waiting for my fate. Should some bloke decide to violate paragraph 307 of the German penal law ("Causing an explosion by nuclear energy"), I am first of all responsible for making sure he will NEVER do that again. And that others have the chance to learn from his mistake.