Search found 106 matches

by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:41 pm
Forum: General
Topic: I guess every industry is a target for investment scammers
Replies: 2
Views: 1570

Do you remember the stock ticker symbol so we can watch out and avoid that company? Which company, the "investment newsletter" with the "hot tips", or the company they were trying to pump-and-dump? I never figured out what company they were trying to pitch, because it became obvious they were never...
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 6:24 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Is the nuclear renaissance dead yet?
Replies: 102
Views: 32440

Here is a source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density Work it out. I've found a different source. The MIT "Future of Nuclear Power" paper , has this to say: "Typical LWR spent fuel today reaches a burnup of 50,000 MWD/MT" (Appendix 1, page 105). Based upon that source, I created a spreadshe...
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 4:55 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Discover Magazine - October 2010
Replies: 13
Views: 5437

Re: Discover Magazine - October 2010

rj40 wrote:The US edition of Discover magazine for Oct 2010 - this is the 30 year special anniversary issue - has a brief mention of EMC2 and Tri Alpha in a sidebar box on page 78.
Cool. I'll have to find a copy.
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:54 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Is the nuclear renaissance dead yet?
Replies: 102
Views: 32440

Bill Gates (in his TED address earlier this year), AND there website (checked yesterday) are both lieing through their teeth. I would not call those people liars but communicators. The scenario which I imagine is the following. . . But they kept the name in memory of the visionary and for the consi...
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:44 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Is the nuclear renaissance dead yet?
Replies: 102
Views: 32440

So, if I didn't screw up some math, I get that 1GWy = 8.76581277 * 10^18 kWh. One of us is WAY off! I get 24*365.25 = 8.7E3 hours per year and @ E6 k/G this gives ~9E9, not ~9E18 kWhr per ton. Oh, and that results in 11 billion dollars. ??? Ok, I'm not sure what I did wrong. I need to learn not to ...
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:48 am
Forum: General
Topic: If Only They Could Get $100 milion
Replies: 2
Views: 1421

Re: If Only They Could Get $100 milion

MSimon wrote:*
http://www.inlander.com/spokane/article ... -yall.html

*

You have to read to the bottom to get the punchline.
I should really watch Wall Street sometime - maybe it's on Netflix Instant.
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:18 am
Forum: General
Topic: I guess every industry is a target for investment scammers
Replies: 2
Views: 1570

I guess every industry is a target for investment scammers

As you may or may not know, I've been doing a LOT of homework on nuclear fission recently (I'm still very concerned about nuclear waste management and the potential to extract many times more energy from the 'waste' if possible - especially if Polywell doesn't pan out). Actually, even if Polywell do...
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:04 am
Forum: News
Topic: Is the nuclear renaissance dead yet?
Replies: 102
Views: 32440

the 'travelling wave' is constantly, slowly (takes 60 or 80 years for the wave to travel top to bottom through the fuel) Forget about the travelling wave. I once was excited by this concept due to Teller. According to their latest publications, TerraPower have practically abandoned most of it. What...
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 7:42 am
Forum: News
Topic: Is the nuclear renaissance dead yet?
Replies: 102
Views: 32440

Here is a source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density Work it out. Well, assuming Wikipedia is correct (which is never a sure thing), and assuming the values in WP are thermal, and assuming a .4 conversion from thermal to electric (that is, 40% efficient), then you're right - although the f...
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 6:23 am
Forum: News
Topic: Is the nuclear renaissance dead yet?
Replies: 102
Views: 32440

A ton of uranium if fully utilized will produce about a gigawatt year of power. Are you sure about that? That sounds WAY too low to me. Here's why - there are 1GW *once-through* reactors in operation right now, and they run for what, 6 or 10 years between refueling? At 90% Capacity Factor, that mea...
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 5:58 am
Forum: News
Topic: Is the nuclear renaissance dead yet?
Replies: 102
Views: 32440

These numbers should be grist for your calculator to give you what you are after. Yes, thank you. As near as I can tell, most of the figures I've seen about how long we can power the country on our 'waste' is probably not including the depleted uranium left-over from enrichment. I've seen some peop...
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 4:50 am
Forum: News
Topic: 2011 DOD alternative energy research budget
Replies: 34
Views: 12610

Oh good, speculation about where the money went. I love these flights of fancy! Here is mine. I'd like to say in my defense, that I was neither speculating, nor requesting speculations. I was commenting on the lack of any kind of really useful information in the recovery.gov database for it to be u...
by jsbiff
Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:08 am
Forum: News
Topic: Is the nuclear renaissance dead yet?
Replies: 102
Views: 32440

I guess adding this question to this thread is about as good a place to put it as any: I've seen a lot written about how fuel 'waste' can be reprocessed and burned, or, in the case of some reactor designs like the Travelling Wave Reactor that Bill Gates is backing, basically just burned without repr...
by jsbiff
Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:14 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Is the nuclear renaissance dead yet?
Replies: 102
Views: 32440

This is grossly wrong. As often proponents and opponents oversimplify allowing endless polemics to take place and confusion to spread in the public. It takes over 250,000 years for the radioactivity of used fuel to approach the level of uranium ore. If you went that far back in time, Homo Sapiens w...
by jsbiff
Thu Sep 23, 2010 7:39 pm
Forum: News
Topic: 2011 DOD alternative energy research budget
Replies: 34
Views: 12610

I believe that they had to move because of space and power requirements. But I can offer no direct evidence to the forum. I guess as they scale up to larger test reactors, they need more input power to startup and maintain the reaction? Would these early prototypes, I assume, be designed in such a ...