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Comment Re:Just another cost of climate change... (Score 1) 249

If they used an artificial pool of water, or a larger body of water (like the ocean) then the concerns of raising the water temperature to where it could kill the fish would go away.

It would, but they'll most likely still have to reduce power. Reactors are limited by a maximum thermal output, both physically/technically, and also legally in terms of their safety cases. If sea water temperatures rise, condenser back pressure increases and the turbines produce less power. This causes the governors to increase steam to the turbines, which feeds back to the reactor causing reactor power to increase.

Usually when sea water temperatures go up, turbine load is reduced to keep reactor power constant. If water temperatures rose significantly, then power output would reduce significantly too.

Comment Why would you not want to be useful? (Score 1) 202

I'm the local "Excel Guy" at my place. My job is completely different (training nuclear reactor operators and we can't easily have other software installed on our machines except Office due to the sensitivity of the network) and I landed a permanent job at the company due to using VB to automate data processing and essentially make a couple of people redundant (don't panic! They're still with us, doing more interesting stuff). I'm always getting requests for help, and I enjoy doing this stuff. Most of the world still uses only the basic functions and adopt a completely manual process so automating stuff really helps them and they appreciate it, gives you reward if you enjoy the work (I do), and it increases your profile in the company as a "useful person" which can really only be good for you.

If it's getting in the way of your real job, then you need to improve your time management. Or speak to your boss and have more time assigned to the excel stuff, if that's what you want to do. There is an awful lot of value to be added there.

If you don't enjoy it/don't want to do it, just say no, that is ok! If you simply don't like helping people, then you should probably keep that to yourself, as you're not the kind of employee most companies like.

Comment Re: Why is this being posted now? (Score 1) 275

Quite. More people have died in gun related mass murder crimes in the US in the past year (domestic terrorism, not international terrorism) than have died worldwide in nuclear accidents in the past 20 years.

But people are more scared of nuclear power than public ownership of guns, because some people two hundred years ago said it was ok to own guns...

Comment Seems pretty obvious... (Score 1) 418

They gave an employee a procedure that deleted their database. The only mistake the employee made was following the procedure and not using his own credentials, instead using the credentials in the procedure. That was a standard human error, no big deal. Humans make mistakes, it's all of our's jobs to reduce the probability of this, with good quality procedures, questioning attitudes etc. To provide an employee with a procedure that contains credentials to the production database is ridiculous, this was going to happen at some point with a procedure as poor as that. To then blame that employee immediately and fire him is knee jerk and immature. To be fair, the guy is probably better off not working for that company anyway.

Not having backups etc, well, that's the companies fault. All the employee has done is to uncover a poor working culture within that company, and expose a bad CTO. This is not the failing of the employee, it's clearly a failing of the company. They deserve what they got.

The person fired can make many positives from this. This is an excellent case study about business culture, procedures, strong catastrophe planning and testing, threat and error management, how to treat fellow humans. Your experience in this can be valuable to other companies, and the good ones will recognise this. Use this to your advantage, let that company fail, it was going to happen at some point, you were simply unlucky...

To give a personal experience, I work in a nuclear power station, in the control room. One shift I made a mistake, I rushed a job. I followed my procedure to the letter, I didn't make any mistakes, but because I chose to complete a certain activity early before an additional check was performed I broke our operating rules (the law effectively). I owned up to it as soon as I was conscious of it, and the investigation started. My authorisation was pulled and I went for drugs testing etc.

The first thing that occurred once management found out was that I received a phone call. It was the Operations Manager calling for me, and he called me to thank me for raising this report and owning up to it. He understood that without this honest reporting, the problem couldn't get fixed, and would happen again in the future. It has probably already occurred in the past too. My authorisation was recovered that same shift, and I carried on. There was no detriment to my career (quite the opposite infact) and life goes on, but now with better procedures...

Comment Re:Wind cheaper than coal, solar than nuke/oil (Score 1) 308

What exactly are the subsidies applied to nuclear power in the UK? Unless you mean the government support in case of emergency, there are no government subsidies applied to the MWs generated by nuclear power stations. We (disclosure, I work for a nuclear power company) simply sell to the open market and get the market price.

Comment Re:Is this news going to bring them more business (Score 1) 164

If you have nothing to hide, why should it matter either way?

There is so much wrong with this statement. The easiest way I use to explain to friends and family about the importance of privacy is the fact that every day, all of us does a totally legal act, which you wouldn't like broadcast to anyone. When someone publishes a video of you taking a dump, or having sex, please revisit your quote.

Comment Re:Status was NOT divulged, only email identities (Score 4, Insightful) 65

This strongly implies there's some medical issue with all the recipients of this e-mail newsletter. After all, why would someone be subscribed to this who is not HIV positive or has some other affliction?

And in one sentence you've proven how personal information can lead to completely the wrong conclusions. This is why privacy is no joke and needs to be taken seriously...

Comment Re:Crazy! (Score 3, Interesting) 459

Indeed. I agree, past Iranian presidents have been pretty immature, and quite frankly stupid in publicly encouraging nuclear enrichment, in return for crippling sanctions that hurt most of its citizens. They couldn't see the big picture and simply wanted to look hard. This is school boy bully behaviour and didn't help the country long term at all.

The current Iranian president seems a lot more sensible. He wants to talk, he wants to be part of the worldwide conversation, and over and above his predecessors immature behaviour, he is focussing on his people's well being. That's leadership. We need to keep talking with Iran, we need to listen to them and they listen to us. This surely is the best way for long term peace? If someone doesn't take the high ground and give in, we'll just be in a silly stalemate for another 200 years because of some issue that is in the past, between people that aren't included in the conversation any more.

Iran has stood and given ground, we (the west) have also given ground. This is sensible negotiation. If we continue to drag up past arguments and events, blame each other for whatever has happened before and refuse to help them because of statements made by past presidents, then we're no better than boys in a school playground. We need leaders who are prepared to talk, negotiate, and give in sometimes, rather than just puffing out your chest and wielding power. Obama in my view is one of these people (and no, I'm not American and don't live in America).

Comment Re: About right (Score 1) 246

Robbery with a banana in your pocket is still armed robbery, and imo, this is right. It's the effect that the action has on the victim that should determine the sentence. Otherwise, anyone could get a short sentence even with the most aggressive body destroying weapon, so long as he doesn't pull the trigger...

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