Maintenance and refuelling is done when demand is low, eg in summer.
In the UK I don't think any nukes explicitly load-follow, unlike in France for example, though one (Sizewell B) could.
Rgds
Damon
You make me even happier with my 3-and-a-bit-days-per-week contracting job with most of the rest spent on my startup! %-|>
Rgds
Damon
Well, not entirely. Still has its own nuke, gas and (erk!) coal, at least for now. And still not enough interconnection to depend very heavily on anything outside its borders I suspect (I must look up those figures vs winter peak demand).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against nuke at all, it's just not the panacea that is frequently claimed IMHO.
Rgds
Damon
Much (not all) of what they're learning at school is like scaffolding; they need to retain it to get to better things but not necessarily for its own sake after that. I've managed without various apparently-essential rote-learnt elements too. (I loved physics because you had to remember about 4 things to pass the exams, including inverse square law and Ohm's law; I hated biology at times since it seemed to require lots of meaningless memorisation of things best looked up when actually needed.)
But if they drop that scaffold too quickly then all sorts of more interesting and lucrative and enjoyable opportunities will elude them, I think.
Rgds
Damon
Hi,
Apparently many of your <slightsnark>freedom-loving</slightsnark> countrymen *do* want it that way.
I mainly freelance, but I believe 2 weeks + about 2 weeks of public holidays is pretty much the EU minimum for permanent staff.
(I did fairly badly at school for a long time and then was ill; I don't think I'd have have been able to have had in the US the relatively good and 'entrepreneurial' life that I've had here in the UK. I'm just in the process of getting a new start-up into gear for example.)
Rgds
Damon
Um, in a reasonable employment environment that is a straw man.
In the UK it would be illegal to only give an employee a week off per year.
Rgds
Damon
Indeed, let's do both please.
Rgds
Damon
I'm a primary school governor and I believe that the teachers at my school would much prefer a shorter summer break as the amount that gets forgotten each time, especially by pupils with marginal progress and attainment, is eye-watering. And that hurts them LOTS in later life. That does NOT necessarily mean more school days in the year, just differently distributed.
Also, more breaks spread out and less contention for the same block of a few weeks over summer would possibly make for cheaper and less stressful / crowded holidays.
(I also happen to believe that letting teenagers start the school day much later would be more humane and conducive to good results also.)
Rgds
Damon
Well, actually, it does. Because Android to be useable requires Google account.
No.
I very deliberately did NOT set up a Google account on my Android Fairphone, and it does the basic things just fine, like, um, phone calls and even alarms. It even takes OK pictures.
I have EU citizens' contact details in my phone and I think that, given NSA revelations, I would be breaking the law to knowingly share/sync those details with/via a US entity such as Google (or Apple).
Would be nice to have local contact and calendar sync with my MacBook (OS X 10.9) but Apple made that hard, not the lack of apps on the phone so far as I can tell.
Rgds
Damon
Only to a degree, and typically less following is possible as the fuel load gets older in each reactor.
Rgds
Damon
They already do from time to time in (eg) Germany and Spain.
Rgds
Damon
Wind and Solar do not work yet.
On which planet? They work just fine as long as you are not expecting unicorn farts. 15% of UK electricity roughly, ~50% of German.
And nukes are hardly perfect (though I have nothing against them and want at least some in the mix); ignoring the waste issue they don't load-follow well or at all (solar PV is a natural match for some/most load given that we're diurnal), and sometimes only manage twice the capacity factor of wind (eg look at some UK nuke fleet capacity factor vs offshore wind).
Rgds
Damon
Solar PV and reglazing (unless currently in a very poor state) should usually be low down the list of things to do if you are driven by maximising ROI (or ERO(E)I).
Rgds
Damon
PS. Having said that I have already done PV and triple-glazing though have not quite finished internal wall insulation works: see earth.org.uk
Still here, wasting food and oxygen, or it is just (say) brown people in far away countries unlike you that are useless?
Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle. -- Steinbach
