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Comment Re:Electric engines are golden... (Score 1) 124

I commute about 150 miles to work. What I need is a car I can commute in and then after a short period use again to get around locally. I will have used my 300 or mile range by the time I am home. I'd like to be able to use the car again for an evening outing.I suppose a hybrid is mor the fit for me that a straight EV.

man your comment sure stirred upa nest of ^%$% :)
cheers and be well.

Comment Re:They haven't solved any of the social problems (Score 5, Interesting) 40

It wasn't just the generators or sea wall. Another one of the problems is that they never installed the hydrogen reformers designed to burn off the hydrogen buildup from an overheating core safely.

As recommended by the reactor manufacturer and installed on US plants.

There would have been a lot less boom with them installed.

Comment LMAO (Score 1) 52

Because adult strangers are ALWAYS a danger. The poor kids are more likely to be molested by their local gym teacher or "Uncle Fred" than they are a total stranger adult. I'm really concerned that todays kids are not going to learn how to interact with ANYONE, much less a total stranger. How do they get through life ?

Comment Re:Your tax dollars hard at work (Score 1) 74

1. You have a point. Current reactors are around 30% efficient because they have to have liquid water to cool the reactor, and there are limits to that even with very high pressures. Thus carnot cycle limitations apply. It basically means that a nuclear reactor has to produce 3GW thermal (GWt), to produce 1GWe, so it has to exhaust 2 GWt as waste. Increase the temperature to the point you get 50%, and suddenly you only need to generate 2GWt to produce 1GWe, cutting waste heat in half. A much easier problem to solve at that point.
2. As you identify, there's a limit to what you can dump into the Earth. It just transfers heat too slowly to be practical in most situations. It's actually a problem I ran into when looking at geothermal heat pumps up north, like North Dakota and Alaska. You can actually end up cooling the earth so much as to lose efficiency or effectiveness over time. You might actually want to run some solar thermal panels and pump heat into the system during the summer. Between it being one of the more expensive options and actually less effective than air cooling, it isn't on my standard list.
3. Salt vats would still be a form of air cooling. Better options might be to list waste heat scavenging for zone heating or other industrial purposes. For example, it could be used to help dry new lumber, paper, fabrics, and food (dehydration). Laundries could use it for hot water for washing. Greenhouse heating, and aquaculture.
4. Micro-reactors still require cooling as per the above, and aren't actually in production right now, sadly.
To be clear, I'm not fixated upon large WCRs. I was just looking at the water-cooling restraint many fixate upon.

Comment Usurping Congress Again (Score 1) 76

Of course, the correct way to do this is to pass a Federal Law regulating AI, and then using the supremacy clause of the Constitution to set aside State laws that conflict with it.

But, Trump has never been one to do things in the Constitutional way. He just things that EOs are "rule by decree" even if they're not.

Comment Gen Z grew up using content consumption devices (Score 1) 97

80 year olds didn't grow up with computers, and a lot of them never adapted. We know this, easy answer. Gen Z also did not really "grow up with computers" in the way most of us here did: they grew up using content consumption devices like phones. Gen Z by and large don't even know how a filesystem works because of this. It's worse for them than the 80s year olds because at least the old people remember the thing a file system is based on and know how drawers and folders work.

So it's really not a surprise that there is yet another way in which they aren't very good with "computers". They also don't care, likely beause most of these account aren't something to care about.

Comment Re:Your tax dollars hard at work (Score 1) 74

That's still fixable. Just like how most computers are air cooled and not water cooled. They could build a very large air cooling tower and not need water at all.

Cooling from cheap to expensive:
1. Take in water, return water some amount hotter. Requires the most water to limit temperature rise.
2. Take in water, evaporate some of the water in a cooling tower. Results in less water, but also takes less water and controls temperature rise better
3. Dry cooling.

Most systems are actually something of a hybrid of the three.

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