The Chinese ones are subsidized, they are hit with tariffs.

EVs have been cheaper to own for a long time in Europe, especially the Chinese ones which are often cheaper to buy in the first place too. The amount you save depends on if you can charge at home, but it's always better than a fossil over any reasonable period of ownership.

Their economic analysis is BS. For example, they discount the cost of "shared" infrastructure, but clearly there is a cost because it has to be built, and scaled to the number of reactors they want to install. At only 300MW each, they will want quite a few of them to make the economics better.

The increased cost of waste handling and refuelling is not properly accounted for either.

Sodium is a rather nasty medium to use as coolant. It corrodes, and spontaneously catches fire on contact with air. Attempts have been made in the past, ending in expensive failures.

For what investment in GPUs?

Typically when rent seeking, the rent is a fraction of the cost of the asset. Some assets appreciate like houses, some depreciate like GPUs.

That was the original idea with numbers stations, so it was a natural evolution. Owning a consumer radio was not suspicious, so broadcasting on standard civilian frequencies made sense.

The "random" data in the GPS signal is supposedly there to aid with reception and validate the RNGs on the satellites, but it was a pretty obvious place to hide messages too. I'm sure all the other GNSS systems do it too.

They are building a BWRX-300, for around $21 billion Canadian. It's a prototype, so high costs are expected I suppose.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation has some issues with their design too: https://www.onr.org.uk/media/b...

It's mostly the usual stuff. The control rods aren't proven to be failure proof, and we have seen accidents due to them not inserting, or getting stuck, before. There isn't enough don't to evaluate loss of coolant faults, another known failure mode. While they don't rely on pumps to circulate the coolant (it's by convection), they still need it to circulate to avoid meltdown. It must circulate through cooling systems like pools or towers.

Good luck to them, but it seems very unlikely that it will be economically viable in the end.

Can you name one of these "can't melt down" designs that is more than just an unproven napkin sketch?

All the ones I've seen that are at least trying to build a prototype rely on having a cooling pool, meaning they absolutely can melt down if that pool is drained.

That means you need to protect the entire pool as well as you would protect a traditional reactor, and have an emergency supply of water on hand. So containment buildings, leak proof pools that can survive earthquakes and other natural disasters, all that stuff. Doubtful there will be any savings over traditional designs.

There are some types which are more likely to be actually meltdown proof, although even then you need to protect the reactor from physical damage. But they all have severe problems with the reactor vessel being damaged over time by the fission reaction inside, and every attempt to build one has been an expensive failure.

If you take the original game as the reference, they are supposed to be a wedge sticking out of her chest. The game was originally developed for the Sega Saturn, which used quads instead of triangles, and all the ports like the more famous (and released first) Playstation version didn't re-make the models. So they are wedge shaped.

Fortunately it was before jiggle physics were invented, so at least she gets to wear a sports bra.

If you go by the art for the game, she would probably have a great deal of difficulty doing all those acrobatics. Some sports professionals get reductions to help with that. The original tan she had is extremely dated now - in the UK it's the classic "Essex girl" look, straight out of a tanning salon and considered a bit uncultured.

That's interesting about the chargers. In the UK we usually don't need a service upgrade, and if changes are needed they are usually free and the responsibility of the supplier. Because the UK is supposed to reach net zero, some work is expected to be done by the electricity supplier, such as "unlooping" (it's a UK thing, was done to save money when copper was scarce after WW2), and fuse/cable upgrades.

Typically an install is in the region of â1,200 here, but you can get it for less with various schemes, sometimes "free" with the car. I had my first one installed on a government scheme that I don't think is running now, but it was free back then, and when I replaced it last year I did the work myself. A bit naughty but if it ever becomes an issue I can get it signed off by an electrician.

Hmm, I was under the impression that the US regulator wasn't entirely useless, and in fact did force car companies to do recalls at great expense. Has that changed or was it never the case?

Surely if they had such a serious flaw they would have been replaced already. As I recall, there was a recall programme in place for affected packs.

15 minutes?!? I'm going to miss the flight to my dying aunt if I have to stand around waiting 15 minutes for my oil to be changed! And what if there is a queue and I have to wait longer???

Also, come on, just oil changes? Do you think most of us haven't owned a fossil and know that isn't true?

You are getting shafted if someone is charging you $3k to have a charger installed.

It's an older chemistry that the market has already moved away from. I think the Koreans only keep producing it to ensure continuity of supply for existing buyers.

I think there was a recall on them, yes. I don't remember the details but some people got new packs. Like a lot of manufacturers, they had some early issues that needed to be resolved.