Posing Them Will Help You Find Work In Two Important Ways.

Dome City Blog 4 - Welwyn Garden City and my proposals for a Dome City

I have looked at an old map of Welwyn Garden City and I estimate that this town is around 7.5 square kilometers.  The population according to Wikipedia is 43,000.  Welwyn Garden City is considered that classic example of a “Garden City”.  Recent proposals are to build 5 new Garden Cities in Southern Britain to help reduce the current chronic housing shortage.  The proposals that I have read suggest that each of these cities would house around 15,000 people.

Garden Cities are attractive to people and politicians because they are considered to be great communities and a very pleasant place to live.  If we accept that new Garden Cities are a good place to live what would that suggest about my proposals for a Dome City?

In a previous blog I worked out that the Geodesic dome I am proposing would have a area are within it of 25.3 square kilometres.  assuming 43,000 people per 7.5 square kilometers this would allow a population of 143,000 people.  As I have stated previously my goal wold be to have 100,000 people living in the city so the effective density of this dome city would actually be less than Welwyn Garden City.

I have visited Welwyn Garden City once to have lunch at my Prefessor's house when I was doing my MSc.  While this visit was a long time ago and I wasn't paying really close attention I do remember my Professor's house as being in a quiet cul-da-sac with lots of green space around.

Assuming when get get the lighting within the centre of the dome right this suggests to me that the dome city could provide a very comfortable environment for it's residents.

Reasons that I would like to live in a dome city are:

The ability to walk everywhere within the city.  There would certainly need to be elevators when one is going up or down more than a few levels but once on any level you would never be further than 500m from your destination.

I live in Scotland where it rains alot.  The dome city will provide a roof over my head at almost all times allow me to be outside of my house much more.  I would hope that this would encourage more "outdoor" activities like sport, walking, cafes, open air concerts etc.

I feel that since people would walk around more that they would come into contact with their neighbours on a more regular basis.  I would hope and expect that this would engender better feelings of community.

I wouldn't need to own a car for day to day living.

Given the high population density I would see that public services would be easier and less expensive to provide.  Examples are:

With a electrical power plant located very close to the city combined heat and power is a real possibility.  The energy provider would be able to supply district heating at relatively low cost.  

I imagine that garbage collection could be made more efficient since people could carry their waste and recyclables to larger bins.  

Schools could also share facilities much more easily.  In addition, parents would have a greater choice of schools for their children since every school is accessible on foot by any child.  

Waste could be disposed of in an incinerator located within the city providing additional district heating options and reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.

Sewers could be smaller since they would not have to deal with rainfall.

I am sure there are more examples that I haven't thought of yet but I hope these do show you how costs could be reduced and services improved.

I hope you have found this interesting.

Photos from Lanzarote February 2017 #lanzarote (at Costa Teguise Lanzarote)

This is a photo that Stacey Hearl took before our swim this morning. Stats for today's swim entered water at 8:12am 307m, 11m (5 minutes going out, 6 coming back) Water Temp 8 degC High tide at 9:26 Fresh Breeze from the west, Force 5. It was behind us on the way out. #rwsabc #openwaterswimming #greenock (at Greenock Esplanade)

This is where I've done most of my Open Water Swimming this week. This is a lagoon in Costa Teguise which provides a sheltered place for a swim. At high tide it us over 200m long. Water temperature a balmy 19.5 degC. #lanzarote #openwaterswimming #costateguise (at Costa Teguise Lanzarote)

WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?

The place I would most like to visit is Patagonia.

"The Martian" by Andy Weir

I'm just back from holiday. While away I read this really fun book titled "The Martian" written by Andy Weir. It is a great read, fast paced, full of action with suspense and light relief. For other Engineers like me it really brings home what we do which is to solve problems. I highly recommend this book!

Lovely day - very calm 2 hours before high tide. I did a non wetsuit swim on my own. 675m in 18:24 water temperature 8.6 degC #inverclyde #rwsabc #openwaterswimming #greenock #scotland #theesplanade #clouds (at The Royal West of Scotland Boat Club)

It looks like there was lido in Dunoon at one point. This is an old poster, part of a display in Gourock Station. #lido #Gourock #swimming #dunoon (at Gourock railway station)

Really Tiny Reactors

I would be keen to see really tiny reactors becoming ubiquitous.  We need more than the typical 1000 MWe class reactors to help solve the world's energy and climate problems.  The problem with this class of Large Reactor is that they cost Billions and take between 4 and 6 years to build.

What if a reactor were the size of a tea kettle and the whole of the reactor, shielding and power production could fit in something the size of a tall refrigerator?  These reactors could be rolled out much more quickly at  low capital cost and very low fuel costs. 

In my opinion the requirements for such a reactor are:

Inherent and passive safety of operation, 

At least 5 years before reactor needs to be refueled, 

An ability to run unattended,

Production of both electricity and heat as required,

Ability to load follow electricity demand,

Use of either naturally occurring Uranium or Low Enriched Uranium.

I would hope that there would be a range of power outputs from this family of reactors.  I would hope that a reactor as small as 3 kW electric could be produced.  The size of 3 kW was chosen as that seems to be the typical small petrol generator size.  

This size of reactor does exist in the form of research reactors.  According to World Nuclear Association web site on research reactors, reactors with heat outputs as low as 0.1 kW thermal exist.  

An example of the kind of reactor (although not for the production of electricity) is the SLOWPOKE reactor designed by Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL).  There have been different variations of this reactor but the standard one has an output of 20 kW thermal.  AECL have done the design for a larger one with an output of between 2 and 10 Mw thermal to be used as a source of district heating.  To me this shows that the class of reactors I am interested in is possible from a technical point of view. Of course, like most things associated with Nuclear Power the technical aspects are only a small part of the ability to introduce the technology.