Conditions At My Swim At RWSABC Yesterday (11-Mar-17 @ 16:00). Calm, Low Tide, Water Temperature 8.3

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.

"UV" -

Today's highlight was Gullfoss Waterfall!

Tonight was the first night of Open Water Swimming at RWSABC. A beautiful evening with sun, clear sky and no wind. We swam in the direction of the Battery Park. The tide was coming in so it was a hard swim out (35 min) but fast (15 min) coming back.😊

Dome City Blog 1 - An idea for higher density cities

I have been thinking a lot about what we need for new housing and cities. I have been thinking about this for a number of reasons. One reason is that the UK is critically short of housing.  The government and others are keen to see a large number of new homes built.  Personally I support this idea. Another reason was my recent visit to Changchun, China.  This is a very large city by UK standards.  The greater metro area has a population of 7.6 million while the city itself has a population of 3.9 million based on 2010 data.  That was the 5th tiime I’ve been to Changchun and I always enjoy my time there.  However, I think this is a city ruined by the car. I like to walk or cycle whenever I can.  Modern cities, for the most part, make this difficult and unpleasant.  It is difficult because of the distances involved and it is unpleasant because cars and pedestrians/cyclists don’t mix so well. In brief here is the questions I am thinking about and some of the answers that I am arriving at. What if we built a city that was housed in a geodesic dome with a diameter of 1km at the base?  A geodesic dome has the shape of a half-sphere.  It was popopularizedy R. Buckminster Fuller.  I have chosen this structural form because I understand that it is very efficient from a structural engineering point of view. I have some simple back of the envelope type calculations to see how many people this city in a dome could house.  Assume that we made the thickness of the floors separating levels as 1.5m (5 feet) and that we had clear space of 9m (29.5 feet) between levels.  This would provide 48 levels for constructing our city.   The land area at the base of this dome is 0.785 square kilometers (194 acres, 78.5 hectares).  With the 48 levels as described above the land area available within the dome is 25.3 square kilometers (6250 acres, 2530 hectares).   The population density of the the dome were the same as New York City at 27,778 people per square mile (10,716 people per square km) then it could house 271,000 people.  With a lower density of say, 10,000 people per square mile  (3860 people per square km) then it could house 97,700 people.  This lower population density figure of 10000 people per square mile is the almost the same value as for population densities of Miami,Florida and Birmingham, England.   I would suggest that there should be a significant green belt around this dome city.  I would like to suggest at least 500m of park and wild lands around the base (excepting transport links). I will continue these ideas in my next blog. Dome City - Blog 1 5 October 2014 Joe Heffernan

Asgard

WELL begun; half done. That proverbor, rather, its obverseencapsulates the problems which have dogged civil nuclear power since its inception. Atomic energy is...

This article from The economist magazine talks about using Thorium as a Nuclear Fuel instead of Uranium.  Thorium has several advantages over Uranium and in the view of the author of this article the most important is the relative resistance to proliferation compared to Uranium.  I learned a few things from this article.  The things I learned was that the US did build a few bombs out of U233 which is the fissile element formed from the fertile Thorium.  I was always a bit unsure as to whether or not any bombs had been built.  The article also confirms my prior understanding that U233 makes a poor nuclear bomb material because of the presence of small amounts of other radioactive isotopes that emit hard gamma radiation that messes up the other mechanisms required for a bomb.

Posing them will help you find work in two important ways.

10 Job Interview Questions You Should Ask

There were dolphins or porpoises off The Esplanade in Greenock last night - or maybe Nessie on holiday 😊

Open Water Swimming along The Esplanade, Greenock - 7 January 2014

Happy New Year! 

This is my first Blog of the year.  I am working at home today to try to get some marking done.  I have done a reasonable job but there is still lots of marking to do.

Seeing as I was at home I decided to go for an Open Water Swim in The Clyde.  As normal I swam from the Royal West of Scotland Amateur Boat Club (RWSABC).  

The last time I was in was in December.  Today's weather was fairly mild with with the temperature around 9 degree C.  It was overcast with lite winds.  

I went in around 15:45 and stayed in 15 minutes.  High tide today was at 16:41 so the water was well in.  I much prefer to be swimming around high tide if possible.  The main reason is probably that you are walking over sand to get in the water.  Going in at a low tide means that you are walking over cobbles and larger stones to get in the water.  I am guessing I swam about 400m.  I never did put my face in and mostly swam side stroke.  After coming out I went into the boat club a took a nice hot shower.  I was still a bit shivery after the shower.

Having said that I am still on a bit of high from the swim.  It was great.

I didn't take a picture today but here is one from early December when the conditions were much the same as today.

I have spoken to a few people who tell me stories about people they know who made it a habit to swim in The Clyde every day.  I certainly believe them now.  Today's swim means that I have had at least one swim in The Clyde every month since April 2013.  I expect that to continue.  I would like to get in once per week but I'm not sure if my schedule will allow this.  

Happy swimming!

Tonight's sunset at the Boat Club.