Billionaire technocrats and a neo-nuclear world

[botsapper]

Billionaire Boys Club - (Microsoft, SAP, Hewlett-Packard), telecommunications (Tata Industries), and e-commerce including shipping and logistics (Amazon and Alibaba); for reliable, affordable and low-to-none carbon production!
http://www.breakthroughenergycoaliti..._&WT.tsrc=BGTW

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/op...need.html?_r=0

The other Tony Stark claims coal is a very serious present pollution problem and sees new generation nuclear power plants as the best viable replacements. Nuclear power production between 1971 - 2009 prevented 64 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere. Fossil fuel power plants pump out 5 billion tons every year. China Syndrome vs China Smog? He compared the 50 people died in the Chernobyl accident (Fukushima?) compared to causalities from coal-fired powerplants - 13,000 killed every year. He favors new gen, cheaper and compact molten-salt nuclear reactors; use 'spent' fuel rods from decommisoned reactors, use only 2% of radioactive material volume, use decreased half-life radioactive material and they would have reduced risk of meltdowns compared to current fission reactor design. Another Tony Stark, Bill Gates favors and supports Terra Power designs, liquid sodium-cooled reactors also using depleted uranium fuel rods.

The Design | TerraPower

[jamesqf]

So there is something wrong with speaking truth, even if you happen to have made a lot of money? I'd rather trust the opinions of people who have no financial axe to grind over those from people who intend to profit (or have profited) from whipping up anti-nuclear hysteria. And FWIW, I've been saying much the same thing for decades.

[botsapper]

Maybe analogous to the last millennium's 'War of Currents', the battle for dominance of electricity power transmission. Thomas Edison's DC was backed by JP Morgan and Nicola Tesla's AC was backed by George Westinghouse. Meanwhile, John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil had the monopoly of the kerosene market - primarily used to light homes. He tried to demonize both systems and stop the use of electricity. He later saw the 'light', joined with JP Morgan but he still preserved his business by becoming a huge backer of Henry Ford and the millions of his Standard Oil-fed Model Ts. Tesla saw his paradigm shifting technologies as egalitarian technologies (Tesla also theorized & experimented with 'wireless' electromagnetic power transmission and communications; pictures, video, text...WiFi?) to provide inexpensive lighting, power and communications. JP Morgan conveniently stole his ideas and concentrated to monetize Tesla's electric production and transmission systems.
Giants always controlled the technologies direction, we often see similar business power plays; they either want to control and promote their preferred technologies or use all matters of influence to stop them - as they fight that market share.

[gone-ot]

BIG foots stomp on the little foots.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

So there is something wrong with speaking truth, even if you happen to have made a lot of money? I'd rather trust the opinions of people who have no financial axe to grind over those from people who intend to profit (or have profited) from whipping up anti-nuclear hysteria. And FWIW, I've been saying much the same thing for decades.

Agreed, I love the book Superfuel, talking about the thorium debacle.

Lower cost
Less Waste
More fuel
Less danger
No chance for meltdown

ah well, its too bad we can't remove the wedge out of certain cornerstones of society toward usefull progress.

The old we've never done it before so it can't be done now crapola is getting old, its sad that we COULD do advanced technology in the 1950s and 1960's that we can't do today.

Then we have oil companies with patents on coal fired exhaust to algae to bio fuel systems that nobody seems concerned with, we rather push Co2 & Nox underground at a very high expense than just clean it at the source or better still not make to begin with, I forget how many acres you needed for each megawatt but it wasn't bad at all to make a zero emission algae cleaned coal plant.

Ah well, I guess colorado was wrong.

[redpoint5]

A childhood friend's mom stopped by the house (from Oahu) out of the blue and mentioned her son changed jobs and has been promoted to an engineering director position with 8 leads under him, 80 engineers total.

Turns out he's at TerraPower. I bet there's some interesting stuff I could learn from him. Completely forgot about TerraPower until now. Apparently they are building a test facility in Wyoming.

Good to see the nuclear dream in the US is not dead.

[Logic]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

...Then we have oil companies with patents on coal fired exhaust to algae to bio fuel systems that nobody seems concerned with, we rather push Co2 & Nox underground at a very high expense than just clean it at the source or better still not make to begin with, I forget how many acres you needed for each megawatt but it wasn't bad at all to make a zero emission algae cleaned coal plant.

Ah well, I guess colorado was wrong.

I saw a patent about mixing (pre treated?) farm tractor exhaust into the soil where the carbon, Nitrogens and CO2 etc were 'fertilizer' and thought little of it.
Seems I should have paid more attention!

https://www.google.com/search?client...o+fuel+systems

[freebeard]

Link is to algal biodiesel production.

I wish to know how the tractor exhaust gets into the ground.

[Logic]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Link is to algal biodiesel production.

I wish to know how the tractor exhaust gets into the ground.

Yes I know. That's what rmay was discussing.

As for the patent; A quick search and its nothing special.
I would have thought you'd have to go to pains to get rid of unburned HCs 1st!
https://patentimages.storage.googlea.../US4632044.pdf
There are a good number of other patents.

And quite a lot of talk on the subject.
https://www.thecombineforum.com/thre...15475/#replies

Who woulda thought!?

[freebeard]

As I suspected a plow share is involved. So plowing is covered. Then what happens when the tractor is used for fertilizing, cutting and windrowing the crop?

The six inch air gap in the system removes the back pressure, then a compressor adds it back?

I am skeptical.

edit:
I don't think I sounded scornful enough.

The exhaust is maybe 3" (typically oriented straight up) and there is a 6" gap. That's 1.5 square feet of exposure to any cross wind at 360°. Maybe the peak of an exhaust pulse would leap the gap but the leading and trailing edges wouldn't.

The re-compressor would have to fight the internal skin friction of all that plumbing. Possibly helped by rerouting everything under the axle to vicinity of the drawbar and running a negative three inch gap to actually create a Coanda Effect.