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Domain: benambra.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to benambra.org.

Comments · 7

  1. Uranium supplies no constriction on bomb by Goonie · · Score: 2, Informative · on Environmentalists Coming Around to Nuclear Power?
    If I had a dollar for every time I heard this in the Australian political blogosphere, I'd be a rich man. Australia selling uranium to China (sales to India have not yet been approved) doesn't pose any additional proliferation risk, and, by discouraging reprocessing, may actually help reduce wider proliferation risks.

    As for passive solar, I'm all in favour, but there are several issues:

    • it's not enough
    • There's an enormous existing housing stock that will take many decades to rebuild.
    • Passive solar makes SFA difference in high-density living. Do you think 2+ billion Chinese and Indians will be living in American-style McMansions, or apartments?
    • Jevon's paradox. In this case, Americans spend their energy savings on bigger houses, negating the efficiency gains.

    As to your objections to nuclear, low-level waste is really a nonissue...the stuff is simply not that dangerous compared to the myriad other waste we dump into landfills or spray into the atmosphere. Compared to the thousands of lung cancers caused by radon annually, LLW is a piffling risk. High-level waste is the problem, if mostly a political one. See how Sweden is dealing with it.

    Finally, terrorism. Nuclear plants are a pretty tough target. How well defended is the Maroondah reservoir?

  2. Build a frickin' bridge... by Goonie · · Score: 2, Insightful · on Interview with Dr. Bradley C. Edwards

    As innumerable slashdotters have said before, when Bradley Edwards can build a bridge as long as this one out of nanotubes of the requisite tensile strength, then I'll take the space elevator seriously. Until then, it's science fiction and NASA's quite correct to plan its Moon-Mars program out of technology that actually exists.

  3. Re:Is biodiesel the answer? by Goonie · · Score: 5, Informative · on Filling Up On Algae
    Further to your unsustainability comments, some simple back of the envelope calculations show that conventional crops can't make more than a small contribution to our transport fuel needs. I know, I did some for biodiesel and ethanol. Note that the net energy return from crops other than sugar for ethanol is so marginal to make it very doubtful that you'll end up with more usable fuel than you put in.

    Thermal depolymerization and this algae farming *might* be practical, but conventional crops to ethanol is a waste of time (or, at least, is not worth subsidising on environmental grounds).

  4. Re:Is biodiesel the answer? by Goonie · · Score: 5, Informative · on Filling Up On Algae
    Further to your unsustainability comments, some simple back of the envelope calculations show that conventional crops can't make more than a small contribution to our transport fuel needs. I know, I did some for biodiesel and ethanol. Note that the net energy return from crops other than sugar for ethanol is so marginal to make it very doubtful that you'll end up with more usable fuel than you put in.

    Thermal depolymerization and this algae farming *might* be practical, but conventional crops to ethanol is a waste of time (or, at least, is not worth subsidising on environmental grounds).

  5. Sure... by Goonie · · Score: 1 · on NASA Considering Early Retirement of Shuttle Program
    I'll agree with you, if nanotube guys can achieve one little thing first; I'd like them to actually create macroscale pieces of nanotube of the requisite strength, and use them to construct a bridge over, say, the Cam River.

    Until then, let's not throw away our space program on the basis of a pipedream.

  6. Yeah, and who was the Deputy Sheriff? by Goonie · · Score: 1 · on Bruce Sterling On Lovelock's Pro-Nuclear Stance
    The USA, OTOH, went to war to make sure it can keep burning its oil.

    Yeah, and who was first there in the bunker with Bush the lesser? The Australian government.

    As for the solar chimney, it's one of a number of zero-emission energy projects happening around Australia at the moment. This is good. However, they are all tinkering at the margins at this stage, and dirty brown coal remains the primary source of Australia's electricity, and Australia has an outer suburban SUV boom every bit as large as the US's.

  7. Looked into this... by Goonie · · Score: 2, Informative · on Build Your Own Model B-52
    I wondered exactly the same thing on my blog recently, and found the Cri-Cri, as well as the BD-5J, which uses a slightly larger turbojet to make a one-person kitplane that can fly up to 500 km/h!

    The problem with them is that while the power-to-weight ratio (and thus max speed and altitude) is great, the fuel consumption is terrible, and to get reasonable fuel consumption and range you need to fly such high altitudes you need a pressurised cabin, further adding to the cost and complexity.