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Toshiba Pushes Safe, Small Nuclear Reactor Design
core plexus writes "This article describes a proposal from a Japanese corporation that wants to thrust the Interior Alaska community of Galena into international limelight by donating a new, unconventional electricity-generating plant that would light and heat the Yukon River village pollution-free for 30 years. There's a catch, of course. It's a nuclear reactor. Not a huge, Three Mile Island-type power plant but a new generation of small nuclear reactor about the size of a big spruce tree. Designers say the technology is safe, simple and cheap enough to replace diesel-fired generators as the primary energy source for villages across rural Alaska."
I don't have much faith in them. I had a toshiba laptop once, I kept it on for a week and it melted. :(
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
Gives new meaning to the term "Northern Lights".
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
So's fire (unless you count dragons).
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Pitr bought out Toshiba, and started up his plutonium-powered UPS device again?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Are we supposed to take this article seriously? Randy Virgin? Either his parents didn't like him, or this is some kinda spoof!
Don't you see? Nukular stuff is like guns, it's EE-VILE!
Like guns, the uranium will leap out and attack people. Don't give me that "safety" crap. I don't want to be disturbed by facts...
That's why Toshiba is testing it in Alaska, and not in Japan, right?!?
WOW! You must be some sort of comedic genius!
Sony today announced it's latest line of personal entertainment products that, miraculously, don't need batteries, ever. Say hello to the new Sony NukeMan.
WARNING: RADIOLOGICAL HAZARD. DO NOT OPEN; NO USER-SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE. IF DEVICE BECOMES OVERLY WARM, IMMERSE IMMEDIATELY IN HEAVY WATER AND CALL THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY'S RADIOLOGICAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM. DO NOT USE WHILE PREGNANT OR NURSING AN INFANT. DOES NOT CONFER SUPER-POWERS UPON USER. KEEP AWAY FROM EASILY-MUTATED ARACHNIDS.
Available in red, purple, pink, sky blue, and glow-in-the-dark green.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
A major Japaneese corporation donates a high tech, ultraclean nuclear reactor to remote Alaskan village. The plant goes online, and everyone is happy until....
One day, all contact with the village is lost. A crack team of physicist/commandos are sent in, headed by Jean-Claude Van Damme or Vin Dielel (the Governator's too busy). What they find will SHOCK and HORRIFY the world, horribly disfigured villagers, mutant killer walruses (they came inland, they're mutants!) and a conspiracy going further than they could have imagined.
There is a reason for everything. Sometimes that reason just sucks.
Well, they tried that with a lizard and a moth.
It didn't work out too well for the Japanese.
So is this one of those situations where limelight = green glow?
Wouldn't they just find a way to buy a brand new core? That way they get the 90 day warranty.
Randy Virgin sounds like a villian in an Austin Powers film
I googled for "bomb neutron deflector"... should I just ignore the black helecopters that just landed outside my house?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
it is a pet, which is basically a waste of resources.
Why do we continue to let you have food? After all, you are just a waste of resources too. We should instead transfer those resources to someone who actually contributes to society.
Jerk!
You seem to imply that in Soviet Russia, you build small nuclear reactors.
In Soviet Russia, small nuclear reactors build YOU.
$20 million for 10 Mw? - what they need to make is a smaller one - I would pay 100K for a 100 kW reactor to put in my back yard. Oh, wait, I live in Chapel Hill, and the greenies would much rather burn tons of coal and wood. Never mind.
Alaskan homes need a lot of heating.
someone should send them a couple of athlons for xmas.
Oh wait, wait........imagine a beowulf cluster....oh fuck it.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
See! See! These Lunix terrorists are even discussing nuclear devices on this intarweb-forum!
Think about the children! What will happen if we don't stop these evil-doers now!
sincerely,
Darl McBride
So... to answer your question -- avoid West Texas at all costs.
Sound advice, regardless of the environment.
Thinkit3 wrote:
> Too many luddites are trying to reverse the tide of
> technology.
Nope, just trying to reverse the tide of foolish and careless use of technology. Technology is only good when mixed with large doses of wisdom.
> Nuclear technology is a triumph of physics--it's
> something no other animal has mastered.
We haven't mastered the fire of the atom. Like the fire from heaven, we stole it, and can barely control it. Like the fire from heaven that destroys homes and rampages through forests and entire towns, the fire from the atom has run wild: Bravo, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Tokai, among others. Our stupidity, carelessness, greed, and pride have cost lives.
The only animal that ever mastered this fire is the child of H-bomb Bravo: Godzilla, the Dreaded God of the Atom and of Destruction. Play with his fire, and he will burn you.
After the big blackout, there were a number of articles on various new, safe, technologies that could be used to power individual buildings instead of relying on a grid. Perhaps one or more of those technologies would do the job without the risks associated with a reactor.
"Our people.. stricken with disease.
You.. you played with the fires of the gods.
And you dare to come here and ask us for help!
You betrayed us! You expect us to trust you after what you have done?"
Infant Island Chief, "Godzilla vs. Mothra" (US Version), 1964
It's called the Law of Mass Action, and it has nothing to do with politics or leaping out at anybody or talking funny or being a Luddite. It's a physical law that simply says that the more reactants you place in a vessel, the more product you're going to get. This applies to guns and it applies to nuclear waste. The more guns in circulation, the more people die. The more radioactive material in circulation, the more people get irradiated. You might as well pump cyanide gas into everybody's house and then pass a law telling them not to breathe for all the good developing "safe" guns or "safe" reactors is going to do.
Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus.
the logic being you would gain superhuman powers and hence cool names like dying-of-cancer-man and oh-the-burning-pain-man.
That would be sweet! As Dying-of-Cancer Man, you could fight crime using the awesome power of your inspiring tale of courage!
DoCM: "Stop, villain! *pant* Your nefarious schemes are over! *hack cough* Oh, there goes the last of my hair..."
Villain: "Your body wracked with cancer and the effects of chemotherapy, I'm surprised you can stand, much less threaten me."
DoCM: "I just want to leave the world... a better place than I found it..."
Henchman: "You can't hurt him, boss... He's dying of cancer!"
Villain: "You're right! Such courage and love of life... We surrender, Dying-of-Cancer Man!"
The enemies of Democracy are
You understand that the reason Alaska is cold, is because it gets less solar energy than places that are not cold, right?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
I bet we can answer both questions with an "In Soviet Russia" joke. Who's up for the challenge?
The
Inuit officials have declared that another word for 'snow' will be introduced into their vocabulary, this time referring to 'irradiated, green, and glowing.'
UNIX: Find it, fsck it, forget it.
"Sure they say it's impossible to spill (radioactive material) for it to get out. But nothing in this world is impossible," he said.
Except, of course, for the public to rationally consider anything at all with "nuclear" in its name. That is really impossible.
What is it with people and "nuclear"? This reactor is suggested by the Japanese of all people. They were nuked. Twice. If anyone should automatically shut down his brain and cringe at the sound "nuclear", it should be them. Yet they seem to be thinking rationally about it. In the meanwhile, it is the Americans who nuked them who black out when hearing the word. What is this, some sort of guilt trip?
Wait, I got it. These Japanese are also scared of nuclear power. But they hell-bent on revenge! They'll install these miniature nuclear plants all over the USA, and at a predetermined time will cause them all to explode, killing everyone in the continent! Notice they don't suggest it be used in Japan? Launch a pre-emptive strike now!