Sieverts are actually the equivalent dose, which has units of energy deposited per kg of tissue (J/kg).
To calculate equivalent dose from an external radiation source, you have to take the exposure, X (C/kg or R), and calculate the absorbed dose, D, (J/kg or Gy or rad). D depends on the energy of the energy of the incident radiation, the attenuation coefficient of tissue at that given energy, and a few other factors I think. To get from absorbed dose to equivalent dose, H, (J/kg or Sv or rem), you multiply by a unitless conversion factor Q which depends on the type of radiation being absorbed. H = D*Q. For gamma rays, Q is 1. For alpha particles, which are only a risk if the alpha emitter is already in your body, the Q factor is 20.
With respect to your comment that "low-level exposure to radiation causes a cumulative increase in cancer risk" is an assumption made by the bodies who write the rules about nuclear exposure and safety. That is based on their assumption that the body does not repair damaged DNA, ever. There is actually much more evidence to the contrary that low-level exposure to radiation reduces cancer risk. See "Radiation Hormesis".
Yes, some molten salts are very corrosive. I'm working with KCl-MgCl2 eutectic, and when it has oxygen or water in it, it really starts to corrode the stainless and carbon steel that we have, so we have to keep it under an inert (argon) atmosphere to minimize corrosion. Nitrate salts, on the other hand, are actually not very corrosive compared to other molten salts that are being looked at for higher temperature purposes (like nuclear reactors or secondary heat transfer loops).
They should just switch over to ONLY going after people who are making a PROFIT from copyright infringement. If someone is selling another person's copyrighted work (like that Russian MP3 site) and making a profit, clearly a sale has been lost and the copyright owner should be entitled to compensation.
Other than burning hydrocarbons, what would you do with them?
TFA says that theres methane, ethane and other light hydrocarbons. You can make CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs and that kind of fun stuff with methane and ethane, but to make polymers you need ethylene or other hydrocarbons with double or triple bonds.
It probably wouldn't be feasible to transport hydrocarbons from Titan back to Earth for consumption here, the energy costs alone would be astronomical; that and the whole climate change and tendancy to move away from hydrocarbons... The only thing I can see this being "useful" for is if we wanted a "refueling station" in space where we could just load up a spaceship with what is essentially natural gas. The only problem would be finding oxygen to combust it with...
... I don't distribute a complete song? With torrents for example, if I were to upload parts of the song to 1000 people, but my share ratio were 1.00, what could they come after me for?
Although they may be able to say that there is a statistically significant difference between the performance of white boys and white girls, they can only say this is true for the U.S., not for the entire western world. Similarly, it would be incorrect to say that in all "Asian" countries that girls are better than boys at math from the results of their study.
I think a comic strip with stick figures getting sick from radiation poisoning, or simply dying, would be the most effective way to pass on the message that the radioactive waste stored here is dangerous. I'm sure the guys at XKCD would be willing to do it.
The point I was getting at is the following:
It takes a certain energy input and chemical processing to convert the "agricultural waste" into "crude oil." Let's call this value X and it has units of kJ/kg. There are also transportation costs to bring this crude to a refinery where they turn it into all of those fun petroleum products like gasoline and jet fuel, but we'll ignore that for simplicity's sake.
Now we compare it to the amount of energy required to get crude from the Alberta oil sands, and we'll call this value Y, it is also in kJ/kg. Then, since Alberta is "far" away from the refineries in the US, we'll say that there is an amount Z in kJ/kg required to transport the crude.
Now if X is less than Y + Z, then this technology might be viable nowadays. However, I don't think this is the case as the oil from the ag waste requires energy for an actual chemical reaction (X), while the energy required for separation (Y) and transportation (Z) are just physical transformations.
You've said that they use the gas by-product to power the reactions, but this is still using energy and will still be producing emissions. The oil sands use natural gas for the most part (until someone has the vision/balls to build a nuclear reactor up there) to fuel their reactions, which also releases emissions. The natural gas is very clean burning, resulting almost entirely in CO2 and H2O, while burning ag waste gaseous by-products could release all sorts of fun products.
So yeah... speaking from a "green" point of view, if X (Y+Z), this technology might be a step forward. This is ignoring financial considerations like building the ag waste plants, etc.
Sure they can make a lot of crude and fertilizer out of their agricultural waste, but how much energy are they using to convert it? It's all good and wonderful that they can make gasoline out of "waste", but if the energy costs to convert it are more than the production and transportation costs from other sources, either conventional or unconventional (oil sands for example), they may not really be accomplishing anything useful...
However, if they were using say a nuclear plant to power their conversion, that'd be a different story.
In Canada, theft is considered a criminal offense, which means that this would be a criminal case and not a civil one.
In this case I think that it would be the police's job to go to a judge to get the warrant etc.
However, if you started contacting the thief/thieves directly asking for the computers back, I think you risk getting into a verbal contract of somesort and turning it into a civil case. You do NOT want to get tied up in a civil case.
Slashdot Mirror
Sieverts are actually the equivalent dose, which has units of energy deposited per kg of tissue (J/kg).
To calculate equivalent dose from an external radiation source, you have to take the exposure, X (C/kg or R), and calculate the absorbed dose, D, (J/kg or Gy or rad). D depends on the energy of the energy of the incident radiation, the attenuation coefficient of tissue at that given energy, and a few other factors I think. To get from absorbed dose to equivalent dose, H, (J/kg or Sv or rem), you multiply by a unitless conversion factor Q which depends on the type of radiation being absorbed. H = D*Q. For gamma rays, Q is 1. For alpha particles, which are only a risk if the alpha emitter is already in your body, the Q factor is 20.
With respect to your comment that "low-level exposure to radiation causes a cumulative increase in cancer risk" is an assumption made by the bodies who write the rules about nuclear exposure and safety. That is based on their assumption that the body does not repair damaged DNA, ever. There is actually much more evidence to the contrary that low-level exposure to radiation reduces cancer risk. See "Radiation Hormesis".
Yes, some molten salts are very corrosive. I'm working with KCl-MgCl2 eutectic, and when it has oxygen or water in it, it really starts to corrode the stainless and carbon steel that we have, so we have to keep it under an inert (argon) atmosphere to minimize corrosion. Nitrate salts, on the other hand, are actually not very corrosive compared to other molten salts that are being looked at for higher temperature purposes (like nuclear reactors or secondary heat transfer loops).
They should just switch over to ONLY going after people who are making a PROFIT from copyright infringement. If someone is selling another person's copyrighted work (like that Russian MP3 site) and making a profit, clearly a sale has been lost and the copyright owner should be entitled to compensation.
I hope your solar panels work at 93.7 K (-180 C)...
Other than burning hydrocarbons, what would you do with them?
TFA says that theres methane, ethane and other light hydrocarbons. You can make CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs and that kind of fun stuff with methane and ethane, but to make polymers you need ethylene or other hydrocarbons with double or triple bonds.
It probably wouldn't be feasible to transport hydrocarbons from Titan back to Earth for consumption here, the energy costs alone would be astronomical; that and the whole climate change and tendancy to move away from hydrocarbons... The only thing I can see this being "useful" for is if we wanted a "refueling station" in space where we could just load up a spaceship with what is essentially natural gas. The only problem would be finding oxygen to combust it with...
... I don't distribute a complete song? With torrents for example, if I were to upload parts of the song to 1000 people, but my share ratio were 1.00, what could they come after me for?
Although they may be able to say that there is a statistically significant difference between the performance of white boys and white girls, they can only say this is true for the U.S., not for the entire western world. Similarly, it would be incorrect to say that in all "Asian" countries that girls are better than boys at math from the results of their study.
I think a comic strip with stick figures getting sick from radiation poisoning, or simply dying, would be the most effective way to pass on the message that the radioactive waste stored here is dangerous. I'm sure the guys at XKCD would be willing to do it.
The point I was getting at is the following: It takes a certain energy input and chemical processing to convert the "agricultural waste" into "crude oil." Let's call this value X and it has units of kJ/kg. There are also transportation costs to bring this crude to a refinery where they turn it into all of those fun petroleum products like gasoline and jet fuel, but we'll ignore that for simplicity's sake. Now we compare it to the amount of energy required to get crude from the Alberta oil sands, and we'll call this value Y, it is also in kJ/kg. Then, since Alberta is "far" away from the refineries in the US, we'll say that there is an amount Z in kJ/kg required to transport the crude. Now if X is less than Y + Z, then this technology might be viable nowadays. However, I don't think this is the case as the oil from the ag waste requires energy for an actual chemical reaction (X), while the energy required for separation (Y) and transportation (Z) are just physical transformations. You've said that they use the gas by-product to power the reactions, but this is still using energy and will still be producing emissions. The oil sands use natural gas for the most part (until someone has the vision/balls to build a nuclear reactor up there) to fuel their reactions, which also releases emissions. The natural gas is very clean burning, resulting almost entirely in CO2 and H2O, while burning ag waste gaseous by-products could release all sorts of fun products. So yeah... speaking from a "green" point of view, if X (Y+Z), this technology might be a step forward. This is ignoring financial considerations like building the ag waste plants, etc.
Sure they can make a lot of crude and fertilizer out of their agricultural waste, but how much energy are they using to convert it? It's all good and wonderful that they can make gasoline out of "waste", but if the energy costs to convert it are more than the production and transportation costs from other sources, either conventional or unconventional (oil sands for example), they may not really be accomplishing anything useful... However, if they were using say a nuclear plant to power their conversion, that'd be a different story.
In Canada, theft is considered a criminal offense, which means that this would be a criminal case and not a civil one. In this case I think that it would be the police's job to go to a judge to get the warrant etc. However, if you started contacting the thief/thieves directly asking for the computers back, I think you risk getting into a verbal contract of somesort and turning it into a civil case. You do NOT want to get tied up in a civil case.