British nuclear expertise produced dungeness B a nuclear reactor so flawed and inefficient it cannot generate enough energy to cover its running costs.
Yes, Dungeness B is crap. We all know that.
Only the very early 1950s reactors ever generated electricity profitably, which is somewhat ironic as they were specificaly designed to produce weapons grade plutonium and the electicity generation was an add on to soak up surplus energy and produce a good cover story for public consumption.
Not really true. The profitability thing has never been sorted out. You're right about the plutonium, but that only really applied to Windscale, Calder Hall and Chapel Cross.
The UK did lots of research right back with the original Magnox designs with off-load refuelling, to Magnox with on-load refuelling (a purely commercial development from the older ones), to the AGR (40+% thermal efficiency), prestressed concrete pressure vessels, once-though boilers, new stainless steel alloys, welding and construction techniques, fast reactors, fast breeder reactors, PWRs, high temperature helium cooled reactors, various dodgy abortions such as the Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor (a bit like an RBMK (accident waiting to happen) but heavy water moderated instead of graphite), research into neutron embrittlement of steel, control and protection systems, radolytic chemistry, new stuff like the SIR (safe integral reactor) and PBMR (pebble bed modular reactor), research into waste treatment and storage, research into clean-up, decontamination and decomissioning....
Loads and loads of clever stuff. I should know I had to learn about it to be qualified to do my job, and you also meet a lot of intersting people. Nuclear submarines are quite incredible.
I'm glad that he's come out and said this (and it's amazing that it wasn't treated in a more negative way by the Independent - a notoriously hysterically anti-nuclear newspaper).
The Environmental Movement needs to be kicked into reality, and this sort of announcement might get things moving.
Unfortunately for us in the UK, the "environmentalists" coupled with weak-willed and short-sighted politicians have squandered away our nuclear exeprtise and brought about the decline of the civillian nuclear industry, much to my personal dismay and that of former colleagues and friends.
As with many things, the UK once lead the world in nuclear power technology. Now we mearly run our stations into the ground, defuel them, and tidy up. We're burning gas hell for leather, and peppering the countryside with ugly, intusive and pretty feeble wind turbines.
I made the decision to leave the nuclear industry 5 years ago, and I'm glad I did. They were talking of building new capacity maybe in 50 years' time. What good is that?
When your acceptance into university depends on your exma grades, there can be many sleepless nights between your final exam and the notification of the results. In my day, they came by post.
Not to weed out a serious subject, but I think most women are chronic scizos.
Go and read about the menstrual cycle. It's quite normal and applies to nearly 100% of adult women. It is very difficult for a man to empathise with. The best we can do is read and understand and make allowances.
Indeed. I agree with you. The ID card scheme is yet another sledgehammer to crack a nut, and the wrong nut at that.
So maybe I'm paranoid, but I can forsee a situation in 10 years time when we're still "at war" with terrorism, when I drive from England to Scotland, I'll be stopped every 100 miles or so at checkpoints by the police and asked to show my ID, presumably to stop "terrorists" moving about the country.
Sun isn't flavour of the month in the media just now, and especially in the "Linux" media, where Sun is considered to be in league with Microsoft and SCO. To expect a fair and balanced review from linux.com is therefore misguided.
Ah, you've been "bitchslapped." One of the admins doesn't like your ideas and opinions, so they've silenced you. That happened to my old account (karma maximum, posting at 0) after I had a huge argument with some por-Microsoft/anti-UNIX zealot/astroturfer who was talking absolute nonsense.
They already helpfully wear colour-coded uniforms.
Indeed they do:-)
Unfortunatly the neds are quite proficient at having children soon and often.
Yes, it's a universal phenomenon unfortunately. The great unwashed have a propensity to reproduce vigorously. As Werner von Braun said when asked what sort of computer would be best to put on a rocket he said, "Man. And it's the only one readily mass-produced by unskilled labour." Or something.
My sister went to Glasgow University. While she was there, this guy she knew was waiting at a bus stop. A bunch of local neds came along and stabbed him several times (unprovoked).
Why?
Because it was somewhere popular with the local gays.
Have you ever been in Glasgow? Sectarianism my arse, it is barely a problem at all. In fact recent studies have shown sectarianism is a very minimal problem in modern Glasgow. This is because the city has changed a lot since the 60s and earlier.
I was born in Glasgow. Every drunken Glaswegan I meet at some point says, "are you a Catholic or a Protestant?"
I've been following the Scotland section of the BBC's news web site, and from what I can see sectarianism is alive and well in Glasgow, with little children calling each other "proddy dogs" and "catholic scum" and fighting with each other.
I've never felt so scared in all my life as the day I was going to Ayr from Aberdeen and got lost in Glasgow (missed my exit from the M80) and ended up driving past Ibrox stadium. I'd feel safer driving through downtown LA. Luckily they pubs had just opened, so the animals were just starting to get tanked up and the streets were empty. Too many bars to prop up.
What's so bad about drinking alcohol when you're a bit younger than 18? It's illegal to buy it (or to attempt to) or to be sold it, but it's not actually illegal to consume it. I don't think a 16-year-old having two cans of lager is really a great threat to himself or to society (neither do the Germans). It's when you're like I was and drink far to much that it's a problem, but people of all ages can have problems with alcohol.
In Glasgow, they should have CATHOLIC and PROTESTANT in big bold letters on the ID cards. Then the hoologans can look at each others cards and procede to murder each other. This will accelerate the process of Darwinistic selection and in a few more generations, Glasgow will be cured of its religious biggotry.
Drinking isn't the only problem in Glasgow. Sectarianism is much worse. It's one of the reasons my parents left the area after I was born. That and the weather. I would argue that underage smoking is worse than underage drinking. Many a life-long nicotine addiction is started by a few sly cigarettes behind the bikesheds at school.
The real reasons for the UK ID card scheme are to make money issuing the cards (they'll be compulsory soon, but you'll have to pay a lot of money to get one) and to cut benefit fraud. The UK social security (and health) system loses hundreds of millions of pounds a year through false claims for unemployment benefit, income support and foreigners coming on "holliday" to Britain to get free operations on the NHS. The terrorism story is just an excuse. We already have National Insurance numbers (social security numbers) and cards, but they just contain a signature. You never need to show them to anyone - just recite your number. Biometric ID on your National Insurance card might be a slightly better idea, but the whole "terrorism" thing is just hogwash.
The other problem is that with the UK ID card, like the driving license, you don't actually have to carry it, but if asked to see it, you have 7 days to produce it at a police station of your choice.
Now, will someone kindly explain to me how this cures terrorism (or any other crime for that matter)?
Contact lenses can defeat iris scanners, and thin transparent plastic can defeat fingerprint scanners.
There will be nore more "innocent until proven guilty" (not that there really is in England nowadays). Everyone will be under suspicion, and everyone will have to "prove" their innocence. With such a system where infallability is assumed by the powers that be (just listen to or read some of the nonsense David Blunkett comes out with), it will be very difficult indeed to regain your freedom once the system gets its grubby little fingers around your throat.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, Dungeness B is crap. We all know that.
Only the very early 1950s reactors ever generated electricity profitably, which is somewhat ironic as they were specificaly designed to produce weapons grade plutonium and the electicity generation was an add on to soak up surplus energy and produce a good cover story for public consumption.
Not really true. The profitability thing has never been sorted out. You're right about the plutonium, but that only really applied to Windscale, Calder Hall and Chapel Cross.
The UK did lots of research right back with the original Magnox designs with off-load refuelling, to Magnox with on-load refuelling (a purely commercial development from the older ones), to the AGR (40+% thermal efficiency), prestressed concrete pressure vessels, once-though boilers, new stainless steel alloys, welding and construction techniques, fast reactors, fast breeder reactors, PWRs, high temperature helium cooled reactors, various dodgy abortions such as the Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor (a bit like an RBMK (accident waiting to happen) but heavy water moderated instead of graphite), research into neutron embrittlement of steel, control and protection systems, radolytic chemistry, new stuff like the SIR (safe integral reactor) and PBMR (pebble bed modular reactor), research into waste treatment and storage, research into clean-up, decontamination and decomissioning....
Loads and loads of clever stuff. I should know I had to learn about it to be qualified to do my job, and you also meet a lot of intersting people. Nuclear submarines are quite incredible.
Nuclear fusion is getting there slowly but surely.
The Environmental Movement needs to be kicked into reality, and this sort of announcement might get things moving.
Unfortunately for us in the UK, the "environmentalists" coupled with weak-willed and short-sighted politicians have squandered away our nuclear exeprtise and brought about the decline of the civillian nuclear industry, much to my personal dismay and that of former colleagues and friends.
As with many things, the UK once lead the world in nuclear power technology. Now we mearly run our stations into the ground, defuel them, and tidy up. We're burning gas hell for leather, and peppering the countryside with ugly, intusive and pretty feeble wind turbines.
I made the decision to leave the nuclear industry 5 years ago, and I'm glad I did. They were talking of building new capacity maybe in 50 years' time. What good is that?
When your acceptance into university depends on your exma grades, there can be many sleepless nights between your final exam and the notification of the results. In my day, they came by post.
Have you read his autobiography?
It is superb.
Go and read about the menstrual cycle. It's quite normal and applies to nearly 100% of adult women. It is very difficult for a man to empathise with. The best we can do is read and understand and make allowances.
So maybe I'm paranoid, but I can forsee a situation in 10 years time when we're still "at war" with terrorism, when I drive from England to Scotland, I'll be stopped every 100 miles or so at checkpoints by the police and asked to show my ID, presumably to stop "terrorists" moving about the country.
Nice one mods. Your ironic humour is not lost on me.
Were you there when the "reviewer" did the install? Do you believe everything you read?
I don't know... kids today...
Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong. You are a troll.
We have an NHS number printed in purple on a flimsy piece of card. Mine is somewhere... That's it. It's realted to your National Insurance number.
Sun isn't flavour of the month in the media just now, and especially in the "Linux" media, where Sun is considered to be in league with Microsoft and SCO. To expect a fair and balanced review from linux.com is therefore misguided.
Ah, you've been "bitchslapped." One of the admins doesn't like your ideas and opinions, so they've silenced you. That happened to my old account (karma maximum, posting at 0) after I had a huge argument with some por-Microsoft/anti-UNIX zealot/astroturfer who was talking absolute nonsense.
Edinburgh. What a dump :-(
Indeed they do :-)
Unfortunatly the neds are quite proficient at having children soon and often.
Yes, it's a universal phenomenon unfortunately. The great unwashed have a propensity to reproduce vigorously. As Werner von Braun said when asked what sort of computer would be best to put on a rocket he said, "Man. And it's the only one readily mass-produced by unskilled labour." Or something.
Why?
Because it was somewhere popular with the local gays.
What a lovely place.
Luckily he survived.
I was born in Glasgow. Every drunken Glaswegan I meet at some point says, "are you a Catholic or a Protestant?"
I've been following the Scotland section of the BBC's news web site, and from what I can see sectarianism is alive and well in Glasgow, with little children calling each other "proddy dogs" and "catholic scum" and fighting with each other.
I've never felt so scared in all my life as the day I was going to Ayr from Aberdeen and got lost in Glasgow (missed my exit from the M80) and ended up driving past Ibrox stadium. I'd feel safer driving through downtown LA. Luckily they pubs had just opened, so the animals were just starting to get tanked up and the streets were empty. Too many bars to prop up.
What's so bad about drinking alcohol when you're a bit younger than 18? It's illegal to buy it (or to attempt to) or to be sold it, but it's not actually illegal to consume it. I don't think a 16-year-old having two cans of lager is really a great threat to himself or to society (neither do the Germans). It's when you're like I was and drink far to much that it's a problem, but people of all ages can have problems with alcohol.
I can just see this happening at the corner shop.
"See you Jimmy, gee us a look at yer haun. That's nae your fingerprint. Get oot o' ma shop 'afore ah pop a cap in yer arse."
In Glasgow, they should have CATHOLIC and PROTESTANT in big bold letters on the ID cards. Then the hoologans can look at each others cards and procede to murder each other. This will accelerate the process of Darwinistic selection and in a few more generations, Glasgow will be cured of its religious biggotry.
Drinking isn't the only problem in Glasgow. Sectarianism is much worse. It's one of the reasons my parents left the area after I was born. That and the weather. I would argue that underage smoking is worse than underage drinking. Many a life-long nicotine addiction is started by a few sly cigarettes behind the bikesheds at school.
The real reasons for the UK ID card scheme are to make money issuing the cards (they'll be compulsory soon, but you'll have to pay a lot of money to get one) and to cut benefit fraud. The UK social security (and health) system loses hundreds of millions of pounds a year through false claims for unemployment benefit, income support and foreigners coming on "holliday" to Britain to get free operations on the NHS. The terrorism story is just an excuse. We already have National Insurance numbers (social security numbers) and cards, but they just contain a signature. You never need to show them to anyone - just recite your number. Biometric ID on your National Insurance card might be a slightly better idea, but the whole "terrorism" thing is just hogwash.
Now, will someone kindly explain to me how this cures terrorism (or any other crime for that matter)?
Contact lenses can defeat iris scanners, and thin transparent plastic can defeat fingerprint scanners.
There will be nore more "innocent until proven guilty" (not that there really is in England nowadays). Everyone will be under suspicion, and everyone will have to "prove" their innocence. With such a system where infallability is assumed by the powers that be (just listen to or read some of the nonsense David Blunkett comes out with), it will be very difficult indeed to regain your freedom once the system gets its grubby little fingers around your throat.
Hear hear.