Are you writing from 2005? I travel all over the country on business. Part of my job is to look through technical manuals and make copies of drawings and other information. I have never been to an office which did not have a big, serious, multifunction scanner/fax/printer. 90% of them scan to email or a network drive, and the other 10% just scanned to a network drive. I have not seen a flatbed scanner used seriously in many years. They are all on the shelf collecting dust.
The USPS doesn't want to change, or can't. They are an supertanker with 2 steering wheels- the USPS leadership on one and congress on the other. They already do USPS money orders, why not make them electronic? They feed letters into automatic sorting machines at various points along the delivery route, why can't they have a scannable barcode with tracking information on each piece of first class mail?
One point that I would make is that a first class envelope usually carries a lot more weight than an email. Somebody has to open it up, and read it, and then physically put it in the garbage, or write back. E-mails to companies too often disappear into an abyss or are replied to with a generic form letter. Companies lately have been burying their e-mail addresses too behind e-mail forms, support forums, etc. Their postal address is usually wide open. Sometimes e-mail support is offshore to India or who-knows-where, but will they really forward my postal mail to India? I doubt it.
By the time I write a quick letter, put postage on it, print it out, and walk it out to my mailbox, I would have just found the e-mail address in some cases. While the delivery is slow, the time for me to get it out may be the same or faster. And the response will probably be better.
My energy use last month was about 22kW-hr per day according to the utility. That's about 920 watts continuously. This is for a 3 bedroom house inhabited by 2 people, with a 55" TV, a couple computers, air conditioning set at 77F with an average outside temperature of 75F to 90F.
Our house is pretty energy efficient, and our energy use is typically below the norm. I do work in the power industry, and the average that they tend to use is 1.2kW. Not 2 or 3kW average. This is the problem when journalists abuse measurements like this.
Most of the Asian counterparts which you will encounter have better English than your Chinese/Japanese/Korean will ever be. For the forseeable future, the bulk of the workflow is going to be China doing the manufacturing subcontracting for the US. Not the other way around. That means we are sending them the drawings and specification, in English, and it is their responsibility to understand them. If they don't or can't, it isn't like there is a shortage of Chinese manufacturing companies....
If the situation changes and the US is manufacturing huge amounts of goods for the Chinese market, maybe it would be worth considering. If Chinese students stopped studying English as a second language en masse, maybe it would be worth bothering with. I'm sure someone could come up with some different anecdotes, but as someone who works for a Japanese company, and has spent 5 months in Japan, spending a couple years in school learning the language would be a very inefficient use of my time. Picking up the language while you are in the country? That's a different story altogether.
When Netflix raised their 1+streaming plan to $16, I went to the 2DVD plan. This was based on the very limited streaming selection, plus my wife's first language is not english so she needs subtitles. Despite our owning a Roku and a Toshiba TV that support Netflix streaming, neither of these devices support the Netflix streaming. Netflix is really screwing the streaming customers. I feel pretty validated with my decision after hearing this.
I haven't heard many people going to a DVD-only plan. Most people were planning on canceling, or doing the streaming plan +Redbox. Does this change anyone's plans?
When I visited the Philippines about 2 years ago, I was struck by how strong the communities were (I was working for a week near Legazpi City, in the jungle). It did appear that the children would just run amok and people from the community just gathered in the street at night with all their neighbors to talk. On our commute, the work van had to slow way down in some neighborhoods because the whole neighborhood was in the street talking it up, smoking and drinking. This wasn't any special occasion, it happened every morning and every night.
When I look at the US with our sterile suburbs, 2 TV's and 2 cars in every house, yes we are more wealthy. Most of the people I saw in the Philippines didn't have 2 dollars in their pocket. Their floors were made of dirt and their houses were maybe 2 rooms 500 sq ft. I go back and forth to work with my BMW, a luxury most of these people will never know (some of them might have a family 125cc motorcycle). But these people were genuinely happy, friendly with their neighbors, and their extended family lived in the neighborhood or next door. I saw very few people that looked sad. Tired maybe, but not depressed or sad.
The US is first world country, but as far as community strength goes, Philippines has us beat by a mile.
The average cost for scrubbers today (2006) is roughly $300 per kilowatt. For a 1,000-megawatt power plant, a relatively common size for coal-fired facilities, the cost for scrubbers for all boilers would be approximately $300 million.
I won't dispute this- the numbers are probably in the ballpark. But we also have to consider the opportunity cost. Typically you build the scrubber while the unit is running, then connect it when it is shut down. For a 1GW plant to be offline for 42 or 49 days (a reasonable time to do the work), you are losing massive amounts of money in opportunity since you are not being profitable. Most places quote the standard "million dollars a day" figure, although that may be higher or lower. Then if the plant belongs to a utility (as opposed to a independent plant) they have to buy the power from someone else so they can supply their customers. That costs them too.
Scrubbers create a big loss on the system too. They are a big restriction on the boiler, and require various power sucking apparatus. The plant efficiency drops (around 4-8%). The plant either has to eat this- forever, costing them hundreds of millions of dollars in the future, or find a way to get this back through turbine upgrades, boiler upgrades, or some other way.
Its pretty easy for a scrubber project to cost a billion dollars.
Scrubbers have been required in America since the 1977 revisions to the Clean Air Act.
This is a big blanket statement. The Clean Air Act has been revised many times over the years. Many coal plants are only now having to consider installing scrubbers of the type which we are talking about here. For many plants, it is a decision which means spending a billion dollars or closing the plant. I do think that we should have scrubbers on the plants, but we are at the point where we have clean coal and Washington keeps wanting to pile on more regulation. When is enough?
I've not known many marijuana users, or alcoholics for that matter who will harm someone to get money to acquire their drugs. Crack, Cocain, Meth, Pain Killers, Tranquilizer, etc users on the other hand, will go to great lengths to get their next high. I've seen many, many friends go down this path, and it's truly sad to see.
Is this indicative of the drug or the type of person who is drawn to or particularly succeptable to addiction to the drug?
For example- We all know the stereotype of the lazy pothead who sleeps on his friends' couch and smokes weed all day, bouncing from low-paying job to low-paying job and never doing anything productive with his life. Without weed, would he have been an astronaut? Or is that just the type of person he was anyway?
NERC standards are pretty ambiguous in many cases. I only deal with the NERC standards for power generation units (not transmission lines) but for power generation, NERC standards only apply to "Critical" assets. "Critical" assets are currently defined (as far as I am aware) by the utilities themselves. In the future this will be defined by FERC/NERC.
As I said, power generation and power transmission NERC standards may be different, but the standards that I see are oftentimes ambiguous and in many cases the utilities' implementation varies widely depending on their interpretation of the standard.
But those are (were, it differs and is changing) on 400V three phase here. As is industrial equipment, bigger motors, welders etc (some of which are not uncommon in home workshops). And you don't have that available. The "European" system is 230/400V, not just 230V.
Actually, 277/480V is quite common in the states for commercial and industrial uses. You can get it in your house too if you are willing to pay for it, but most people are not since there isn't any compelling reason to do so. The monthly service fees for the 480V hookup far exceed the cost of the extra copper that is required for the lower voltage cable.
Keep in mind that electricity in the states is commonly distributed at 14.4kV and 120/240V is just the voltage you get after it has been converted by the step-down "pig pole" transformer on the neighborhood telephone pole. 120/240V is a convenient standard for home users the same way that 277/480 is a convenient standard for commercial and industrial customers. If you need something special and are willing to pay, the electric utility is more than happy to work with you and bill you accordingly.
There is a slight advantage to having 240v but not much. Cables can be thinner and carry the same amount of power since the amps are lower. But, for the highest power devices in US homes (water heaters, clothes driers, ovens, etc) they are already on 240V. For other appliances there isn't enough advantage to justify switching the entire country and changing billions of dollars of infrastructure. The efficiency advantage is small.
60hz has the advantage as far as frequency goes. 60hz distribution systems are slightly more efficient. 60Hz steam turbines are smaller than their 50hz counterparts, which saves material costs for turbine manufacturers (and the utilities who buy them). There is basically no difference to the end-user. All the advantages/disadvantages are on the utility and distribution side. Again, there is no compelling reason to change the entire US over to 50Hz, and change out billions of dollars of infrastructure.
This article is from IndustrialInfo.com. Free registration is required for most articles, paid registration required for others. My company has a subscription. My company (a major turbine manufacturer) is also helping to bring the 20GW of lost generation back online. We are also frantically bringing mothballed hydro, coal, and other resources online since some of the coal plants were damaged in the earthquake. Even if you could hookup ships to the Japanese grid, it is a drop in the bucket.
Tohoku Electric Power Company is Japan's Hardest-Hit Power Provider
Released March 16, 2011 | TOKYO, JAPAN
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Among Japan's power providers affected by Friday's earthquake, Tohoku Electric Power Company Incorporated (TYO:9506 ) (Tokuden) (Sendai, Japan) was hit hardest. Immediately following the earthquake, nearly 5 million households were without power, and the region lost nearly 20 gigawatts (GW) of capacity. Tokuden's service area is comprised of the Tohoku region, the northern part of the main island. This region includes Aomori prefecture, Iwate prefecture, Akita prefecture, Miyagi prefecture, Yamagata prefecture, Fukushima prefecture and Niigata prefecture.
At this time, approximately 550,000 households are still without power, including 325,000 that have been completely destroyed by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures were hit hardest.
Because of what was expected to be a severe imbalance between power supply and demand, Tokuden announced its intention to implement rolling blackouts on Monday, March 14. However there has been a decrease in demand and an increase in supply, counteracting the imbalance in capacity. Recent precipitation in the region has also increased the electrical output of hydropower stations owned and operated by Tohoku that have been restarted for the spring season. The prospect of rolling blackouts is steadily becoming less likely due to a larger-than-expected supply, the widespread devastation and conservation measures. On Thursday, March 17, Tohoku expects to have 10 GW of electricity available for its service area.
Onagawa nuclear power station, located in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, as well as Higashidori nuclear power station, located in eastern Aomori prefecture, remain offline. Onagawa has an operating capacity of 2,174 megawatts (MW), and units 1 and 3 safely powered down following the earthquake and achieved stability by 1:30 a.m. JST Saturday, March 12. Unit 2 was scheduled to resume operations on Friday, following a scheduled maintenance outage that began last November. Restart procedures were terminated immediately, and the unit was safely powered down.
Higashidori, with a generating capacity of 1,100 MW via one boiling water reactor, was also down for scheduled maintenance and was not active at the time of the earthquake. Maintenance began in February and Tohoku may bring the station up to full capacity by the end of July.
It comes from Industrial Info Resources. Registration seems to be required. Most of the articles on the Japanese earthquake and its repercussions so far have been free but my company has a subscription to the nonfree articles.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Update
Released March 17, 2011 | TOKYO, JAPAN
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On Thursday, March 17, at 9:30 a.m. JST, firefighting trucks were dispatched to Tokyo Electric Power Company Incorporated's (TYO:9501) (TEPCO) (Tokyo) Fukushima Daiichi units 3 and 4 to replenish water in the spent fuel pool. Because Unit 3 has not reached a stable temperature, the spent fuel rods continue to produce heat. Water must be kept flowing through the spent fuel pool to keep the system cool, or the high temperatures of the spent fuel rods will cause the water to boil off. If the spent fuel rods are exposed, they will begin to melt and emit radiation.
At 9:48 a.m. JST, helicopters began releasing seawater over Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station units 3 and 4 in an attempt to cool the units. TEPCO is also discussing the option of releasing boric acid over Unit 4. Boric acid has a high boiling point of 300 degrees Celsius. When water, which has a boiling point of 100 degrees Celsius, is mixed with boric acid, its boiling point rises. The current temperature of Unit 4 is approximately 180 degrees Celsius. Between helicopter-delivered water and possible boric acid treatment, Unit 4 could reach stable temperatures.
On the previous day, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that the water in the spent fuel pool of Unit 4 had completely boiled off, prompting the United States Embassy in Tokyo to urge American citizens to evacuate the area beyond an 80-kilometer (50-mile) radius. TEPCO has refuted the announcement, stating that the water is low, but not completely boiled off.
Units 4, 5, and 6 were all inactive at the time of Friday's earthquake due to scheduled maintenance. Unit 4 has been down since November 30, 2010, and Unit 6 has been inactive since August 14, 2010, while Unit 5 has been offline since January 3 of this year.
Radiation Levels at Fukushima Daiichi Fall; Radiation and Sieverts Explained
Released March 17, 2011 | TOKYO, JAPAN
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has reported that radiation levels have fallen steadily over the past 12 hours at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. As of Wednesday, March 16, at 5:00 p.m. JST, equipment at the main plant gate of Fukushima Daiichi detected radiation levels of 752 microSieverts per hour. This is equivalent to 0.000752 Sieverts or 0.752 miliSieverts. A Sievert is the International System of Units derivation of dose equivalent, which is the measure of effects of ionizing radiation on tissue.
MicroSieverts are the current unit of measure used to describe radiation levels emitted from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.
Single-dose examples include the following:
One banana: 0.0001 milliSieverts
Mammogram: 5 milliSieverts
Chest CT Scan: 6 to 18 milliSieverts
Hourly dose examples include the following:
Highest radiation recorded at Unit 2 of Fukushima Daiichi: 8 milliSieverts per hour
Highest radiation recorded at Fukushima Daiichi main plant gate: 11 millilSieverts per hour
Standard dose in relation to Chernobyl Unit 4 and its fragments after explosion: 10 to 300 Sieverts per hour
Yearly dose examples include the following:
Residing in close proximity to a nuclear power station: 0.0001 to 0.01 milliSieverts per year
Residing in close proximity to a coal-fired power station: 0.0003 milliSieverts per year
Smoking 1.5 packs of cigarettes per day: 13 milliSieverts per year
Lowest clearly carcinogenic level: 100 milliSieverts per year
An information breakdown similar to this one was broadcast to the Japanese public via television shortly following the first mention of any trouble at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.
That's completely right. Natural gas is much cleaner so it is far easier to get the required environmental permits. The fuel oil clogs up the burners which results in either more maintenance, less reliability, or both. You need special fuel-conditioning equipment for fuel oil, but natural gas can be basically burned straight from the pipeline (with appropriate pressure regulation).
As another poster said, the heat is recovered using heat exchangers. You cool down the desalinated water and brine and heat up the incoming water.
But wait, there's more- every system likes this runs in a vacuum. Water boils at a much lower temperature in a vacuum. Maybe the system runs at 60C instead of 100C.
The problem is that this temperature is too low to kill bacteria and other nasty stuff in the water. So you need to treat with UV and chemicals. This increases complexity of the system slightly and usually requires someone who knows that they are doing to operate it. It's great for ships and large industrial desalination but I admit it is not so good for small installations. However, one of the big advantages of thermal desalination is that you only need 1 plant since it is very reliable with little downtime. A reverse-osmosis plant usually requires 2 trains- you need a spare RO train to keep up the supply while you are cleaning the membranes.
Requiring no water-cooling system, oil or catalytic converter, it will provide vehicle weight savings of up to 15% - with a consequent reduction in fuel consumption and carbon emissions - compared to a piston engine. Further environmental benefits will be gained from its fast warm up (a few seconds, as opposed to several minutes for a conventional engine), cleaner combustion and lower manufacturing energy requirements.
This is some misleading advertising. Are they seriously proposing to run a turbine at over 10,000RPM* on bearings that have no oil? You need oil at those speeds for mechanical bearings. And then, the oil is going to heat up so you will probably need to cool it also. Maybe they can get away with air cooling for that but it is still misleading.
*this is probably the minimum for a small and efficient turbine of this size. It would probably be 30,000 RPM or more.
The summary's hyperbole is completely opposite to reality. The reason the energy companies aren't building so much these days is because electricity demand has dramatically decreased compared to 3 years ago. Natural gas prices have fallen so much that many gas turbine plants are frequently as cheap or cheaper than coal in some regions. 3 years ago, the electrical demand in this country increased every year, which required the building of new plants constantly. Now, the demand has been mostly flat for the last couple of years. It doesn't make sense to build anything new until the economy IMPROVES and people start buying new toys and running manufacturing plants at full capacity again.
Because it is a popular bill with broad bi-partisan support, its a good place to stick riders and amendments that a small minority wants passed. The bill then becomes nastier and nastier as the congress attaches more and more crap. Finally it becomes a big problem for people who want to vote for it due to all the other BS that has gotten shoehorned in. Do they vote for it and vote for all the unread amendments, or do they vote no and face commercials about how they voted against volume controls for commercials?
I experienced table-top POS terminals during a recent trip to Nova Scotia. Apparently they are very popular there, and the waitress couldn't believe that I had never seen one in the US.
The biggest problem is that in Europe, tipping is not expected or required. In the US, you can write the tip and walk away without the waitress watching you. If they go to table-top POS terminals like I saw in Canada, then you need to tip in front of your server. As an American, it was not very comfortable, although I suppose it is more profitable for the waitstaff.
As an aside, when I was younger, tipping was commonly 10% and 15% for good service. Now my coworkers give me a hard time if I give any less than 20%. I think its time that we pay servers more and do away with the tip. The hidden cost of tipping is starting to be a substantial part of the restaurant bill.
My wife is Korean, but born in Japan. Her grandparents traveled to Japan about 65 years ago. I don't have their whole story, but it isn't a good one. The US is at least partly responsible for dividing the two Korea's at the end of WWII, which eventually led to the Korean War. The Koreans in recent history have had a horrible time and most of it is the fault of foreign power (Japan, US/USSR/ etc). The progress South Korea has made since the end of combat operations (the war never ended) is amazing considering all of this.
At first, I thought the Best Korea joke was hilarious. But now, I think its really a tragedy.
Watchmen might have been a faithful adaptation, but as a movie it wasn't that good. The first 6 minutes or so are terrifically well done- That's about as far into the poor-quality CAM copy before I decided that this movie was worth my money and I ran to the theater. The rest of the movie though was a huge disappointment. I still want my $8 back.
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Are you writing from 2005? I travel all over the country on business. Part of my job is to look through technical manuals and make copies of drawings and other information. I have never been to an office which did not have a big, serious, multifunction scanner/fax/printer. 90% of them scan to email or a network drive, and the other 10% just scanned to a network drive. I have not seen a flatbed scanner used seriously in many years. They are all on the shelf collecting dust.
The USPS doesn't want to change, or can't. They are an supertanker with 2 steering wheels- the USPS leadership on one and congress on the other. They already do USPS money orders, why not make them electronic? They feed letters into automatic sorting machines at various points along the delivery route, why can't they have a scannable barcode with tracking information on each piece of first class mail?
One point that I would make is that a first class envelope usually carries a lot more weight than an email. Somebody has to open it up, and read it, and then physically put it in the garbage, or write back. E-mails to companies too often disappear into an abyss or are replied to with a generic form letter. Companies lately have been burying their e-mail addresses too behind e-mail forms, support forums, etc. Their postal address is usually wide open. Sometimes e-mail support is offshore to India or who-knows-where, but will they really forward my postal mail to India? I doubt it.
By the time I write a quick letter, put postage on it, print it out, and walk it out to my mailbox, I would have just found the e-mail address in some cases. While the delivery is slow, the time for me to get it out may be the same or faster. And the response will probably be better.
My energy use last month was about 22kW-hr per day according to the utility. That's about 920 watts continuously. This is for a 3 bedroom house inhabited by 2 people, with a 55" TV, a couple computers, air conditioning set at 77F with an average outside temperature of 75F to 90F.
Our house is pretty energy efficient, and our energy use is typically below the norm. I do work in the power industry, and the average that they tend to use is 1.2kW. Not 2 or 3kW average. This is the problem when journalists abuse measurements like this.
Why?
Most of the Asian counterparts which you will encounter have better English than your Chinese/Japanese/Korean will ever be. For the forseeable future, the bulk of the workflow is going to be China doing the manufacturing subcontracting for the US. Not the other way around. That means we are sending them the drawings and specification, in English, and it is their responsibility to understand them. If they don't or can't, it isn't like there is a shortage of Chinese manufacturing companies....
If the situation changes and the US is manufacturing huge amounts of goods for the Chinese market, maybe it would be worth considering. If Chinese students stopped studying English as a second language en masse, maybe it would be worth bothering with. I'm sure someone could come up with some different anecdotes, but as someone who works for a Japanese company, and has spent 5 months in Japan, spending a couple years in school learning the language would be a very inefficient use of my time. Picking up the language while you are in the country? That's a different story altogether.
Damn, I should have previewed one more time. Roku and my Toshiba TV do not support Netflix Subtitle streaming.
When Netflix raised their 1+streaming plan to $16, I went to the 2DVD plan. This was based on the very limited streaming selection, plus my wife's first language is not english so she needs subtitles. Despite our owning a Roku and a Toshiba TV that support Netflix streaming, neither of these devices support the Netflix streaming. Netflix is really screwing the streaming customers. I feel pretty validated with my decision after hearing this.
I haven't heard many people going to a DVD-only plan. Most people were planning on canceling, or doing the streaming plan +Redbox. Does this change anyone's plans?
When I visited the Philippines about 2 years ago, I was struck by how strong the communities were (I was working for a week near Legazpi City, in the jungle). It did appear that the children would just run amok and people from the community just gathered in the street at night with all their neighbors to talk. On our commute, the work van had to slow way down in some neighborhoods because the whole neighborhood was in the street talking it up, smoking and drinking. This wasn't any special occasion, it happened every morning and every night. When I look at the US with our sterile suburbs, 2 TV's and 2 cars in every house, yes we are more wealthy. Most of the people I saw in the Philippines didn't have 2 dollars in their pocket. Their floors were made of dirt and their houses were maybe 2 rooms 500 sq ft. I go back and forth to work with my BMW, a luxury most of these people will never know (some of them might have a family 125cc motorcycle). But these people were genuinely happy, friendly with their neighbors, and their extended family lived in the neighborhood or next door. I saw very few people that looked sad. Tired maybe, but not depressed or sad. The US is first world country, but as far as community strength goes, Philippines has us beat by a mile.
The average cost for scrubbers today (2006) is roughly $300 per kilowatt. For a 1,000-megawatt power plant, a relatively common size for coal-fired facilities, the cost for scrubbers for all boilers would be approximately $300 million.
I won't dispute this- the numbers are probably in the ballpark. But we also have to consider the opportunity cost. Typically you build the scrubber while the unit is running, then connect it when it is shut down. For a 1GW plant to be offline for 42 or 49 days (a reasonable time to do the work), you are losing massive amounts of money in opportunity since you are not being profitable. Most places quote the standard "million dollars a day" figure, although that may be higher or lower. Then if the plant belongs to a utility (as opposed to a independent plant) they have to buy the power from someone else so they can supply their customers. That costs them too.
Scrubbers create a big loss on the system too. They are a big restriction on the boiler, and require various power sucking apparatus. The plant efficiency drops (around 4-8%). The plant either has to eat this- forever, costing them hundreds of millions of dollars in the future, or find a way to get this back through turbine upgrades, boiler upgrades, or some other way.
Its pretty easy for a scrubber project to cost a billion dollars.
Scrubbers have been required in America since the 1977 revisions to the Clean Air Act.
This is a big blanket statement. The Clean Air Act has been revised many times over the years. Many coal plants are only now having to consider installing scrubbers of the type which we are talking about here. For many plants, it is a decision which means spending a billion dollars or closing the plant. I do think that we should have scrubbers on the plants, but we are at the point where we have clean coal and Washington keeps wanting to pile on more regulation. When is enough?
I've not known many marijuana users, or alcoholics for that matter who will harm someone to get money to acquire their drugs. Crack, Cocain, Meth, Pain Killers, Tranquilizer, etc users on the other hand, will go to great lengths to get their next high. I've seen many, many friends go down this path, and it's truly sad to see.
Is this indicative of the drug or the type of person who is drawn to or particularly succeptable to addiction to the drug?
For example- We all know the stereotype of the lazy pothead who sleeps on his friends' couch and smokes weed all day, bouncing from low-paying job to low-paying job and never doing anything productive with his life. Without weed, would he have been an astronaut? Or is that just the type of person he was anyway?
NERC standards are pretty ambiguous in many cases. I only deal with the NERC standards for power generation units (not transmission lines) but for power generation, NERC standards only apply to "Critical" assets. "Critical" assets are currently defined (as far as I am aware) by the utilities themselves. In the future this will be defined by FERC/NERC.
As I said, power generation and power transmission NERC standards may be different, but the standards that I see are oftentimes ambiguous and in many cases the utilities' implementation varies widely depending on their interpretation of the standard.
But those are (were, it differs and is changing) on 400V three phase here. As is industrial equipment, bigger motors, welders etc (some of which are not uncommon in home workshops). And you don't have that available. The "European" system is 230/400V, not just 230V.
Actually, 277/480V is quite common in the states for commercial and industrial uses. You can get it in your house too if you are willing to pay for it, but most people are not since there isn't any compelling reason to do so. The monthly service fees for the 480V hookup far exceed the cost of the extra copper that is required for the lower voltage cable.
Keep in mind that electricity in the states is commonly distributed at 14.4kV and 120/240V is just the voltage you get after it has been converted by the step-down "pig pole" transformer on the neighborhood telephone pole. 120/240V is a convenient standard for home users the same way that 277/480 is a convenient standard for commercial and industrial customers. If you need something special and are willing to pay, the electric utility is more than happy to work with you and bill you accordingly.
There is a slight advantage to having 240v but not much. Cables can be thinner and carry the same amount of power since the amps are lower. But, for the highest power devices in US homes (water heaters, clothes driers, ovens, etc) they are already on 240V. For other appliances there isn't enough advantage to justify switching the entire country and changing billions of dollars of infrastructure. The efficiency advantage is small. 60hz has the advantage as far as frequency goes. 60hz distribution systems are slightly more efficient. 60Hz steam turbines are smaller than their 50hz counterparts, which saves material costs for turbine manufacturers (and the utilities who buy them). There is basically no difference to the end-user. All the advantages/disadvantages are on the utility and distribution side. Again, there is no compelling reason to change the entire US over to 50Hz, and change out billions of dollars of infrastructure.
This article is from IndustrialInfo.com. Free registration is required for most articles, paid registration required for others. My company has a subscription. My company (a major turbine manufacturer) is also helping to bring the 20GW of lost generation back online. We are also frantically bringing mothballed hydro, coal, and other resources online since some of the coal plants were damaged in the earthquake. Even if you could hookup ships to the Japanese grid, it is a drop in the bucket.
Tohoku Electric Power Company is Japan's Hardest-Hit Power Provider
Released March 16, 2011 | TOKYO, JAPAN
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Among Japan's power providers affected by Friday's earthquake, Tohoku Electric Power Company Incorporated (TYO:9506 ) (Tokuden) (Sendai, Japan) was hit hardest. Immediately following the earthquake, nearly 5 million households were without power, and the region lost nearly 20 gigawatts (GW) of capacity. Tokuden's service area is comprised of the Tohoku region, the northern part of the main island. This region includes Aomori prefecture, Iwate prefecture, Akita prefecture, Miyagi prefecture, Yamagata prefecture, Fukushima prefecture and Niigata prefecture.
At this time, approximately 550,000 households are still without power, including 325,000 that have been completely destroyed by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures were hit hardest.
Because of what was expected to be a severe imbalance between power supply and demand, Tokuden announced its intention to implement rolling blackouts on Monday, March 14. However there has been a decrease in demand and an increase in supply, counteracting the imbalance in capacity. Recent precipitation in the region has also increased the electrical output of hydropower stations owned and operated by Tohoku that have been restarted for the spring season. The prospect of rolling blackouts is steadily becoming less likely due to a larger-than-expected supply, the widespread devastation and conservation measures. On Thursday, March 17, Tohoku expects to have 10 GW of electricity available for its service area.
Onagawa nuclear power station, located in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, as well as Higashidori nuclear power station, located in eastern Aomori prefecture, remain offline. Onagawa has an operating capacity of 2,174 megawatts (MW), and units 1 and 3 safely powered down following the earthquake and achieved stability by 1:30 a.m. JST Saturday, March 12. Unit 2 was scheduled to resume operations on Friday, following a scheduled maintenance outage that began last November. Restart procedures were terminated immediately, and the unit was safely powered down.
Higashidori, with a generating capacity of 1,100 MW via one boiling water reactor, was also down for scheduled maintenance and was not active at the time of the earthquake. Maintenance began in February and Tohoku may bring the station up to full capacity by the end of July.
It comes from Industrial Info Resources. Registration seems to be required. Most of the articles on the Japanese earthquake and its repercussions so far have been free but my company has a subscription to the nonfree articles.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Update
Released March 17, 2011 | TOKYO, JAPAN
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On Thursday, March 17, at 9:30 a.m. JST, firefighting trucks were dispatched to Tokyo Electric Power Company Incorporated's (TYO:9501) (TEPCO) (Tokyo) Fukushima Daiichi units 3 and 4 to replenish water in the spent fuel pool. Because Unit 3 has not reached a stable temperature, the spent fuel rods continue to produce heat. Water must be kept flowing through the spent fuel pool to keep the system cool, or the high temperatures of the spent fuel rods will cause the water to boil off. If the spent fuel rods are exposed, they will begin to melt and emit radiation.
At 9:48 a.m. JST, helicopters began releasing seawater over Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station units 3 and 4 in an attempt to cool the units. TEPCO is also discussing the option of releasing boric acid over Unit 4. Boric acid has a high boiling point of 300 degrees Celsius. When water, which has a boiling point of 100 degrees Celsius, is mixed with boric acid, its boiling point rises. The current temperature of Unit 4 is approximately 180 degrees Celsius. Between helicopter-delivered water and possible boric acid treatment, Unit 4 could reach stable temperatures.
On the previous day, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that the water in the spent fuel pool of Unit 4 had completely boiled off, prompting the United States Embassy in Tokyo to urge American citizens to evacuate the area beyond an 80-kilometer (50-mile) radius. TEPCO has refuted the announcement, stating that the water is low, but not completely boiled off.
Units 4, 5, and 6 were all inactive at the time of Friday's earthquake due to scheduled maintenance. Unit 4 has been down since November 30, 2010, and Unit 6 has been inactive since August 14, 2010, while Unit 5 has been offline since January 3 of this year.
Radiation Levels at Fukushima Daiichi Fall; Radiation and Sieverts Explained
Released March 17, 2011 | TOKYO, JAPAN
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has reported that radiation levels have fallen steadily over the past 12 hours at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. As of Wednesday, March 16, at 5:00 p.m. JST, equipment at the main plant gate of Fukushima Daiichi detected radiation levels of 752 microSieverts per hour. This is equivalent to 0.000752 Sieverts or 0.752 miliSieverts. A Sievert is the International System of Units derivation of dose equivalent, which is the measure of effects of ionizing radiation on tissue.
1 Sievert (Sv) = 1,000 milliSieverts (mSv) = 1,000,000 microSieverts (Sv)
MicroSieverts are the current unit of measure used to describe radiation levels emitted from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.
Single-dose examples include the following:
One banana: 0.0001 milliSieverts
Mammogram: 5 milliSieverts
Chest CT Scan: 6 to 18 milliSieverts
Hourly dose examples include the following:
Highest radiation recorded at Unit 2 of Fukushima Daiichi: 8 milliSieverts per hour
Highest radiation recorded at Fukushima Daiichi main plant gate: 11 millilSieverts per hour
Standard dose in relation to Chernobyl Unit 4 and its fragments after explosion: 10 to 300 Sieverts per hour
Yearly dose examples include the following:
Residing in close proximity to a nuclear power station: 0.0001 to 0.01 milliSieverts per year
Residing in close proximity to a coal-fired power station: 0.0003 milliSieverts per year
Smoking 1.5 packs of cigarettes per day: 13 milliSieverts per year
Lowest clearly carcinogenic level: 100 milliSieverts per year
An information breakdown similar to this one was broadcast to the Japanese public via television shortly following the first mention of any trouble at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.
Moth
That's completely right. Natural gas is much cleaner so it is far easier to get the required environmental permits. The fuel oil clogs up the burners which results in either more maintenance, less reliability, or both. You need special fuel-conditioning equipment for fuel oil, but natural gas can be basically burned straight from the pipeline (with appropriate pressure regulation).
As another poster said, the heat is recovered using heat exchangers. You cool down the desalinated water and brine and heat up the incoming water. But wait, there's more- every system likes this runs in a vacuum. Water boils at a much lower temperature in a vacuum. Maybe the system runs at 60C instead of 100C.
The problem is that this temperature is too low to kill bacteria and other nasty stuff in the water. So you need to treat with UV and chemicals. This increases complexity of the system slightly and usually requires someone who knows that they are doing to operate it. It's great for ships and large industrial desalination but I admit it is not so good for small installations. However, one of the big advantages of thermal desalination is that you only need 1 plant since it is very reliable with little downtime. A reverse-osmosis plant usually requires 2 trains- you need a spare RO train to keep up the supply while you are cleaning the membranes.
Requiring no water-cooling system, oil or catalytic converter, it will provide vehicle weight savings of up to 15% - with a consequent reduction in fuel consumption and carbon emissions - compared to a piston engine. Further environmental benefits will be gained from its fast warm up (a few seconds, as opposed to several minutes for a conventional engine), cleaner combustion and lower manufacturing energy requirements.
This is some misleading advertising. Are they seriously proposing to run a turbine at over 10,000RPM* on bearings that have no oil? You need oil at those speeds for mechanical bearings. And then, the oil is going to heat up so you will probably need to cool it also. Maybe they can get away with air cooling for that but it is still misleading.
*this is probably the minimum for a small and efficient turbine of this size. It would probably be 30,000 RPM or more.
The summary's hyperbole is completely opposite to reality. The reason the energy companies aren't building so much these days is because electricity demand has dramatically decreased compared to 3 years ago. Natural gas prices have fallen so much that many gas turbine plants are frequently as cheap or cheaper than coal in some regions. 3 years ago, the electrical demand in this country increased every year, which required the building of new plants constantly. Now, the demand has been mostly flat for the last couple of years. It doesn't make sense to build anything new until the economy IMPROVES and people start buying new toys and running manufacturing plants at full capacity again.
The congress will screw it up.
Because it is a popular bill with broad bi-partisan support, its a good place to stick riders and amendments that a small minority wants passed. The bill then becomes nastier and nastier as the congress attaches more and more crap. Finally it becomes a big problem for people who want to vote for it due to all the other BS that has gotten shoehorned in. Do they vote for it and vote for all the unread amendments, or do they vote no and face commercials about how they voted against volume controls for commercials?
I experienced table-top POS terminals during a recent trip to Nova Scotia. Apparently they are very popular there, and the waitress couldn't believe that I had never seen one in the US. The biggest problem is that in Europe, tipping is not expected or required. In the US, you can write the tip and walk away without the waitress watching you. If they go to table-top POS terminals like I saw in Canada, then you need to tip in front of your server. As an American, it was not very comfortable, although I suppose it is more profitable for the waitstaff. As an aside, when I was younger, tipping was commonly 10% and 15% for good service. Now my coworkers give me a hard time if I give any less than 20%. I think its time that we pay servers more and do away with the tip. The hidden cost of tipping is starting to be a substantial part of the restaurant bill.
My wife is Korean, but born in Japan. Her grandparents traveled to Japan about 65 years ago. I don't have their whole story, but it isn't a good one. The US is at least partly responsible for dividing the two Korea's at the end of WWII, which eventually led to the Korean War. The Koreans in recent history have had a horrible time and most of it is the fault of foreign power (Japan, US/USSR/ etc). The progress South Korea has made since the end of combat operations (the war never ended) is amazing considering all of this.
At first, I thought the Best Korea joke was hilarious. But now, I think its really a tragedy.
If you ever visit San Francisco, don't miss the Musee Mechanique. They have dozens of such mechanical arcade machines. Some are really ingenious.
Shouldn't the delay start at 0s and gradually increase to 20 minutes, then decrease back down to 0?
Watchmen might have been a faithful adaptation, but as a movie it wasn't that good. The first 6 minutes or so are terrifically well done- That's about as far into the poor-quality CAM copy before I decided that this movie was worth my money and I ran to the theater. The rest of the movie though was a huge disappointment. I still want my $8 back.