It's because the informed people are sick of the response they get. I'm a nuke physicist, currently mid way through a masters course entitled "The physics and technology of nuclear power" in the Birmingham university nuclear group - http://www.np.ph.bham.ac.uk/
I can rarely be bothered to enter into these debates anymore- you tell someone nuclear power is safe, they reply "You would say that, you're a nuclear physicist".
How many companies are there that are promising products in the near future that violate the basic laws of quantum mechanics? There's the blacklight power people, now these clowns. These things are for the early 21st century what perpetual motion machines were for the early 20th.
UCLA's fusion isn't 'cold'. They just have a compact and novel ion acceleration method.
Re:Best wat to stop a crack...
on
Tracking the Cracks
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· Score: 3, Informative
Yep, that's because the raise in stress at the crack tip is proportional to it's radius. By drilling it out you increse the radius and decrease the stress.
It's a tokamak fusion reactor. It will undoubtably use deuterium-tritium fusion instead of light hydrogen fusion (which we can't do yet)so it's not exactly 'an artificial sun'. It is also by no means the first - JET near Oxford in the uk has been operating for 15 or so years (biggest at the mo') and there have been loads built all over the world. It's the first big one to use superconducting magnets which is actually quite interesting. The most amazing thing to me is that they can build the thing in a couple of months as the article suggests. Does anyone have any real info on this project? The linked article is a bit light on facts.
I personally feel that sonofusion has suffered from being referred to as 'cold fusion' by the media. It brings to mind the whole pons and fleischman (correct spelling?)palladium fiasco which you are correct in asserting is no better than alchemy. These experiments may have more too them.
So, I've developed a way to extract limitless amounts of energy from potatos: http://www.ehow.com/how_18637_make-potato-clock.ht ml. It appears to follow broadly similar principles to these people 'tree energy'. Where's my venture capital money?
So, what? All the worlds physicists (me included!) are in on this great conspiracy? We're just devoting our lives to working on stuff that's entirely made up and pointless? In short: Bullshit.
Cobalt 60 radiation dosages are almost twice as bad as the actual dosage of radiation one would get from the fallout of an actual atomic device
What does this even mean? Co60 kicks out ~1MeV gammas for the most part which suck, don't get me wrong, but the dose you get depends on how much you have. I have done all sorts of lab experiments where I've handled cobalt sources- no big deal. It is a VERY commonly used source- it is in fact one of the reference sources for calibrating the dose rate of various radiation. No need for 'dirty bomb' paranoia.
Actually you need a combination of light nuclei (water/graphite) to act as a moderator, something with a high thermal neutron capture cross section (like cadmium or boron) and something to shield the gammas resulting from the neutron capture (lead) in order to stop neutrons. High energy neutrons will go straight through lead shielding alone.
That's pretty scary isn't it? Even assuming they've fixed some of the things wrong with the design in the new generation (having non-graphite tipped control rods would be a start)why would they build new ones of those? Crazy.
An energy related story on slashdot and the researchers don't seem to be claiming that they have violated the laws of thermodynamics or have discovered a new type of nuclear physics! No magic stickers either!
Actually there were a lot more than 1000 thyroid cancer cases (most were treatable) - only about 4000 extra cancer deaths, total, are expected though. Wikipedias page on the accident is pretty comprehensive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_accident. Your point about it being much less of a big deal than most people think is still totally valid. Yep, RBMK reactor design sucked ass, we don't build them like that anymore (neither does anyone else - a few are still operational though).
It seems insane to me. Now don't get me wrong, I ve worked up my fair share of debt over the years, but spending 10 to 12 grand (at least) on a car when you don't have plenty of cash is nuts. I've owned a sucession of cars, all of which have functioned perfectly, including a Supra sports car and I've not paid more than £600 (~$1000 I think) for any of them. Now before anyone jumps all over me I should point out that (at least when I started buying) I knew NOTHING about the practical aspects of cars. So in short: eBay is your friend.
Theory should always, where possible, be tested by experiment. Judging by my personal observations (I grew up in the country) there's a flaw in her calculations somehwere. My guess is that she has the centre of mass way too low.
Slashdot Mirror
I reckon using his name in his email (raymond simms?) was probably a mistake. Do you think his IT guys have taken away his internet yet?
I can rarely be bothered to enter into these debates anymore- you tell someone nuclear power is safe, they reply "You would say that, you're a nuclear physicist".
Meh, whatever, I'm british so it matters little to me what you guys spend your hard earned tax dollars on.
User prevented from using the word 'Energy' until he finds out what it actually means.
"Poor, dumb bastards would rather be alive than free I guess" Full metal jacket quote (I think)
Hey, don't lump Phone Phreaks in with this asshat.
How many companies are there that are promising products in the near future that violate the basic laws of quantum mechanics? There's the blacklight power people, now these clowns. These things are for the early 21st century what perpetual motion machines were for the early 20th.
UCLA's fusion isn't 'cold'. They just have a compact and novel ion acceleration method.
Yep, that's because the raise in stress at the crack tip is proportional to it's radius. By drilling it out you increse the radius and decrease the stress.
It's a tokamak fusion reactor. It will undoubtably use deuterium-tritium fusion instead of light hydrogen fusion (which we can't do yet)so it's not exactly 'an artificial sun'. It is also by no means the first - JET near Oxford in the uk has been operating for 15 or so years (biggest at the mo') and there have been loads built all over the world. It's the first big one to use superconducting magnets which is actually quite interesting. The most amazing thing to me is that they can build the thing in a couple of months as the article suggests. Does anyone have any real info on this project? The linked article is a bit light on facts.
I personally feel that sonofusion has suffered from being referred to as 'cold fusion' by the media. It brings to mind the whole pons and fleischman (correct spelling?)palladium fiasco which you are correct in asserting is no better than alchemy. These experiments may have more too them.
"University of Colorado: Quantifying the obvious since 1876"
It's because there isn't a '-1, Whining'
So, I've developed a way to extract limitless amounts of energy from potatos: http://www.ehow.com/how_18637_make-potato-clock.ht ml. It appears to follow broadly similar principles to these people 'tree energy'. Where's my venture capital money?
So, what? All the worlds physicists (me included!) are in on this great conspiracy? We're just devoting our lives to working on stuff that's entirely made up and pointless? In short: Bullshit.
So, we can have warp drives but only if we change physics as we know it? Good luck with that one boys.
Made me giggle. I wish I had some mod points
What does this even mean? Co60 kicks out ~1MeV gammas for the most part which suck, don't get me wrong, but the dose you get depends on how much you have. I have done all sorts of lab experiments where I've handled cobalt sources- no big deal. It is a VERY commonly used source- it is in fact one of the reference sources for calibrating the dose rate of various radiation. No need for 'dirty bomb' paranoia.
Actually you need a combination of light nuclei (water/graphite) to act as a moderator, something with a high thermal neutron capture cross section (like cadmium or boron) and something to shield the gammas resulting from the neutron capture (lead) in order to stop neutrons. High energy neutrons will go straight through lead shielding alone.
They existed still earlier this year when I saw them at the Reading festival. They were pretty damn good too.
That's pretty scary isn't it? Even assuming they've fixed some of the things wrong with the design in the new generation (having non-graphite tipped control rods would be a start)why would they build new ones of those? Crazy.
An energy related story on slashdot and the researchers don't seem to be claiming that they have violated the laws of thermodynamics or have discovered a new type of nuclear physics! No magic stickers either!
Actually there were a lot more than 1000 thyroid cancer cases (most were treatable) - only about 4000 extra cancer deaths, total, are expected though. Wikipedias page on the accident is pretty comprehensive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_accident. Your point about it being much less of a big deal than most people think is still totally valid. Yep, RBMK reactor design sucked ass, we don't build them like that anymore (neither does anyone else - a few are still operational though).
It seems insane to me. Now don't get me wrong, I ve worked up my fair share of debt over the years, but spending 10 to 12 grand (at least) on a car when you don't have plenty of cash is nuts. I've owned a sucession of cars, all of which have functioned perfectly, including a Supra sports car and I've not paid more than £600 (~$1000 I think) for any of them. Now before anyone jumps all over me I should point out that (at least when I started buying) I knew NOTHING about the practical aspects of cars. So in short: eBay is your friend.
Theory should always, where possible, be tested by experiment. Judging by my personal observations (I grew up in the country) there's a flaw in her calculations somehwere. My guess is that she has the centre of mass way too low.