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Easy-X
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PostPosted: 21:44 - 28 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Regarding infrastructure:

LPG was a thing once - almost all the pumps have gone
Ethanol is a thing in a few other countries - may as well not exist in the UK
Whatever happened to biodiesel?

And what have we got?

The scandal of being told to buy diesel because of the lower CO2 emissions and then to find we're all giving babies asthma from the NOx
The scandal of company car hybrids, partly paid for with government subsidies, that never saw a charge
The scandal of VW et al cheating the emissions tests because the EU asked them for impossible numbers
The re-dedication of service stations as a place to buy petrol, diesel and Type 2 Diabetes
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Riejufixing
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PostPosted: 22:25 - 28 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
HardlyDavidson wrote:
Regarding nuclear power I always remember a conversation I had with my uncle who retired from a lab job as a nuclear chemist for Sizewell A...

When a reactor is dismantled there are broadly 3 categories of radioactive waste:

1) Disposable stuff like old welly boots and gloves - things that were just generally used in the vicinity of the reactor
2) Stuff associated more directly with operations such as the pipes that carried water in and out of the reactor
3) The reactor core components themselves

We were chatting about this on a beach in Cornwall. My uncle kicked a rock. "This would be Category 2."

Hmm... a story for the geologists perhaps but the rabid paranoia over nuclear power is just totally bat shit mad.


Yes, that's why 400ftm+ (~750m) below the surface of Cornwall, it's rather warm. 40C or so. Too warm to work comfortably. Mostly due to radiogenic heat production.

"rabid paranoia over nuclear power is just totally bat shit mad"

Yes, but.
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Easy-X
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PostPosted: 00:09 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Mmm... whilst you kids were worrying about asbestos my school days involved panics over Radon gas build-ups.
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Lord Percy
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PostPosted: 06:47 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Riejufixing wrote:

"7 Years After Fukushima Disaster: Little Radioactive Material in US Waters"


Unless Fukushima is still leaking, it doesn't matter if it's US waters or wherever else. Radioactive half-life is the same for everything that was emitted on the day.

If Japan are still now dumping radioactive water into the sea, then yeah that changes things. My main point, however, was that radioactive elements can decay quite quickly, all things considered.
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Kawasaki Jimbo
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PostPosted: 08:23 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Lord Percy wrote:
Unless Fukushima is still leaking, it doesn't matter if it's US waters or wherever else. Radioactive half-life is the same for everything that was emitted on the day.

If Japan are still now dumping radioactive water into the sea, then yeah that changes things. My main point, however, was that radioactive elements can decay quite quickly, all things considered.

Half-life depends on the isotope(s) released, as you'll know. The other aspect in your example is dilution. I believe Chernobyl is still pretty much a no go area.
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Easy-X
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PostPosted: 10:34 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Radon has a short half-life... doesn't help though as it's continuously produced from Thorium and Uranium decay.
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MarJay
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PostPosted: 11:35 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
There are far safer reactor designs than Fukushima these days. The issue is keeping legacy 60's, 70's and 80's designs going just because decomissioning them would involve disposing of stuff with half lives of 50k years...

Nuclear emits no CO2. It emits no Nitrogen oxides. Nuclear is ULEZ compliant. We just need to get it right (which we may well have done by now, but people aren't giving it a chance).
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Polarbear
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PostPosted: 11:40 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
MarJay wrote:
There are far safer reactor designs than Fukushima these days. The issue is keeping legacy 60's, 70's and 80's designs going just because decomissioning them would involve disposing of stuff with half lives of 50k years...

Nuclear emits no CO2. It emits no Nitrogen oxides. Nuclear is ULEZ compliant. We just need to get it right (which we may well have done by now, but people aren't giving it a chance).


They will have to unless we invest in huge projects like the Severn barrage. Already the doom mongers are saying we won't be able to generate enough power for the electric car revolution we are all meant to embrace. Rolling Eyes
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Easy-X
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PostPosted: 14:12 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Just looking at fuel duty...

It's the same tax for petrol, diesel, ethanol and bio-diesel so no encouragement for change there Sad

LPG and CNG are about half the duty, did anyone ever do an LPG or CNG motorbike conversion?

Obviously electric attracts no duty but curiously neither does aviation fuel. I seem to recall the US Military dabbled with motorbikes that ran on jet fuel; a variation on a diesel engine?
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Polarbear
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PostPosted: 14:24 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Aviation fuel is just a fancy paraffin.
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Easy-X
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PostPosted: 14:29 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
I don't live too far from Heathrow. The amount of fuel I'd need for a bike I doubt they'd notice me siphoning some off. Might need a big step ladder to get to the wing Very Happy
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MarJay
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PostPosted: 14:31 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Polarbear wrote:
Aviation fuel is just a fancy paraffin.


It is, but it has more sulphur in it than diesel, so aviation fuel is actually immensely bad for the ozone layer and creates a lot of greenhouse gases when burned.
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bhinso
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PostPosted: 14:56 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
MarJay wrote:
Nuclear emits no CO2. It emits no Nitrogen oxides. Nuclear is ULEZ compliant. We just need to get it right (which we may well have done by now, but people aren't giving it a chance).


I agree. I see the solution for the UK as offshore wind (higher wind speeds at see, out of the way, we have lots of coast so let's make use of it) backed up by Nuclear to deal with the intermittency of wind.

Of course, long term the solution would be cold fusion. But that's always 50 years away Sad

EDIT: LEGAL DISCLAIMER: cold fusion isn't actually that 'cold'. I don't want anyone touching it thinking it's 'cold'.
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MarJay
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PostPosted: 15:18 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
bhinso wrote:
Of course, long term the solution would be cold fusion. But that's always 50 years away Sad

EDIT: LEGAL DISCLAIMER: cold fusion isn't actually that 'cold'. I don't want anyone touching it thinking it's 'cold'.


A friend of mine works for Rutherford labs. They are pretty close to getting more energy out of a device than putting it in with relation to Fusion... However... It's a European project funded by the EU based in the UK...

So bye bye clean energy.

'Cold' fusion was cold, but it was proven to be faked.
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Riejufixing
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PostPosted: 15:48 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Polarbear wrote:
Aviation fuel is just a fancy paraffin.


Perhaps he could run his bike on TVO, or is that only for American garden machinery (nod to NtB)?

Whatever. If he uses fuel (be it aviation fuel, red diesel, cooking oil or whatever), using it on the road without paying duty is an offence as far as I know.
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Polarbear
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PostPosted: 16:25 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Riejufixing wrote:
Polarbear wrote:
Aviation fuel is just a fancy paraffin.


Perhaps he could run his bike on TVO, or is that only for American garden machinery (nod to NtB)?

Whatever. If he uses fuel (be it aviation fuel, red diesel, cooking oil or whatever), using it on the road without paying duty is an offence as far as I know.


No, using fuels that have had the duty removed for certain purposes like red diesel is subtly different from using fuels that have not got duty.

You can't use red diesel on the road (except with some very stringent guidelines) but you can use cooking oil or something similar with no duty.

I can use red diesel in my boat - but only for heating. For propulsion I am meant to pay the full fuel duty. I don't. I pay 90% heating (no duty) and 10% propulsion (normal duty) Whistle

However I have to register every transaction and the nice men from HMRC could come and give me a good seeing to if they felt so inclined. Laughing
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Kawasaki Jimbo
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PostPosted: 19:09 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
MarJay wrote:
A friend of mine works for Rutherford labs. They are pretty close to getting more energy out of a device than putting it in.

Thinking The difference between efficient energy exchange vs "free energy" (Dance!) is huge.
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Kawasaki Jimbo
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PostPosted: 19:44 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
I'd agree that nuclear power is the answer at the moment but fissile material must be a finite resource too. Unless we can learn to harness biology to produce biofuels in quantity (dispensed as petrol is now Thumbs Up ) without impacting food production (or there is a global pandemic which culls the population) we will have to follow Diggs' retro ideal; a retreat to a 19th Century subsistence. However I think he's mainly thinking of Caroline Lucas naked except for a crown, side-saddle on a white horse. Dirty boy!
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RhynoCZ
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PostPosted: 20:34 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
That moment when you need a 3 ton diesel truck to charge your ''save the planet'' car. Razz

https://newsroom.aaa.com/wp-content/gallery/mobile-electric-vehicle-charging/hi_evmobilecharge_chargingmember.jpg
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RhynoCZ
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PostPosted: 21:01 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Polarbear wrote:
They will have to unless we invest in huge projects like the Severn barrage. Already the doom mongers are saying we won't be able to generate enough power for the electric car revolution we are all meant to embrace. Rolling Eyes


Just do what Germans do. Say you're going full green, that you're banning nuclear power and then just buy the electricity from abroad. Thumbs Up

I, just like my gov., believe in nuclear power because there is nothing this clean and efficient on this planet, that would generate so much power. There is pretty much no carbon footprint, no radiation emissions and as said before in this thread, the energy density of the fuel rods is beyond any other fuel on this planet. Plus, we (Czechs) do have uranium mines and since the Soviet Union collapsed and we don't supply uranium for ICBMs anymore, why not to use it to generate electricity.

Also, something to think about, a properly functioning nuclear power plant does not emit any radioactivity outside the main chamber/hall. Unlike a coal power plant, that spits tons of radioactive dust in the air every time it's being used, amongst other carcinogenic particles and other fun stuff.

And lastly,
https://nuclear-economics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/10-energy-density-coal-vs-nuclear-e1439327621557.jpg
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Sister Sledge
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PostPosted: 22:14 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Steam. We need a return to steam vehicles. A boiler that can be fueled at the roadside (pinch a neighbours bush) or travel to the shops using nothing but the waste plastic packaging from your lunch as fuel.

Nuclear? Nah! Might give plenty of ooomph but look at the effort that goes into producing the fuel, power station, waste products etc. I bet if you factor that lot in it makes nuclear far less attractive.

Mentioned earlier - LPG motorcycles. I wonder why it was never tried?

I'm from the North East: Bring back coal.
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Easy-X
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PostPosted: 22:48 - 29 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Coal fired motorbikes! Now we're talking Cool

I think we could trace modern environmentalism to the rejection of the first discovery, the prime progenitor of all technology...

FIRE Twisted Evil
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Lord Percy
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PostPosted: 01:34 - 30 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Polarbear wrote:

They will have to unless we invest in huge projects like the Severn barrage.


Severn barrage is a fantastic idea in so many ways.

Green energy, massive engineering project, jobs, tidal/waterway control for the area.

So many upsides, but apparently protecting the ducks that live there is more important.
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Sister Sledge
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PostPosted: 07:45 - 30 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
Dams and hydro is what the UK needs but alas we're fairly flat compared to other countries.
Many rivers in the North East have had smaller dams blown up because gr8 4 fishies and stuff except the results are local towns being flooded under when it rains hard (Morpeth).
We need to see huge investment in hydro electricity of all types. Yes it takes more effort in the UK but the end result is stable predictable electricity producing almost no harmful stuff.
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PostPosted: 11:43 - 30 Apr 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote
The theory is that you have solar on a sunny day, wind on windy day, excess power is used to pump water into to the dam and when you need a little extra top up (FA Cup, half time, kettle goes on) you let the water out of the dam and through the turbines...

Doesn't that sound like utopia!

Someone analysed the "eco footprint" of a typical dam; turns out to be pretty terrible on several fronts: rotting vegetation from the land you've just covered in water, loss of habitat for wildlife and of course all of the stuff that was previously growing isn't doing the photosynthesis thing.
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Old Thread Alert!

The last post was made 4 years, 361 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful?
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