New nuclear age

[EndogenousRebel]

Walks through the history of nuclear power globally and expected trends for industrial sector of energy and downstream effects.

Not a fan of him doing on the fly searches, but apparently he took his time with the video, and he goes into off topic tangents anyways.

I think it's easy to mitigate the downsides of nuclear power. Honestly I want to understand more of the physics of that nuclear reaction. It's pretty rad.

 

[Cognisant]

At this point nuclear power is a mature and safe technology and an essential part of the green energy solution.

It's not practical for rural areas but that's where you can have solar and wind farms and such, whereas those renewables simply don't have the consistent output to meet the demands of a city.

 

[scorpiomover]

I think it's easy to mitigate the downsides of nuclear power. Honestly I want to understand more of the physics of that nuclear reaction. It's pretty rad.

Nuclear power is very interesting. But it's pretty simple. Some atoms have too many neutrons and are unstable. Given a kick, they split apart, releasing energy, which in turn kicks other molecules. This releases heat, that can be captured by a steam engine.

Concentrate the unstable molecules in a box and then fire them in a controlled manner and you have a very powerful fuel source for a steam engine, which can then turn a turbine and generate electricity.

Unfortunately, it's very powerful, which means it's very easy to cause harm and that means it needs lots of regulations and rules. Sticking to all those rules makes the entire industry make you feel like you're living in a rigid class system. Who wants that, right?

 

[Cognisant]

Unfortunately, it's very powerful, which means it's very easy to cause harm and that means it needs lots of regulations and rules. Sticking to all those rules makes the entire industry make you feel like you're living in a rigid class system. Who wants that, right?

How is this different to a coal fired power plant? You can't just walk into one of those and take an unguided tour, you can't take a guided tour either, heck go use the intercom at their front gate and asked to be let in and ten minutes later the police will be taking you in for questioning.

My point is whether their power comes from coal or uranium this isn't going to affect 99.999% people in the slightest. What are these rules you're worried about and how the hell does that relate to living in a class system?

 

[EndogenousRebel]

I think it's easy to mitigate the downsides of nuclear power. Honestly I want to understand more of the physics of that nuclear reaction. It's pretty rad.

Nuclear power is very interesting. But it's pretty simple. Some atoms have too many neutrons and are unstable. Given a kick, they split apart, releasing energy, which in turn kicks other molecules. This releases heat, that can be captured by a steam engine.

Concentrate the unstable molecules in a box and then fire them in a controlled manner and you have a very powerful fuel source for a steam engine, which can then turn a turbine and generate electricity.

Unfortunately, it's very powerful, which means it's very easy to cause harm and that means it needs lots of regulations and rules. Sticking to all those rules makes the entire industry make you feel like you're living in a rigid class system. Who wants that, right?

Yeah fair enough, I mean, the technology and math used to operate and experiment upon current methods and liminitations is what I'm getting at.

I'm fairly sure you would have to have a comprehensive knowledge of sub-atomic particles to even attempt to do this. This is pretty much a barrier to closing it off niche commercial industries..

Ideally, we don't have nuclear reactor generators (in every home*). NOT YET ANYWAYS

 

[scorpiomover]

Unfortunately, it's very powerful, which means it's very easy to cause harm and that means it needs lots of regulations and rules. Sticking to all those rules makes the entire industry make you feel like you're living in a rigid class system. Who wants that, right?

How is this different to a coal fired power plant? You can't just walk into one of those and take an unguided tour, you can't take a guided tour either, heck go use the intercom at their front gate and asked to be let in and ten minutes later the police will be taking you in for questioning.

Coal fired plants aren't apt to become self-sustaining heat reactions. When the coolant system fails, the coal just burns itself out. When the coolant system fails in a nuclear reactor, the control rods keep releasing tremendous amounts of energy, which destroys everything around them, and don't stop until they are cooled down.

My point is whether their power comes from coal or uranium this isn't going to affect 99.999% people in the slightest. What are these rules you're worried about and how the hell does that relate to living in a class system?

You have to be careful with a coal fire. You have to be more careful with a nuclear fire. So you have to be more careful to follow the rules a lot more precisely.

People who cut corners with the class system, and who in the process, make more profits by doing things that make a lot of other people suffer, would have no problems with cutting corners with nuclear power plants, even if the effects were massive radiation leaks.

 

[fluffy]

The problem with old nuclear energy was the threat of radiation pollution. But I was under the impression that this problem was solved with modern technology.

Fusion technology has advanced so far not to need anything radioactive. They take tritium isotopes from sea water and make heavier elements from it.

 

[Cognisant]

Coal fired plants aren't apt to become self-sustaining heat reactions. When the coolant system fails, the coal just burns itself out. When the coolant system fails in a nuclear reactor, the control rods keep releasing tremendous amounts of energy, which destroys everything around them, and don't stop until they are cooled down.

Modern ones are designed to be fail-safe, meaning they actively consume power to maintain a power producing state, the moment that is interrupted for any reason (such as the heat level going above nominal levels) the whole system safely shuts itself down. Think of it like a dead-man's switch.

You would actually need to read the manual and go through a complex series of steps to bypass all the safety mechanisms and make the power plant overload in a way that it won't immediately automatically recover from.

People who cut corners with the class system, and who in the process, make more profits by doing things that make a lot of other people suffer, would have no problems with cutting corners with nuclear power plants, even if the effects were massive radiation leaks.

Well I agree, nuclear power might not be suitable for countries with serious corruption problems like Russia, China and various parts of Africa.

 

[melin376]

The physics behind it is fascinating too once you start digging into how it works, it’s hard not to get hooked. I’m okay with some off-topic tangents if the core info is solid, though.