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US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

arstechnica.com

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Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#501

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

Retric wrote: post #486
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> around nuclear power plants Exactly what I said. > This is not true at all Yes it is. I mean, if you’re going to dispute my point without providing any evidence, then all we’ve got is opinions. If we’ve got data, let’s go with the data. If all we’ve got is opinions, let’s go with mine.

> I mean, if you’re going to dispute my point without providing any evidence Pure Americium-241 is extremely radioactive 0.0000045 grams of the stuff puts off useful amounts of radiation for smoke detectors, it’s half life is also 432 years. As an alpha emitter it’s not that bad to stand next to but internally it doesn’t take much to be lethal.

Awesome. So how does one go about diverting this from nuclear waste storage to the diet of average citizens, as an act of terrorism?

Also, I don’t know how to gauge “useful amounts of radiation for smoke detectors”.

α-particles can be stopped by a sheet of paper.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#502

Post by UltraSane »

array_key_first wrote: post #468
UltraSane wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over regulation of nuclear energy in the US made it so expensive we didn't replace all fossil fuels with it.

I don't think this is true at all. It's a heavy capex business with very small marginal returns, that takes planning on the order of decades. AKA, a US company's worst nightmare. Investors don't like that shit, they like half-baked software that code monkeys can pump out.

A fully paid off nuclear reactor is extremely profitable because of little fuel cost.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#503

Post by Peaches4Rent »

adleyjulian wrote: post #303
alhirzel wrote: post #279

Years ago, this very subject was an interview question at a national lab (at an undergrad level). The question was roughly: > the ends of windmill blades look a lot like a jet on radar. If you were assigned to this project, what would your approach be to avoiding false positives? This was in 2011/2012. I find it difficult to believe the problem is not solved.

It has been solved. Get rid of all the windmills. Easy.

Who raised you?

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#504

Post by nandomrumber »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #489
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s going to kill me because the exhaust is dominated by carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. It isn’t going to kill me via the route you suggest: by giving kids cancer. It’s Christmas very shortly, try not to be this much of a cunt around you’re family.

You probably wanna look up benzene to start.

You think benzene is toxic?

Wait till you meet your attitude!

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#505

Post by ben_w »

nandomrumber wrote: post #416
ben_w wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct operation of a coal plant has global impact, and therefore coal should be phased out entirely. Absent that, when a coal plant goes badly wrong, the damage is small enough and localised enough to be affordable. When a nuclear plant goes wrong, the upper bound for error includes both Chrenobyl and also "unknown parties stole the radioisotopes" followed by terrorists repeating the Goiânia accident somewhere. Mak…

In the entire history of civil nuclear power "unknown parties stole the radioisotopes" has never happened. The Goiânia accident caused four deaths. The Chrenobyl reactors weren’t even housed in containment buildings, they were housed in what’s best described as a shed. Got any real complaints?

> In the entire history of civil nuclear power "unknown parties stole the radioisotopes" has never happened.

This reads a bit like "why do we need a QA department when we don't have any bugs"?

The reason nobody stole the stuff from reactors is because everyone has, by international law and also nonbinding recommendations, security and armed guards making sure they don't. These are not free.

The Goiânia accident was stupidity, not malice, so you can't predict how many people would die if it was done maliciously from how many were killed. My understanding is what keeps people (relatively) safe from this type of attack at the moment, is the public deployment of radiation sensors since 9/11, which we know about because of people with radioisotopes in them for medical reasons getting caught by them. These are not free.

The Chrenobyl reactors were housed in what’s "best described as a shed" because that was cheap. Same for all of the other design issues with those reactors: it made them cheap.

The rules that make reactors expensive are written in incidents.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#506

Post by ben_w »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #380
ben_w wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct operation of a coal plant has global impact, and therefore coal should be phased out entirely. Absent that, when a coal plant goes badly wrong, the damage is small enough and localised enough to be affordable. When a nuclear plant goes wrong, the upper bound for error includes both Chrenobyl and also "unknown parties stole the radioisotopes" followed by terrorists repeating the Goiânia accident somewhere. Mak…

But one is enforced (nuclear security) and coal is not. p.s. ICE cars are literally spewing cancer fumes right into kids faces. 0 fucks given. If anything people try to frame EVs as actual devil.

I would like to enforce a coal ban, but nobody gave me an army with which to do so.

Not that I could've enforced it for all those years even if I had an army, as coal was dominant for so long for the same reason it is now being rapidly displaced: cost.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#507

Post by consumer451 »

shimman wrote: post #462
consumer451 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was truly irrelevant, then there wouldn't be billions being thrown at it.

No one said people aren't dumb with their money, but seriously look at some of the numbers that prime time CNN pulls. Twitch streamers have a large audience than prime time shows. There is a reason why cable has been dying and cable news has already dead.

Do Twitch viewers vote? Really doesn't seem like it.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#508

Post by pheggs »

Jtsummers wrote: post #262
pheggs wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it could very well be that it backfires. I guess time will tell. A lot of his actions seem to be trimmed into this direction, and it's not a new one. He left the paris climate agreement quite a while back as far as I remember. blocking offshore wind construction just fits this agenda, as supporting companies to manufacture these windmills would just make everything cheaper (more demand, rising production capacity etc…

> it could very well be that it backfires. It's kind of hard to see the strategy you outlined as doing anything other than backfiring. Oil and other fossil fuels are consumables. Once burned, they're gone. For strategic reasons, most nations with any sense and the economic ability to do so are turning away from fossil fuels precisely due to this fact. European nations are not exceptional here, the US is actually the…

You could be right. I try to abstain from making any predictions, because I see the world is such a complicated mess where even stupid decisions could get a positive outcome due to unforeseeable events. (a new pandemic? a war breaks out? someone decided to retaliate? the suez canal gets occupied? a volcano erupts?)

That being said, he is obviously aware that Europe is planning on greener energy. This administration also tries to break down the EU by pulling out countries like Italy and Poland. They are clearly promoting right wing parties all over Europe which align more with his agenda and are more EU sceptic. They might try to use social media for propaganda. The goal is divide and conquer. Europe has to pay attention to this and be aware of the risk. The strategy may seem stupid, but it would be even more stupid to ignore it and not make sure it fails.

That's my personal opinion on this subject.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#509

Post by wkat4242 »

alhirzel wrote: post #279

Years ago, this very subject was an interview question at a national lab (at an undergrad level). The question was roughly: > the ends of windmill blades look a lot like a jet on radar. If you were assigned to this project, what would your approach be to avoiding false positives? This was in 2011/2012. I find it difficult to believe the problem is not solved.

Jets don't tend to fly around in little circles so there's that. And windmills don't move around a lot. I'm sure this is a solved problem.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#510

Post by Ayanonymous »

I found this article interesting as someone still learning about how energy policy and renewable projects interact with government decisions. It’s surprising to see how national security concerns are being used to pause offshore wind construction, and I’m curious how this will affect both the industry and broader energy goals. Thanks for the clear overview!
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