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2020-07-12 The Secret Reasons Why Nuclear Power Is Not Viable

Consumer Information Government Agencies Health Nuclear Power Renewable Energy Security and Safety
on July 12th, 2020 by - No Comments

From the comment I left at Dave’s JHAT YouTube video

https://youtu.be/yofGtxEgpI8

Thank you, Dave, for the balanced and informative view. But I must bring up the “externalities” that almost every nuclear power proponent fails to address.

One of the reasons why the burning of fossil fuels, especially coal, has to end is that the mining, processing and transportation of large amounts of fuels leaves a huge amount of mine waste and pollution with heavy metals. Nuclear fuels including thorium also share this same mining problem. The end product of natural nuclear decay is plumbum, AKA lead. This and other heavy metals contaminate the large amounts of mining waste that is left, typically at the mine site.

As the richer ores are mined and lower grade ores have to be processed the mine waste accumulates faster. The mining becomes less profitable and the companies have more reason the go out of business and walk away from what becomes a superfund toxic waste cleanup site. Then the taxpayers are stuck with the mess.

As for taxpayers here in the US it’s my understanding that they already subsidize the processing of enriched uranium fuel. So the utilities are getting a break on the cost of the fuel. And since it is not a renewable resource, it will only get more expensive as time goes on.

I haven’t brought up the issues of the shorter lifetimes and deaths caused by radiation added to the environment. Not necessarily from the power plants themselves, but from the mining wastes and fuel processing wastes left over. Take the Hanford site, where they joke about the radioactive rabbits that glow in the dark.

You mentioned other negatives and the Big Two are construction cost overruns and decades to bring a new NPP online. Along with the problems I stated, there are too many drawbacks for building new NPPs, in my opinion. Thank you for your informative videos.

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2020-07-12 The Safire Project

Free Energy Inventions Magnetics & Electromagnetics (not coils Nuclear Power Renewable Energy
on July 12th, 2020 by - No Comments

I happened to find this website for a nuclear fusion research project that makes claims about getting more energy output than it puts in. They talk about an artificial sun on earth. I have read about some amateur experimenters making a cold fusion system on a small laboratory scale, and this Safire Project seems to be a larger version of that cold fusion. They talked about 110 degrees C, which is much lower than what a plasma generator can make. There are a lot of somewhat technical words used in the video. They said it was patented, so it might have some value at a later time. Right now I would categorize this as another fusion experiment that is a very long way from succeeding in making clean energy. But if you have some money to invest with no expectations of getting it back, you could go to aureon.ca for more info or watch this video.

https://www.safireproject.com/

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2020-07-11 DIY Off Grid Solar System

Battery or Cell Building projects and kits Do It Yourself Electrical System Photovoltaic and Solar Cells or panels Rechargeable Renewable Energy
on July 11th, 2020 by - No Comments

This is a YouTube video. This guy did a very good job of building an off-grid solar system. It’s transportable, uses four 100 watt panels, two 12V AGM batteries in parallel, can supply 120VAC pure sine wave at 2000 watts and costs under $1,900.

This is an excellent video with plenty of details. He calls it a generator but it’s not a gasoline generator, it’s a 12VDC to 120VAC inverter. He talks about how much better this system is than a gas powered generator, and it’s cheaper in the long run.

https://youtu.be/QZYAAatdlmc

Other videos:

Will Prowse recommends the Giandel 4000 watt pure sine wave inverters. He said that some others have failed (let the smoke out) for no reason at all. He links to Amazon but I found them for cheaper on eBay.

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2020-07-11 Lawn Sprinkler System Losing Pressure?

Do It Yourself Other Off Topic Repair, alignment
on July 11th, 2020 by - No Comments

I’ve been seeing the sprinklers reaching a smaller radius after several years, and brown spots between. I was thinking that it was caused by a clogged pipe. I also had some constantly leaky sprinklers that were causing the grass to become soggy and mushrooms were growing. Then I noticed my water bill was several tens of dollars higher. Something was wrong.

So I replaced the solenoid valve that was feeding the wet spot. That took care of the leaky valve. But the sprinklers were still not spraying out like they used to. The water pressure in this neighborhood is high, 80 to 85 PSI, where normally it’s 45 to 55 PSI. I wondered if a pipe had become plugged. While I was working on a worn sprinkler, I noticed the problem (see photo). I think the gardeners hit it with the mower or weed whacker. The sprinklers are doing better after it was replaced, but I might have some other leaks that need to be fixed.

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2020-07-10 Bird Chirp Circuit Additions, Thoughts…

Uncategorized
on July 10th, 2020 by - No Comments

See my previous blog.

The circuit runs off a photovoltaic cell that puts out approximately 3.85 volts during a sunny day. The chirps put a small load during the noises and the voltage changes very little, maybe .03 volt. I think the photovoltaic cell could drive a few LEDs without any problem.

I thought it might look nice if the circuit blinked some LEDs. The blinking would not necessarily have to blink in unison with the chirps.

The circuit works only during bright sunlight. I think it would be a good idea to connect a pair of supercapacitors in series to the photovoltaic cell and charge them in the daytime so it will annoy everyone with the chirps for hours after the sun sets. :-O

I think I could use a few milliamps from the PV cell to power a 1 transistor FM transmitter. This would send the chirps a few tens of feet to any FM radio. The frequency would be on the low end of the band from 88 to 92 MHz.

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2020-07-09 Chirping Bird Circuit

Uncategorized
on July 10th, 2020 by - No Comments

I found this circuit at 5 or 6 different websites, all identical except some were in color, others not. The schematic and part values were all the same. I didn’t have a 1k CT to 8 ohm transformer (Radio Shack 273-1380) so instead I used a transformer with four 600 ohm windings and I tied two of the 600 ohm windings together to make the primary. I tied the remaining two windings together in parallel to drive a small magnetic beeper. The beeper wasn’t a proper load like a speaker so I put a 1k resistor in parallel with the beeper. I used a PN2222A in place of the BC109. I put two 22k resistors in series for the 47k.The schematic calls for a 9V battery but I used a 4V solar cell, which is not as loud but it’s okay. The sound depends on the transformer, the speaker, the power supply voltage and of course on the values of the capacitors and resistors. You will have to choose values to suit your situation. The chirp sounds like a crying squirrel — see video below.A 3 second video with sound.

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2020-07-08 SCOTUS: Employers Health Plans No Longer Have To Pay For Contraceptives

Uncategorized
on July 8th, 2020 by - No Comments

The Supreme Court decided against the Obamacare law requiring employers’ health plans to pay for birth control. The employer must have religious or moral objections to birth control. This is not a major victory for Trumpism because the employee can find a job somewhere that doesn’t have an objection.

There is the “externalities” or unintended consequences. By giving exemptions, the organizations that take the exemption make them less competitive when it comes to attracting new employees. The exemption also gives a further reason to implement Medicare For All and give healthcare and birth control to all legal US residents.

An interesting statistic from this article:

<< Over 61.4 million women in the US have birth control coverage with zero out-of-pocket costs, according the National Women’s Law Center. >>

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/07/08/politics/supreme-court-obamacare-contraceptive-mandate/index.html

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2020-07-07 PG&E “Stranded Assets” Baloney

Electrical System Government Agencies Politics Renewable Energy
on July 7th, 2020 by - No Comments

At the very end of this article

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/as-fossil-fuel-pipelines-fall-to-opposition-can-clean-energy-replace-them

<< Meanwhile, California utility Pacific Gas & Electric has declared support for a potential statewide ban on natural gas in new buildings to “avoid investments in new gas assets” that might be left stranded by the state’s push for a zero-carbon economy by 2045. >>

I think this “stranded assets” is nonsense. The natural gas infrastructure can be used for transporting hydrogen and that should replace natural gas in the future.

I think that PG&E is trying to lock consumers into heating using electricity, which is more expensive than natural gas. The future electric rates should be decreased, not increased because renewables (solar and especially wind) are coming down in cost per kWh, but I’ve never heard of an investor owned utility applying for a rate decrease. Have you? Hah-hah-hah! No way! So by banning new natural gas infrastructure, they are locking consumers into a non-competitive, single source monopoly. That’s not what consumers need.

Beware of Corporate Lethargy and Greed

There seems to be a range of plans for the future to steer the U.S. away from a fossil fuel economy. In my opinion the major corporations such as investor owned utilities are trying to steer the governments (such as public utilities commissions) away from the most effective way towards a fossil fuel-free economy and to the least burdensome way for the corporations. This path has to be prevented if the world is to be saved from the brink of climate change disaster.

I read the wiki about Regulatory Capture. I suspect this is especially troubling with the regulated utilities. They have much to gain from manipulating government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

Right now the consensus is that we have waited too long to make the changes away from fossil fuels and that it will be necessary to implement carbon removal infrastructure to prevent the global warming disaster. We need to do this immediately by capturing CO2 and storing it away from the atmosphere. Time is short!

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2020-07-06 Adam Kucharsky Explains How CoVID19 Spreads, Anti-Vaxxers

Health Medicine and health
on July 6th, 2020 by - No Comments

Kucharsky is an epidemiologist. This is a great 13.7 minute talk similar to Ted where he explains the four “D. O. T. S.” determine the R (reproduction) value. Start at the 4:10 point.

https://youtu.be/G-GlD3oVxE8

An article on antivaxxers and CoVID19

They’re already starting to cause people to not want to vaccinate

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/just-50-americans-plan-get-covid-19-vaccine-here-s-how-win-over-rest

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2020-07-05 Livestock Causing Shrinking Colorado River Water Supplies

Consumer Information Health Renewable Energy
on July 5th, 2020 by - No Comments

2020-07-08 This article tells how growing feed crops for livestock is using up 23% of the water. The large part of this water is used to grow the feed for the cattle. The northern part of Texas and Oklahoma are running dry because the underground aquifer is being depleted.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/02/agriculture-cattle-us-water-shortages-colorado-river?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0dyZWVuTGlnaHQtMjAwNzA4&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=greenlight_email&utm_campaign=GreenLight

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