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  • Posted by KevinSchwinkendorf 3 years, 1 month ago
    I hear that 26% of the electric grid in Texas is from windmills! Expensive, unreliable, and intermittent. When frozen up, they produce no power at all (in addition to when the wind isn't blowing - like nobody saw that coming?). The over-dependence on "Green Power" is becoming clear right now (as though it wasn't before this cold snap). On the other hand, nuclear power stations produce at 100% capacity, 24/7, for up to 2 years at a time before going down for a few weeks for a refueling outage. With advanced fuel cycles and "fast" reactors (referring to neutron energy spectrum) nuclear plants can stay up for 5 to maybe 10 years (depending on enrichment, core loading, design, etc.) between refueling outages. Did I mention that nuclear power plants remain online independent of what the weather is doing outside? As a nuclear engineer (PhD, UW, '96) I suppose I'm "biased" - but only in favor of the truth!
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    • Posted by VetteGuy 3 years, 1 month ago
      When I first started in Nuclear (1976) my boss told me, "The future is going to be filled with Nuclear Plants and electric cars." Well, the regulatory backlash from Three Mile Island put an end to that, hyped by the same media outlets that brought us coronavirus. The old-timers would ROFL talking about "too cheap to meter", which had been the mantra when construction of most of our fleet was started. With more reasonable regulation, the dream could have been realized, but the fear-mongering has just about killed off the industry. I've been retired from the utility world for over 11 years now, good to hear from someone more current.
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    • Posted by mccannon01 3 years, 1 month ago
      Glad to have your perspective, Kevin! Thank you!
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      • Posted by KevinSchwinkendorf 3 years, 1 month ago
        In all honesty, I did just hear on the radio that there was one nuclear power station in Texas that had to shut down temporarily because of some "monitor" that "froze up." The report didn't elaborate beyond that, but my guess is that some outside radiation monitor had problems due to the cold. Whenever the slightest thing goes wrong at a nuclear plant, it can force a shutdown (usually due to regulatory requirements). I assume it was a very minor issue.
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    • Posted by lrshultis 3 years, 1 month ago
      (PhD, UW, '96)? Which UW was that?
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      • Posted by KevinSchwinkendorf 3 years, 1 month ago
        University of Washington in Seattle. UW no longer has a Department of Nuclear Engineering (they started the closure process shortly after enrollment tanked after the Chernobyl accident). But, I was already a grad student in the program, so they had to allow me to finish. I think I was the last (or possibly the second-to-last) student to get a degree from that program.
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        • Posted by lrshultis 3 years, 1 month ago
          I was at UW Madison back in early 1960s trying to go for a PHD in Chemistry. Got a BS but could not get into grad school due to having troubles with learning German and
          Russian and other none science and math courses needed for a PHD in chemistry, other choi9ces were French and Japanese.
          So went to grad school in math. Got courses to masters but burned out during the Vietnam war and went into lawn care business.
          Nuclear kills far fewer people than nuclear power plants ever have.
          Any possibility that thorium liquid salts power plants will ever be used. Didn't the military have some experimental ones operating long ago?
          As for accidents, the military had most of them when storage tanks would go critical form operator errors, just like the commercial meltdowns were due to operator errors as well as some bad planning by the Japanese.
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          • Posted by lrshultis 3 years, 1 month ago
            "Nuclear kills far fewer people than nuclear power plants ever have."
            My old brain should have wrote: Nuclear kills far fewer people than fossil fueled power plants ever have and maybe deaths due renewable energies.
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          • Posted by KevinSchwinkendorf 3 years, 1 month ago
            There seems to be some renewed interest now in molten salt reactors. Their advantages include continuous online refueling and fission product removal. There are disadvantages though (there is never a "free lunch"). One issue is reduced neutronic stability vs. more conventional designs (standard fuel rods). This is due to delayed neutron precursors (which give stability to the reactor dynamic behavior) being continually flushed out of the core, but this should be able to be addressed by operational limits. Anyway, the thorium fuel cycle definitely has advantages too - such as large thorium reserves. You're right about many of the accidents that have happened. Human error is hard to weed out. No matter the training, people will sometimes screw up. A lot of effort goes into making systems fault tolerant.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 3 years, 1 month ago
    NO. We should likely blame it on natural cycles. This is the kind of thing that happens when the earth is at max tilt, possibly every 6000 years and we are at or close to the grand cycle, the one that takes out civilization every 12,000 years.

    A small area at the pole melts and changes the ocean currents. To beat the band, the poles are moving toward each other weakening our shields, making it easy for cosmic radiation to reach the troposphere where we live...that makes the changes happen even faster...needless to say, things will get really wacky and human like creatures that are the least aware will act out TOO!
    OH CRAP!...the latter IS HAPPENING NOW!
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    • Posted by $ BobCat 3 years, 1 month ago
      Agree. In addition, the Southern Magnetic Pole is and has been weakening in strength and the movement of the Northern Magnetic Pole is accelerating in its westerly movement. There is a lot of speculation as to if we are heading towards a magnetic pole shift (reversal). This reversal has occurred numerous times throughout Earth’s history based on the geologic record. Fortunately, Mankind has never witnessed one before, so it’s all new territory. As the poles swap positions, and particularly with the strength of the Southern Magnetic Pole weakening, the Earth’s protection from Solar Storms and other cosmic radiation will also diminish, thus severely affecting weather patterns, bird migrations, and life as we know it today. Exciting times are ahead... all natural cycles ...
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      • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 3 years, 1 month ago
        The southern magnetic pole has left the polar region heading north. The north pole is heading out of the polar region but hasn't exited yet and our shields are aprox. 20/25% weaker.
        Outside the lamestream sciences admit there has been 5 civilizations prior to this one, the last one ended spectacularly about 11 to 13K years ago...remember the flood?
        We are the descendants of survivors.

        That's why we find previous civilizations Under the present one and one under that and so on...a question I always asked when young and also in college geography class but never got a straight answer...
        Language is not the only thing that has been confounded...

        Dija know that Neanderthal bones were found along side Human bones in Canaan? (middle east) That was AFTER the flood. Sumeria was among the first cities to be built after the flood.

        As far a the 12K cycle goes: see http://suspicious0bservers.org. We have been vetting this out for over a year now...lots of evidence and lots of science to this history. We have discovered the trigger.

        Nothing would make me happier for mankind to see the poles move back from their walkabout but it's not going to happen...big changes in all the planets in our system, including ours and every star between us and the galactic center of the milkyway has already had their micro nova's...our star is NEXT.
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        • Posted by $ BobCat 3 years, 1 month ago
          Thanks for the above link, as I have always been fascinated by the dynamics of our fragile system of life on this planet.
          I am sure you have read "the Spinning Magnet" by Alanna Mitchell, if not, it might be of interest to you. I agree with your view of numerous previous ancient civilizations of some type of intelligent life form all periodically wiped out by the cyclic create/destruction cycles of our planet, solar system, and universe as a whole.
          Another site on the pole shift which I found interesting is https://exopolitics.org/antarctic-ice...
          which covers more than just a Magnetic pole shift, but the crustal displacements and how they have also wandered ...
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          • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 3 years, 1 month ago
            Ben Davidson, his books now used as college text books, has produced videos and FOTW sat. chats that runs the gamut on all that might or will happen during these extreme events while trying to vet out what our ancestors have recounted...sometimes very challenging.
            Crustal displacement is more likely the mode inwhich the continents tilt 90 degrees making Greenland and the north pole (and south pole) region[s] an equatorial paradise while the rest of us freeze. We have evidence of that, but does that happen Every time?
            Some 40 plus short and long videos on these subjects from the time we got wind of all this to now. His latest video a very short composite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZliv...
            Links below this video will bring you to the whole series from the beginning and vetting it out since and including science we know now that wasn't known then.
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    • Posted by $ 3 years, 1 month ago
      You are a nut, OUC. But you did make me laugh. And I'm sad for the people who are dying in Texas due to the cold weather and lack of preparedness by our leaders. Is this really 2021? More like the Dark Ages. N
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      • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 3 years, 1 month ago
        That could be too...it was during the dark ages that mankind LOST the voices of their gods, their leaders and their ancestors...when the magnetic shields finally recovered, protecting us from the cosmic radiation..."Some" gained the voices of self and only 40/50% of the worlds population now have that voice of self.

        Something you might be interested in hearing and pondering. A song that reminded me of this came our a while back; it's called: Say Something...listen to it and imagine a young man and women climbing the highest peak and looking up and saying out loud: "Say Something, I'll be the one if you want me too" and while you are listening just think how disturbing and painful it was for them to be with out the voice that guided their behaviors and actions for 200K years....I'll tell you, it brings tears to my eyes thinking about how lonely they must have felt.
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    • Posted by Owlsrayne 3 years, 1 month ago
      Maybe that why we're finding older cultures like Gobekli-Tepe and others that are 12K years old. Archeologists should be taking soil samples and asking if the climate was the cause for abandonment besides other issues.
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      • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 3 years, 1 month ago
        They have been forbidden from revealing that info...up until recently, everything was less than 12K, some have gotten away with saying: "Maybe" older. Something has happened in that field of study...older and older dates have been accepted.
        The core sciences have been leaking studies about catastrophe's, pole reversals, crustal plate displacements, sudden Ice ages and extinctions...seems the cat is out of the bag.
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  • Posted by $ aasnip 3 years, 1 month ago
    Y'all are so silly. Of course it's Global Warming causing this colder weather. We all know that heat rises. So all that Global Warming has risen into the upper atmosphere, pushing all the cold air down here. But in just 10 years from 1986, um, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2014, uh, sometime SOON, all that cold air will be gone and we'll be baking like biscuits left 3 days too long in the oven!!!
    It's all our fault. That enormous ball of fusion in the sky has absolutely nothing to do with it.
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  • Posted by $ 3 years, 1 month ago
    Those good old boys at City Hall are going to have a difficult time in April. I'm going to be there asking why they spent a million dollars for lighting on a disc golf course and didn't buy any Generators to keep the water pumps going in inclement weather?
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    • Posted by mccannon01 3 years, 1 month ago
      That's called "putting their feet to the fire", 25n56il4. I'd be curious what their squirmy dodge and duck answer is. I bet it won't be something like a bigger kick back - er ah - donation from the golf people.

      I shake my head whenever our employees (government whoever) take it upon themselves to spend our money on things like golf lighting. Here's a story for you: One morning our county exec did a ribbon cutting for a partially government funded multi-million dollar "artwork" on a street corner and then in the afternoon was whining there wasn't enough money in the budget to supply proper computer equipment to the high schools. There you have it.

      Edit add: That street corner used to have a tax paying business on it, but now it has a rusting litter collecting "artwork".
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      • Posted by $ 3 years, 1 month ago
        Hey these dodos spent $300,000 on a piece of land inside the city limits for a new EMS/Fire Dept facility when we have 3 fire depts. already and only 2 ambulances. They spent $1m to buy the land for that disc golf course and I think I know who they bought this land from and if so, he better duck!
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  • Posted by $ blarman 3 years, 1 month ago
    Of course we can blame the boogey man of man-made, global climate change! It's a wonderful windmill to distract our brainless followers! Of course our real goal is to control the entire world and loot non-compliant (rich) nations like the United States out of all their productivity and wealth while we set up our global cabal! Long live the feudal caste system! [/s]
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  • Posted by mshupe 3 years, 1 month ago
    There is no blame. Existence, nature, the universe and company doesn't care about your comfort or lack thereof. It doesn't have an opinion. The progressives and statists embrace the malevolent universe premise that holds that human life is sentenced to chaos, and they're damned determined to prove it.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 3 years, 1 month ago
    Oh, they will blame it on global warming only now, because of this, they'll call it "climate change". Oh...I'm in total agreement on "climate change". The weather has always been time-dependent. But, I don't want to pay more taxes because of it, or be forced to drive an electric, self-driving car that won't take me to my favorite fishing spots. Nope...not me.
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  • Posted by term2 3 years, 1 month ago
    I have to say that all this climate change stuff is irrelevant to our lives. Climate has changed drastically one way and then the other for centuries and wont stop no matter what we do. Anyway, this is just being used as an excuse to force us to do what government elites want.
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  • Posted by Katrina41 3 years, 1 month ago
    When the ice shelf by Greenland melts too far, the engine that drives the Gulf Stream will stop, causing Europe to sink into a nasty ice age. Last time I checked, the shelf was losing too much bulk to sustain itself. Warm water flows to the shelf, sinks down, and like a conveyor belt, moves the colder water back south to warm again and keep the current going. Without that warmer water off the European coast, things will turn very cold. Maybe John Galt could have turned off this particular engine, but starting it again might not be possible for centuries. Global climate change can melt that ice shelf without any help from us, therefore a warming earth can indeed cause colder weather. And once that starts, the earth's albedo will change, reflecting that warm sunlight out into space. Ice Age (not the movie) will be a reality.
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    • Posted by Owlsrayne 3 years, 1 month ago
      While this deviant administration wants to suck all of the CO2 out the air the crops and plants die off then Methane goes amok! Wise people here in the Gulch are more intelligent and know more science then those who try to govern us.
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  • Posted by RonC 3 years, 1 month ago
    Climate change is a trojan horse for social/economic justice; penalizing wealthy nations to benefit the poor nations.

    If they sincerely wanted to lift the poor nations they would give a green energy grid to the poorest nation on earth. Energy is a wealth creating resource. Not only have we proven that but the producing nations worldwide have also. Then, while growing this green grid they could solve the natural growth problems an reach a fuller understanding of both energy/ economics and what it takes to create a reliable green grid. All while lifting the poorest to a better life.

    It just easier to shove it down USA's throat and worry about problems later. It's the hip thing to do.
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  • Posted by term2 3 years, 1 month ago
    You cant blame it on global warming. Thats why the manipulative politicians have changed their tune to "climate change" to cover all the bases. That way they can have power over us all no matter what the climate is
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  • Posted by mccannon01 3 years, 1 month ago
    I just had a conversation with a family member who is a member of the Church of Man Made Global Warming and according to their scripture colder winters covering a broader area are a bi product of increasing planetary temperature caused by humans. So, there you have it.
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  • Posted by VetteGuy 3 years, 1 month ago
    If the doomsayers really believe all the propaganda they are putting out, why isn't there more effort into learning to live with higher global temps and sea levels? Move people off the beaches. Evacuate low lying island nations. Encourage populations to move away from the equator and toward the poles. These actions are no more extreme or disruptive than what they are already proposing.
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  • Posted by Rex_Little 3 years, 1 month ago
    The way it's been explained to me by people I at least trust not to deliberately lie is, the critical factor is how fast global warming occurs. Gradual is OK, but too fast and we get extreme weather conditions (including extreme cold in spots). The theory is that human activity increases the warming rate.

    I don't believe this unquestioningly, but it seems plausible to me.
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  • Posted by Lnxjenn 3 years, 1 month ago
    I would like to remind those of the world who may actually be sentient... that Russia and China have been melting the artic pole for quite awhile... that will have a profound impact on the weather coming down from there. They've been working on a ship way for their ships across the Artic sea but can't do the regularly with the ice.

    Not that i am blaming that, but I am saying it will have an impact on the weather that is coming down. I do find it ironic that most of that type of movement of weather only seems to come down across various parts of America. Even in England we haven't had much of a frosty winter (we had a couple weeks but generally it's just been cold and wet... as usual) I think even most of Europe hasn't either. (i could be wrong as I haven't been paying that close enough attention to weather on continent!)
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  • Posted by $ Stormi 3 years, 1 month ago
    Can't be global warming, when we are in a grand solar minimum, with cold for about 11 yeas! Can blame AOC, for plagiarizing UN Agenda 21, and forcing windmills and solar on areas during this sun cycle. Can blame media for not warning people to beware of colder weather, when Australia warned their farmers more than a year ago. Blame politicians and media for gross stupidity for telling people government can force people to change enough to control weather, which is sun driven. People can control pollution, but that is localized, and not weather. /Blame those who make you think carbon emissions have anything to do with weather. The UN is set for head one world government, using these lies, and AOC and her googlely eyes are as clueless as a deer in headlights.
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  • Posted by NilsAndersso 3 years, 1 month ago
    Easy. They changed the name of this hoax to "Climate Change", which is a safe bet because some of it will always change.
    It is the method of the Dictatorship of the Greenetariat.
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