[ExI] Are mini nuclear power stations the way forward?

[Mirco Romanato]

Il 16/03/2011 15.40, Eugen Leitl ha scritto:
> On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 02:04:02PM +0000, BillK wrote:

>> This is one of the obvious problems to be included in the risk
>> analysis.

> Here is 5 GW worth of building-integrated solar PV distributed across
> a city. Show me how a terrorist is going to make use of that.

They would work how many hours? And the energy where would be stored?
How would you dispose of the wastes, like used rechargeable battery packs.
Who would keep the solar panels clean?
How many people would need to climb up to work on roofs? How many more
additional dead and injured would happen?

> Now show me how a massive earthquake will destroy it, and show me the
> risk analysis for that.

Earthquake?
What about typhoons, hurricanes and likes?
And what about pigeons and other birdies?
What happen when there is heavy snow or sand from the desert?

I live in Venice and it is not strange the wind bring sand/powder from
the Sahara, 2K km away. I hate when it happen.

Do you propose we put solar PV over the roofs of Venice, Rome and
Florence? Wind turbine?

If I was a terrorist/saboteur I would look at the electronics managing
the PV panels. Are they connected to the main power line? Can I fry them
or cause them to fry themselves? Can I hack inside them? There is a
smart grid? Are they totally independent or are they coordinating
themselves? When a house is restructured or the roof remade, the the
inhabitants are without power?

> Look, there's a screwdriver lying there. You can use it to screw in
> screws, or poke your eyes out. You can do both. It's up to you. Do
> what make sense.

"Make sense" is always much more subjective than most people assume. And
rarely is a so clear cut decision.

>> Quote: Hyperion’s Mr Deal insists that neither a rocket-propelled
>> grenade nor a tank round could smash a small reactor. Small
>> reactors can be

> I insist that I can create more mayhem with either a delivered new or
> old reactor that Mr Deal can think of in his worst nightmares.

Are you really so smart?
Are you able to do it before someone stop you?

I would place the Hyperion reactor in a concrete dome under the surface,
with only the pipes of the water used to generate steam coming out. When
placed I would close the vessel with a large slab of concrete, then I
would pour other concrete to cement it all together.
Do you want arrive at the reactor? You need to dig the concrete out of
the way. A few days of hard work with the right tools.

The only way to attack the reactor would be to pour some very strong
acid inside the tubes, hoping it corrode the vessel and let the fuel
out. And then? it would be easy to pour another bit of concrete inside
the tubes and seal it all.

500 Hyperion reactor would not be placed all around the landscape. They
all would simply be placed in some power plants, like now. The
difference being that they could not go critical because they are
designed to be unable to go there. An advantage would be to be able to
do maintenance without shutting down a large part of the production
facility. If there is a problem, you stop a reactor or two and check
them. The other 498 would continue to work.

> That will make a fine epitaph for the half a million of dead people
> in Manhattan, no doubt.

> Just because you're gullible and/or unable to use your imagination it
> doesn't mean other people have such issues.

Just because you have a wild imagination, it doesn't mean you can make
it real.

A real, live, atomic bomb used by professionals with time and resources
to plan ahead to obtain the maximum damage was able to kill 50K people
in a moment and other 50K in a few days and weeks.
You must be very imaginative to think a way to be able to steal a
Hyperion reactor from some power plant, move it inside Manhattan and be
able to kill half a million of people.

I doubt you would be able to obtain this effect pouring the fuel inside
the water supply of the city undetected. It is so huge that it would
dilute the fuel out of existence. At best the city would have drinkable
water as radioactive as the water people drink at some spa in Germany.

>> There is also a proposed design which (if it works) avoids the
>> nuclear 

> That's just the problem with the kooks of any color: they have
> solutions for everything. If it works, maybe, eventually. Are you
> feeling lucky? Can you afford to?

You also have solutions for every thing.
Can we afford your solutions? Do we feel lucky to try them?

You think so. I, and others, think differently.



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*Mirco Romanato*




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