Carnival of Nuclear Energy #56 at NEI Nuclear Notes

The 56th edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Energy is being hosted at NEI Nuclear Notes. (h/t Brian Wang) Here are some excerpts:

To start, Rod Adams at Atomic Insights has a piece describing what’s happening between the NRC, the AP1000 and Friends of the Earth. According to Rod, the NRC appears to be wavering in its commitment to its own established process because some believe that receiving 14,000 emails on the AP1000 design certification indicates a high level of general public opposition. Rod notes that the emails are mainly from a single group, the FOE, who have professionally opposed nuclear energy for 40 years. The group claims credit for orchestrating nearly every one of those emails as part of a campaign against nuclear energy in general, not against the AP1000 in particular. The FOE sources who have identified the cited "technical issues" have questionable professional backgrounds, long histories of antinuclear activity, and little credibility.
Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat discusses the NRC Inspector General’s report on the NRC Chairman’s use of budget guidance on the review of the Yucca Mountain license. According to media summaries of the leaked IG’s review in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, the Chairman issued controversial budget guidance to his staff to stop the work and brushed off complaints from other commissioners about it.
Rick Maltese at Deregulate the Atom pointed out that the NRC should not get all the credit for nuclear energy's decades of safety.

The Institute for Nuclear Power Operations in the US and the World Association of Nuclear Operators deserve a lot of the credit for improvements in safety and other design improvements. They are the Nuclear Industry’s self regulating bodies. And most of the accomplishments were made within the 10 or so years after the Three Mile Island accident. I point this out to set the record straight about who and how the excellent record of safety that has come about in the nuclear industry is not at all understood.

Alan Rominger and Steve Skutnik at Neutron Economy have two posts to mention. Alan explains the connection between the recent idea for "charter cities" where small modular reactors located at the bottom of the ocean can provide sustainable, independent power for such efforts. And Steve explains why he ultimately went from being a physicist to a nuclear engineer. Steve encourages other nuclear professionals and advocates to tell their stories of how they came to be involved in nuclear energy as well (I’m reminded of this example).
Charles Barton at Nuclear Green asks: Why Is Renewable Energy So Expensive, While Molten Salt Reactors will be So Cheap? He finds that an examination of input materials for wind generation systems and solar PV generation is greater than the input materials for an Advanced High Temperature Reactor. The study he cites reveals that the AHTR, a near relative of the Molten Salt Reactor, has big advantages by the little amount of resources needed. MSRs can potentially offer the same material input advantages over renewables, and thus may generate electricity at very competitive costs.
Brian Wang at Next Big Future reports that Lawrenceville Plasma Physics’s (LPP) research team has sorted out several issues on their dense plasma focus fusion project which should enable them to substantially increase power.
_NEI Nuclear Notes

Despite the Obama administration's overarching policy of energy starvation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's blatant obstructionism, small modular reactors are being developed rapidly -- the B&W reactor being a prime example.

The concept behind mPower, and small modular reactors designed by B&W competitors, is to let electric utilities add nuclear generation in small blocks. While most reactors on the market today generate more than 1,000 megawatts of power, an mPower module would provide 125 megawatts. A utility could order just enough modules to meet its needs, Halfinger said.

“There are places in the world where they need 1,000 megawatts, (but) one size does not fit all,” he said. “A lot of places need 200 megawatts.”

The nuclear industry has been abuzz about small modular reactors. Westinghouse, NuScale Power and Holtec International also are working on modular designs.

Cross-posted to Al Fin Energy

Nuclear Renaissance vs. Obama Pelosi Energy Starvation

USNEF
From coal to oil sands to oil shale to shale gas to offshore oil to arctic oil to nuclear energy -- the Obama Pelosi regime has been focused on shutting down all forms of reliable, large-scale energy to US industry and the US economy. The nuclear renaissance -- the sprouting up of large numbers of new, clean, safe nuclear power plants -- is a direct threat to the regime's plans. What are those plans? To force the US into the dead-end boondoggle of unreliable big wind and big solar, the quicksand suffocation death of the US economy.

The 6th blog carnival of nuclear energy is up at NEI Nuclear Notes (via Brian Wang). The 6th Carnival takes a look at the nuclear renaissance, among several other topics. Dieoff leftists will resist any form of abundant, clean, and reliable energy. But outside the US, it is no longer up to them. From the Carnival:

 Barry Brook at Brave New Climate set the record straight on the world nuclear renaissance:

Despite what some may like you to believe, the nuclear renaissance is upon us. Don’t let anyone get away with telling you otherwise — they are badly misleading you.

…

How about this for some supporting statistics: 29 new reactors, totalling 26 gigawatts of electricity output (operating at high capacity factors without the need for energy storage/backup), will start operation in 13 different countries in the 2010 — 2012 period – that’s within the next 3 years (average reactor size is 880 MWe).

Brian Wang at Next Big Future (the leader of these nuclear carnivals) took to town the bogus claims made by a Stanford Professor:

In a debate between Stewart Brand (pro-nuclear) and Mark Jacobson (anti-nuclear), Mark Jacobson tries to make the case that we can generate all of the energy that we need without nuclear power (and without fossil fuels) … one of Jacobson's main distortions is that nuclear power is slower to develop than solar and wind.

…

I am all in favor of building more solar and wind, but it is wrong to say that building a lot of it is faster than building nuclear power. Nuclear power increased by 300% since the 1980s in the United States. Since 1987 the US alone has added 345 TWH of nuclear which is more than the entire OECD has now for solar, wind and geothermal.

The nuclear renaissance is on -- but not in Obama Pelosi's US. The reich is focused upon energy starvation for the US, and nuclear power just provides too much energy and is too sustainable for too long -- particularly when Gen III and Gen IV reactors are combined in complementary fuel and power generation.

Gen III and Gen IV reactors will do away with the problem of persistent nuclear waste. And just in case you are worried about nuclear weapons proliferation from nuclear waste -- don't be. Reactor grade plutonium in nuclear waste is not weaponisable (via Charles Barton).

The only hope for the US to break out of the Obama depression and energy starvation is to erase the regime and start again with a clean slate of more rational actors.

Go to the Carnival of Nuclear Energy #6 for more ideas and links.

Adapted from an earlier posting at Al Fin Energy

5th Carnival of Nuclear Energy at NextBigFuture

Liquid Fuel Nuclear Reactors

View more webinars from Robert Hargraves.

Brian Wang hosted the 5th Blog Carnival of Nuclear Energy last weekend at NextBigFuture. There has been a desperate need for such an updated collection of the best nuclear blogging, and Brian and other nuclear bloggers have stepped up to the plate.

2. Nuclear Fissionary has an article on energy density and waste comparison of energy production.

3. India's long term nuclear development plans at Nucleargreen.

Much more from the 5th Carnival of Nuclear Energy at NextBigFuture -- including new nuclear fusion research breakthroughs and news about Cold Fusion and Blacklight Power.

Brian Wang Premiers First Carnival of Nuclear Energy

Brian Wang's NextBigFuture blog is hosting the first edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Energy. Here is one entry -- a highly informative Rod Adams -- John Horgan dialogue (63 minutes), which looks at the relationship between nuclear weapons and civilian nuclear power.

From Nuclear Fissionary via NextBigFuture

Brian features 14 entries in all, dealing with fission, fusion, nuclear produced process heat for industry, nuclear terrorism issues, some global plans for new nuclear plants, and the above video dialogue between (pro-nuke) Rod Adams and (anti-nuke) John Horgan.

Brian's new carnival is a timely addition to the blog carnival scene. There is a good deal of nuclear expertise available online via various blogs and websites. A nuclear energy carnival will increase the exposure of notable blog articles and inform general readers about important nuclear issues as they come up -- and provide a general education to nuclear energy topics.

Be sure to check out the first Carnival of Nuclear Energy

First published at Al Fin Energy

Plenty of Room for Brains 3 or 4 Times the Size

How large can human brains grow, and still be workable thermodynamically? CIT scientist Jan Karbowski claims the human brain can grow to 3 or 4 times its current size of 1.5 kg, and still function without overheating.

The question on Karbowski's mind is whether there is any thermodynamic limit on brain size. And if so, does 5 kg, which Karbowski says is the mass of the largest mammalian brain, approach that limit?

Karbowski points out that brain cooling is not a classic problem of surface-area to volume. Instead, brain cooling is more closely comparable to that in a combustion heat engine where a liquid coolant removes heat.

"In the brain, the role of the coolant is played by the cerebral blood, but only in the deep region because there blood has a slightly lower temperature than the brain tissue," says Karbowski.

But in the regions closer to the surface, it is the oter way round: brain tissue is colder than the cerebral blood which warms the brain.

This implies that the thermodynamics of heat balance does not restrict the brain size. And this in turn suggests that brains could be heavier than 5 kg, says Karbowski. _TechnologyReview_via_Kurzweilai.net

Brain size in humans correlates with intelligence. As we learn more about how the brain achieves its portion of intelligence, we will learn ways to augment brain intelligence. Some of these augmentative approaches will utilise hardware external to the brain. But no doubt we will also learn to engineer living tissue to serve as brain repair and brain augment.

This would mean increasing the size of the living brain, introducing all sorts of problems relating to skull re-shaping, blood supply, and others we haven't thought of yet. Thanks to Karbowski, at least we won't have to worry about the thermodynamics of brain enlargement -- for now.

An excellent edition of Encephalon (#71) is available for your perusal at Neuroanthropology blog.

Carnival of Space 36 at Cat Dynamics

One of the best recent Carnivals of Space is being hosted at Dynamics of Cats blog. Among the many excellent entries, one posting that particularly caught my eye was: the Air Launched Single Stage to Orbit.

Staging is one of the single highest risks of failure for existing launch vehicles. Additionally, with a TSTO, now you're really designing three vehicles, not just one. A first stage, an upper stage, and a combined entity. You now have to come up with abort modes for all the different configurations.

Probably one of the biggest headaches for TSTOs is how to recover and reuse the first stage. Getting to orbit is only a little bit about going up, and mostly about hurtling yourself sideways fast enough to "throw yourself at the ground and continually miss". Doing so entails gathering quite a bit of horizontal velocity with a first stage, which means that the first stage gets quite a bit of horizontal distance between it and the launch site by the time it releases the upper stage....

Starting, as SpaceShipOne did, at a reasonable altitude gives several distinct advantages over ground launch (the following list comes from Dan DeLong, with some thoughts from me [in brackets]):

1. The airplane carrier contributes to the overall altitude and velocity...
2. Meteorological uncertainties are mostly below launch altitude. Propellant reserves can thus be less....
3. Total integrated aerodynamic drag losses are less, as the launch is above much of the atmosphere....
4. Max Q is less, which reduces structural mass, and may allow lower density thermal insulation....
5. Engine average Isp is increased because the atmospheric back-pressure effect affects a smaller fraction of the trajectory....
6. Engine expansion ratio (non-variable geometry assumed) can be greater because overexpansion is less problematical....
7. Wing area can be smaller because the wings do not need to lift the gross weight at low subsonic speed. Air launch Q is greater than runway rotation Q.
8. Wing airfoil shape need not be designed to work well at high gross weight and low subsonic speeds.
9. Wing bending structure need not be designed for gross weight takeoffs or gust loads....
10. Thrust/weight ratio can be smaller because the low initial trajectory angle does not have large gravity losses. This allows a smaller engine, propellant feed, and thrust structure mass fraction. I found 1.25 at release to be about optimum. This is a bigger advantage in air launching because total integrated aerodynamic drag losses are less and the trajectory need not get the orbiter out of the thick stuff as fast....
11. The lower mass/(total planform area) yields lower entry temperatures. I assumed inconel foil stretched over fibrous blanket insulation for much of the vehicle undersurface. Titanium over blankets, or no insulation worked on the top surface. Payload bay doors peaked at 185 F....
12. Mission flexibility is greater.... The ability to move the launch point also potentially opens up longer launch windows. Lastly, being able to move the launch point allows options like operating out of an airport closer to "civilization" while still launching out of an area with low population density, like say over an ocean or a desert...
13. landing gear for an air-launched SSTO can be designed based on landing weight instead of takeoff weight. This is a big deal for SSTO designs.

Selenian Boondocks

Affordable access to space is the main obstacle to the coming "space rush." The inner solar system (from the asteroids inward) contains material wealth beyond human imagination. But more important, space--like the oceans, the polar regions, and the seafloor--represents a new frontier. Humans desperately need frontiers in order to express one of their most endearing characteristics--the ability to solve existential problems while being stressed beyond reason by the conditions at hand.

The die.off generation--represented prominently within the Peak Oil, CAGW, and Population Crisis camps--wishes to return to a stone age Earth with a population of a hundred million or so humans, maximum. You may already be an unwitting member of the Human Extinction Movement. If so, you will wish to hurry over to one of the two links above without delay. For the rest, who actually have the gumption to face existential problems head-on, it is never too early to begin working.

Hat tip: Brian Wang

Carnival of Space 32 is Up plus 11th Climate Carnie

Via Brian Wang at Advanced Nano: The 32nd edition of Carnival of Space is Up at Robot Guy

It's the Energy Stupid! sounds like my cup of tea--suitably succinct and assertive.

Can it be true? Is the Solar Sail soon to RISE AGAIN? I hope so, as it is one of the best uses of solar power yet conceived.

Last but note least, Advanced Nanotechnology presents some of Brian Wang's favourite astropropulsion approaches. If Brian likes it, it's probably very good.

The 11th issue of the Carnival of Climate Change came up when I did not have good net access, so I missed it. But there is a lot happening on the "climate change" front, so here is a summary:

The founder of The Weather Channel says Global Warming is a big scam.

Some climate scientists are wondering how long the hysteria over CAGW can be maintained in the face of contradictory evidence.

In Megafreeze, Bruce Hall looks at what happened when the "global temperature" dropped 1-2 degrees C from current levels. Not a pretty picture.

A large but "beneath the radar" private project is casting huge doubt on the entire temperature data set used by the IPCC and prominent GCM promoters of CAGW.

Famed climate analyst Ross McKitrick is telling on the IPCC for using contaminated data.

Lubos Motl wonders why temperatures seem to be cooling rather than warming.

The Icecap casts doubt on IPCC science from several directions at once.

Brian Wang at Advanced Nano says the US Congress may be preparing to pass massive anti-greenhouse gas legislation as soon as President Bush is out of office. If so, that would establish the US Congress as the most regressive of governmental institutions.

Update: John Ray provides an omnibus of solar-climate articles and abstracts. Just read past the short "chicken joke" to the series of fascinating articles on solar forcing.

New Energy and Fuel blog finally gets to the bottom of global warming, and finds: It's the SUN, Stupid!

More at the carnivals and websites linked above. You were given your brain for a reason. Do not let it rot from lack of use.
;-)

Blog Carnivals and Blog Wars

Three of my favourite blog carnivals are up:

Tangled Bank #92 is hosted at PaddyK. A veritable biological cornucopia.

Carnival of Space #28 is hosted at The Planetary Society. The latest in space news and commentary.

Encephalon #35 is hosted at The Primate Diaries. The premiere neuroscience blog carnival.

And what "blog wars," you may ask? Well, the voting for the Best Science Blog concludes today, and number 3 in the running, Pharyngula by PZ Myers, is throwing out some feces tainted mud at a fellow science blog that is running a bit ahead currently. The remaining blog in top three running, Bad Astronomy Blog, is trying to stay above the fray--good on him!

These contests sometimes bring out the worst in otherwise civilised bloggers. Here's hoping that all concerned are capable of recovering from partisan squabbles soon enough to resume science blogging tomorrow!

Around the Web

Jason Malloy posted an excellent synopsis of the James Watson brouhaha over at GNXP.

An intriguing look at the effect of the west on Islam at American Thinker. Islam may be in for a reformation--like it or not!

The new Carnival of Space is out.

Here is the latest Encephalon

More carnivals later.

Encephalon 30 Neurocarnival

Neurofuture hosts the 30th issue of the Encephalon neurocarnival. After that post, Neurofuture blog is retiring.

Encephalon is the prospering neurocarnival begun by Neurophilosopher blog, which took over about the time that the previous neurocarnival Synapse went defunct.

Blog carnivals are an effective way for bloggers with similar interests to keep track of each others' exceptional postings. This particular edition of Encephalon deals with some particular interests of mine, and if you check it out you may find the same to be true for yourself.

Carnivals

Brian Wang at Advanced Nano is hosting the current Carnival of Space #16.

Tangled Bank #86 is at Fishfeet.

The ongoing battle of the space hoteliers is covered in two posts at Colony Worlds. Here is Robert Bigelow's entry, and here is the orbiting hotel from Barcelona's Galactic Suite.

KySat reports on different NASA projects to return to the moon.

Finally, here is Encephalon #29, at Memoirs of a Postgrad.

Blog Carnivals for All

A new Carnival of Climate Change is out, containing a link to another Al Fin posting.

Tangled Bank #83 is up at Aardvarchaelolgy blog.

Brain Blog #12 is up. This carnival is the clinical counterpoint to the neurocognitive carnival Encephalon.

Here is the Cavalcade of Risk #29, on the many uses of risk in the real world.

Here is Cosmos #1, a carnival about the cosmic mysteries.

Finally, here is the Carnival of Space #10, hot off the presses and full of excellent links!

Blog carnivals are great ways to be introduced to new blogs that could easily become new favourites.

Encephalon #26

Neurophilosophy Blog has moved to Science Blogs, and to celebrate is hosting the 26th Edition of Encephalon. If you have not yet visited Neurophilosophy, or waded through an edition of the Encephalon blog neurocarnival, I strongly encourage you to jump in without delay.

Carnivals--One Way to Cover Your Web Interests

We all have particular areas of interest. One of the huge benefits of browsing blogs is the large number of people who may be blogging on an interest of ours, at any given time. Blog carnivals are blog postings that collect exceptional blog entries on particular topics, and post them together in one place. The blog carnival operator browses the blogs so you do not have to. That is the theory. In reality, there is a lot of serendipitous discovery when reading blog carnivals, just as in browsing the web or doing web searches. So if you are avoiding blog carnivals because you think they are too tame, perhaps you should check some of them out occasionally--at least the ones that overlap with your interest set.

Carnival of Space #9

Carnival of Online Education

Personal Development Carnival It should be noted that personal development is the enemy of ideology and established institutions.

All Things Medical Things to look for in everyday life that may mean something, or may not.

Or browse the blog carnival index--watch for the most recent editions of each carnival.

Recent Carnivals of Interest

Here is the 2nd Carnival of Climate Change Brand new blog carnival on climate from a broader perspective than the media can provide. Look for the Al Fin entry.

Carnival of Space #8This edition appears to contain several provocative space postings.

Encephalon #25Always worth a look--fascinating tidbits and perspectives on neuroscience and mind.

Miscellaneous Curiosities, and the Announcement of the 3rd Carnival of Space

The image above shows an amazing new nano-glue discovered by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic.

Researchers at Purdue have developed and patented an Aluminum alloy containing Gallium, that has the ability to pull the Oxygen from water, leaving the Hydrogen gas for other things--like combustion or making electricity in fuel cells. This would allow the production of hydrogen gas "on demand", when and where it is needed, from water.

Physicists at U Penn have developed a carbon nanotube aerogel that can support 8,000 times its weight.

One can imagine combining the three discoveries to produce an ultra-light automobile made of aerogel sandwiched between thin layers of nano-glued materials, powered by on-demand hydrogen fuel cells.

Or perhaps an ultralight rocket ship? Which brings me to the Third Carnival of Space, hosted by Universe Today. This week's carnival has a strong emphasis on recent astronomical discoveries.

Second Carnival of Space!

The second Carnival of Space is now up!

More great links to recent outer space postings from the best space and futurist blogs. Check it out.

Carnival of Space--It's About Time

Blog carnivals can be exceptionally informative. But up until now, there has been no Carnival of Space.

The recent Space Access ‘07 conference focused on private business efforts to get into space. I was surprised by just how close we are to being able to buy a “reasonable” ticket into space.

....The Robot Guy explains What NASA Should Be Doing, But Isn't: DARPA's Orbital Express program is everything that DART should have been, and more – and is exactly the sort of thing NASA doesn't do anymore, due to budget constraints. (Some cool graphics.)

Brian Wang, who blogs at advancednano, writes that Possibly the last NIAC studies are being released. He reviews two of the more interesting recent concepts from NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, NIAC. One is the space bubble concept where bubbles up to 1000 kilometers (!) in size are created and then made rigid. The other concept is using two lightweight lunar Winnebagos to provide a mobile base camp for lunar exploration. Check out the pictures!

Much more at the source

Henry Cate attended Space Access '07 and came away inspired to start the Carnival of Space. This may be a small seed in the creation of the human exodus into space. But it is a critical step toward interesting people at the grass roots level--informing them what is being done and what could be done.

So check out the first Carnival of Space. And if you can help Henry keep the carnival new and exciting, do what you can.

Retinal Bypass Prosthetic Vision--Lateral Geniculate Nucleus

Researchers at Harvard Medical Schools' Neurobiology Department are attempting to develop a prosthesis to restore vision in patients without a functioning retina or optic nerve.

Because the new technique completely bypasses the retina, it suggests the possibility of developing neural prostheses that can restore vision to patients with extensive retinal damage due to congenital conditions such as glaucoma, macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. In such patients, conventional retinal implants, which are already in the clinical phase of development, are of little or no use, because they require at least some properly functioning retinal cells.

The LGN is a structure found deep in the brain with the thalamus. It can be thought of as a “relay station” in the visual pathway, because it receives electrical signals about visual stimuli from the eye, via the optic nerve, and then relays them to the primary visual cortex in the occipital lobe of the brain. In the LGN, the visual fields from both eyes are represented somatotopically; that is, the visual scene impinging on the retina is mapped in a straightforward manner onto the LGN tissue, such that adjacent points in the visual field stimulate adjacent LGN neurons. The receptive fields of LGN neurons are similar to those of retinal cells; they are simple and well characterized. Structurally and functionally, the LGN is subdivided into a number of “streams” - the parvocellular and magnocellular pathways. Cells in the former pathway have small cell bodies, and process colour information slowly, while cells in the latter have large cell bodies, process information slowly and do not carry colour information.

Because previous studies have shown that electrical stimulation of the visual cortex in blind people can elicit visual sensations, and because the structure of the LGN is so well characterized, John Pezaris and R. Clay Reid sought to determine whether or not similar sensations could be elicited by stimulation of the LGN. They first trained two adult macaque monkeys to quickly direct their gaze towards points of light presented to them on a computer screen. Individual microelectrodes were then embedded into the LGN through small craniotomies. In response to electrical stimulation applied to specific regions of the LGN, the animals shifted their gaze to the corresponding part of the computer screen. This suggested that the monkeys’ visual systems registered spots of light, despite the absence of any external visual stimuli. The researchers then implanted two electrodes in different parts of the LGN, and stimulating one and then the other in quick succession; in response to this, the monkeys quickly turned their heads from one direction to the other. Thus, the electrodes were successfully used to generate artificial visual percepts; from the observed responses of the monkeys, these percepts were indistinguishable from spots of light entering the eye.

The researchers now aim to build a visual prosthetic device consisting of a small digital camera mounted in the lens of a special pair of glasses (left). The camera would gather images and send them to an external signal processor, which would translate the images into electrical impulses and then send them wirelessly to a device that stimulates an electrode array embedded in the LGN. However, the research is still in the early stages, and much work remains to be done before such a device can be developed.

Source

Neurophilosophy blog is notable not only for the informative and thoughtful postings, but for the blog carnivals he organises, such as Encephalon and Gene Genie.

Neurocarnivals

Since my last post on blog carnivals, Synapse has closed down. But Encephalon continues, and two new neuro-carnivals have started. Brain Blogging and Brain Fitness cover different angles of cognition than traditional neuroscience. Hat tip Neurophilosopher.

Even better, Chris at Developing Intelligence offers a fairly regular neuro-carnival of his own, besides his own informative posts, at Develintel Blog's new residence.