OT: Nuclear plant kept under no touch policy

It's shame it costs so much to run a nuclear plant. In many cases they do get credit for being green, now getting their share of CO2 carbon tax, but the fracking scene and natural-gas prices are killing them, and unless they get bailouts (many have), operators plan to shut them down to save money.

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 Thanks, 
    - Win

Link from that page:

LA just had the coldest month on record. It's been raining for days here, Guereville is flooded again, and there is epic snow in the mountains. Our Hetch Hetchy reservoir is full about twice normal for this time of year. No problem with long hot showers this year.

Time to buy some new ski boots, I think. We'll be skiing into June at least.

Question for people who live in snow: We have a small deck at the cabin, and it really piles up when we're away. It's at least 5 feet deep now. I was thinking about getting a small electric blower, something like this:

or maybe

Are these little blowers any good? If the snow were packed hard below (ie, almost ice) would the blower be useful for removing the top layers? It would only have to toss the snow maybe 8 feet, over or through the railings. I'd share this with a friend who lives a few blocks away, so we'd prefer something easy to transport without a truck. And that wives could use too.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics

l-Handle/3223769

If it's just a small deck, you'll expend more energy maneuvering the blower than if you just shovel. Shoveling is easy if you just scoop a 6" depth or less at a time, and cut through the deck systematically instead of chaotic ally grabbing mounds of snow randomly.

Hi, John:-

I bought one of these little ones:

.. they're surprisingly good for modest amounts of snow. Obviously they can't compare with a two-stage self-propelled dual headlight petroleum powered monster, but there is never a starting problem and I've found it good even for dealing with the nasty packed snow at the foot of the driveway that the plows leave.

The only problems I've had are with slush it can plug the exit duct or if someone (who shall remain nameless) runs over the cord it makes a nice mess.

No experience with the ones you show, but I would definitely stay away from cordless at this time.

--Spehro Pefhany

The article talks about how the price of natural gas is up and they don't w ant to overtax the gas generating plants because it would take away from ga s for heating residences. Seems the lack of availability can't be relied o n for natural gas in much the same way as solar and wind.

Rick C.

The story that got me going, shutdown contemplated despite receiving extra zero-carbon energy money:

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 Thanks, 
    - Win