OT? When Computer Controls Fail

It makes a lot of sense keeping spent fuel in water pools for 30-50 years, before processing it or put into permanent storage. During the time in the pool, most short lived (and hence strongly radioactive) isotopes will decay, so it becomes easier to handle. There is no real hurry to process it.

Such long above ground storage times becomes problematic only in unstable countries with revolutions every few decades.

The Onkalo underground storage facility

It is owned by two old nuclear companies and a new company building their first reactor would also want to store their waist also in Onkalo, but the owners would not like to allow this. This seems to be the greatest controversy regarding Onkalo :-).

Energy usage of a car should not be under-estimated. Sometimes such back-of-the-envelope calculations can be really clarifying. Dave Jones has done some of them in his videos.

Of course that installation will not be able to fully charge all 200 cars during the course of a day! They will rely on the fact that most cars arrive nearly fully charged and only need to be topped-up. And probably they nowhere give any guarantee about charging results.

Unfortunately, the day before Christmas, when there is nearly no sun energy input (at least here), everyone wants to charge their car to visit the family that lives relatively far away.

Probably a combination of not-so-good freezer and strict rules on what risks to take with food.

An average household freezer should, when kept closed, easily go through a 6 hour power outage without affecting the contents much.

But this is not household, they may have continued operation (and have opened the freezer) some time into the outage, and they may have strict rules on temperature reached in the freezer (e.g. when freezer reaches

-10C throw away all goods that are for commercial use). At home you would not do that.

To save space is the exact reason why the fishing boats use vacuum insulation panels instead of cheaper foam insulation. It can be very thin.

Ok, yes it would be more justifiable if you consider the savings on the power bill the rest of the time.

If they only worried about power failures then they might be better off with a generator, though unlesss it is automated, that may not help if the outage occurs outside business hours when nobody is there to start it.

so long as you only put a few kilograms of the hot stuff in there, else it'll burst from helium pressure.

So they would have to throw out their old units and buy new ones.

IF...

I think they are better off living with the chance and if needed, buy insurance.

How could they operate in a black out??? They tossed the food because it thawed. It may not have been bad, but some of the stuff they had would have been ruined by the refreezing (it's as much an ice cream place as a burger place) and there may be rules about the meat etc.

Don't they charge their cars every day anyway? It the day after when they return that everyone needs a bigger charge. Same with Memorial day, Labor day, Independence day and Thanksgiving. Then there is Geo Washington's birthday and Black Friday and every other Friday getting ready for the weekend... seems like there's something big going on nearly every day.

If I worked there I would be doing all my charging at work, lol. Perks you know... but then the company would likely track your usage and it would be part of your review... "Your output improved 5% this period, but we are concerned with your rising fuel costs. We are going to have to replace you with a more efficient unit."

I guess you mean one of these jokes:

Good point. The ideal altitude or height would put the terminus beyond geosynchronous orbit perhaps at 50,000km. Such a "tower" would risk being hit by literally every satellite. So, we use the same logic and mentality when a terrestrial construction project runs into a previously built obstacle... remove the obstacle or maybe replace it. In this case, the space shovel would need to be contrived, that acts as an orbiting garbage truck to remove anything that might be in the way. Replacement and future satellites would be installed somewhere along the space elevator towers, which makes supplying power, installation, and maintenance fairly easy. It would take a long time to return near space to a pristine pre-Sputnik condition, but it can be done, given the incentive and funding.

If all else fails, cover the "towers" with a diamond shaped sheath, that would deflect any debris that hit. If the "tower" is expected to handle bulk nuclear waste, it's going to be strong, big, wide, and heavy and might just survive a direct impact. Maneuvering satellites with gyros is quite common, but currently designed only to maintain orbital position. A larger gyro system could be designed with collision avoidance in mind. Also, satellites are typically designed to last about 10 years. It might become a requirement to remove old satellites and debris before one is allowed to launch something new. Such global cooperation is probably asking too much, but is worth trying.

Yep.

That's what I said, they may have done dumb things and there may be rules and regulations. When they had kept the freezer shut it would likely not have thawed, but they might still be required to toss the content anyway. So then they could just as well continue operation and open the thing every minute... which of course will mean that it will thaw.

Experts would have to worry about that. But helium diffuses through almost anything, so concrete shouldn't stop it.

Isn't concrete porous? It can be lined inside and out with plastic. We all know that lasts forever. ;)

How the hell could they operate in a BLACK OUT??? Nothing in the place would work other than the water! They can sell raw meat?

More like 48 hours, as long as the door is kept closed.

Exactly right.

Ever hear of gas grills and ovens? Most restaurants have them.

After hurricane Katrina, we ate for a few days at a mom-and-pop restaurant in Folsom, La, without power. Food was pretty good.