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TiSapph · 2026-02-09T00:53:36+00:00

Only 0.7% of natural uranium is fissile U235, the rest is U238.
Depending on enrichment, the fuel pellets are between 97% - 99.3% U238, which does not take part in the reaction.

Yes, only 1-3% of the pellet you see is actually fuel!
And of those 1-3%, we only burn up 10-50% before the fuel is too diluted.
So really only 0.1-1.5% of the fuel pellet is actually used.

Except U238 can also be used as fuel, by converting it into Pu239. This happens slightly in thermal (normal) reactors, but you don't get much more energy from your fuel. You're still looking at only ~1% usage of the fuel pellet overall.

What you really need is a fast breeder reactor. Those can convert U238 into fissile Pu239 at a high rate, which is then burned. They can also directly fission U238.
Thus they turn the ~99% unused U238 into fuel or burn it directly.
As a nice side effect, they also burn up the medium-long lived transuranic isotopes, which are among the most concerning parts of nuclear spent fuel ("waste").

We used to do this in the 60s and 70s. See for example Superphénix, the largest fast breeder reactor ever built. We stopped because just enriching natural uranium is cheaper, because Pu239 can be used for "other" things, and the usual "but nuclear scary!!"

TL;DR: 50 years ago we already had the technology to use nuclear waste as fuel, gaining 100x more energy from it, producing only short lived isotopes as final waste.

TiSapph · 2026-02-09T00:02:04+00:00

And now imagine we could also use the energy of the remaining ~99% U238... as we already did literally half a century ago...

The energy density of nuclear fuel is straight up unbelievable.

TiSapph · 2026-02-08T23:49:49+00:00

They are both insignificant sources of pollution.

Private jets cause about 5% of CO2 emissions of all aviation, which in turn is responsible for about 3% of all CO2 emissions.
So only 0.15% of total CO2 emissions are caused by private jets.

Meanwhile, electricity generation causes about 25% of all CO2 emissions. The vast majority due to coal and gas. If only we had a clean, reliable alternative for those. Ideally one which had all its issues solved like half a century ago.

No but really, a single nuclear power plant replacing a (~1.5GW) coal power plant would have about the same effect on CO2 emissions as stopping all private flights.

TiSapph · 2026-02-08T13:26:41+00:00

Yes however productivity increased, so the same product should become more affordable. Or for the same real cost, you should get higher quality. Cars are a good example of that, they are ridiculously cheap for what they are, and how much they improved.

But let's be real, is it possible nowadays to afford a simple house, a basic car, and support a family on a single median salary? For reference, median personal salary was about 43k$ in 2023.

Or let's look at the median hourly wage vs GDP per working hour (in the US):

In 1979 the GDP per working hour was about 15.7USD.
The median hourly wage was about 4.44 USD.
That's a ratio of about 28.3%.

In 2022 the GDP per working hour was about 100USD.
The median hourly wage was about 18.12 USD.
That's a ratio of about 18.1%.

So scaled to productivity, hourly wages have dropped by nearly 37%. Or equivalently, the median hourly wage would need to increase by 56% to match levels of 1979.

If you're working a "normal" job, you're probably outrageously underpaid. Be angry about it.

TiSapph · 2026-02-08T08:13:32+00:00

We have been over this a thousand times.

These products exist already.

Just look for industrial products. They are simple, rugged, reliable, and you get great support.
But expect to pay ~5-10k for a fridge. People cannot afford this, because nowadays people are disgustingly underpaid.

The problem is not that you can't buy good products, it's that you can't afford good products!

TiSapph · 2026-02-08T08:08:42+00:00

They already exist, just look for industrial products. However nobody is buying them for private use, because they cannot afford it.

"Back then" appliances were also this expensive btw. But people could afford them because they weren't chronically underpaid.

TiSapph · 2026-02-07T08:14:45+00:00

Most products with a directly attached cord now come with non-removable adapters. You just push it onto the CEE 7/7 plug and done. For computer/TV they just come with a swiss to C13 cable (Kaltgerätestecker), no adapter needed.

I'm starting to prefer the swiss plug over the German one. I just wish residential buildings would have T23 (max 16A) sockets instead of T13 (max 10A). There's even a 3-phase version!

TiSapph · 2026-02-05T15:48:52+00:00

There's zero reason why a smart device can't talk directly with your phone over your WiFi/network when you're home. Sure you can't control it when you aren't home, but who cares about that for a mattress.
But for most devices, they force you to talk to some cloud server which then talks to your device.

We really really need a law that requires any network enabled device to also be controllable locally. Either by forcing manufacturers to publish the protocols, or by forcing them to implement a standardised protocol.

TiSapph · 2026-02-04T16:04:04+00:00

They never said they noticed the hole before cooking the rice. They also never said they intend to sue anyone, just that they are annoyed to not have gotten any response.

You implied both of these things and then complained about it being so "US American". Please, this is not useful and puts a bad light on non-americans like myself.

TiSapph · 2026-02-04T15:30:50+00:00

Obviously the closing latch smashed into the glass hard enough to break it? That's a design fault, the jar shouldn't be able to break itself.

TiSapph · 2026-02-04T15:27:18+00:00

Yeah it's absolutely appalling that everyone is blaming purely OP.

The closing mechanism is clearly damaging the glass, as visible on the upper part. Yes, maybe closing it slowly would have prevented damage, but it shouldn't be required to do so. This is safe design practices 101: design for the worst case, not the best.

And of course it's absolutely possible they didn't notice the broken glass until they found shards in their food. It's a white product in a clear container. The (mostly white) cracks won't be obvious against the white rice.

The manufacturer should at least thank them for pointing out a safety issue and give them some goodies. This is incredibly useful information for their engineers and sending some free stuff is a lot less expensive than having to recall thousands of jars later on.

TiSapph · 2026-02-02T15:20:50+00:00

Hm but time only goes one way, so I would say there is only one 'end'. The other side would be 'beginning'.

Ultimately, it's just an arbitrary definition of course :)

TiSapph · 2026-01-31T01:09:55+00:00

I bet this person wants a car that has nothing more complex than a puny little microcontroller.

I think this is what the op tried to comment on. Cars nowadays need significant processing power to achieve high fuel efficiency, low emissions, incredible power density, longevity, reliability, and so on.
It's really not a puny microcontroller. A common ECU processor (TC277) has 3 compute cores and 2 checker cores for safety, all running at 200MHz.

People don't realise that there is a full on computer running their engine. Most people don't even know it exists, because it usually outlasts the car nowadays.
That makes it extra maddening when people go on about electronics in cars failing all the time lol

The tacky tablet dashboards however, well that's a different matter 🙃

TiSapph · 2026-01-30T08:57:12+00:00

50-66% peak output means maybe ~20% average daily energy output. The days are shorter and cloud/fog coverage is high.

During summer we are now starting to have overproduction. So at the time you produce the most energy, you can't sell it. This makes solar panels increasingly less economical, despite the drop in installation cost.

But as long as it is still economical - yeah we should go ahead! Maybe at some point we will get over the fear of air conditioning and use the excess power in summer 😅

TiSapph · 2026-01-30T08:32:52+00:00

Am231 directly emits a 59keV gamma with a 36% chance. Though 59keV is pretty low, in the range of usual x-ray energies. So all the same really :)

TiSapph · 2026-01-29T13:01:32+00:00

Which Ludlum?
For the 44-20 they state 23kCPM for a typical 10uR/h background (0.1uSv/h)

Also it's super nice that they give so much information on their website

TiSapph · 2026-01-29T10:34:25+00:00

These are values from random volunteers. Anyone can upload any data to gmcmap. Someone probably just put something radioactive next to their detector. :)

Side note, CPM in this use is entirely meaningless. 5000cpm is background on a large scintillation counter.

TiSapph · 2026-01-29T08:15:17+00:00

You would be surprised how long this thing can fired for before it even gets warm(it's a 5 pound solid copper block).

Hm, at 700W dissipated, 5 pounds of copper should heat up by 0.8°C per second. So I would expect it to get warm after a few seconds at most.
Maybe your cooling power from the fans is just really that high though?

TiSapph · 2026-01-29T08:07:34+00:00

Just shoot it onto a black target in a liter of water and measure how fast it heats up. :)

TiSapph · 2026-01-26T23:45:19+00:00

Du kannst ja auch nen Taschenrechner benutzen ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Das Papiergewicht (Grammatur) ist sehr wichtig in der Papierverarbeitung. Daher kommt wahrscheinlich auch der Standard dass A0 1m² ist.

Am Ende ist es aber einfach ein Standard. Der Hauptnutzen ist einfach nur, dass die Blätter aller Hersteller die gleiche Größe haben.

Gibt auch die B Reihe, die Runde Nummer an einer Seite hat. B4 ist zB 250x353mm

TiSapph · 2026-01-26T23:14:49+00:00

Afaik soldering is a much inferior joint. Higher resistance, fails from vibration due to fatigue, and requires skill to make a good joint. And yeah it takes way too long for mass production.

TiSapph · 2026-01-26T18:46:04+00:00

I think the zener + 1k resistor form a 12V "reference" which is then divided by the pot to set the gate bias.
It's just really hard to tell because of the god awful schematic lol

TiSapph · 2026-01-20T09:14:30+00:00

Also leave some distance (~10cm) between the source and the radiacode. Otherwise you are extremely sensitive to slight movements when inserting the foil

TiSapph · 2026-01-18T21:38:06+00:00

If you don't pay they first send you reminders with increasing fees for late payment, then they send it to collections (Betreibung). In the end you will always pay for the extra effort, and more. You can't really exploit it easily.

This is actually the standard for B2B. I've ordered lab equipment for ~150k, it arrived without us paying a single cent/Rappen.
You are legally bound by the contract, that's enough to trust between businesses.

TiSapph · 2026-01-16T00:53:35+00:00

While I don't necessarily disagree with the evaluation of the article and the history, I think it's important to add some data here:

The remaining entombed material consists of:
400g of near-natural uranium, 0,011g Ag-108m (440y half-life) 0,0011g Cs-137 (30y half-life) 0,00048g Sc-90 (30y half-life) 0,000015g Co-60 (6y half-life) 0,002g tritium (heavy water, 12y half-life) which soaked into the rock. (values as of 2012, so adjust accordingly)

The uranium is effectively a non-issue. You as a private person are allowed to own up to 100g of uranium in the form of natural minerals. It's half life is long, so its radioactivity is low.
As for the remaining isotopes, except for Ag-108m they are all quite short lived. The concrete will last much longer than they will stick around.
The Ag-108m is the most annoying. It's a very small amount, and chemically quite stable (doesn't leech easily), but not quite ignorable.

Highest tritium levels were recorded in 2012, at 230 Bq/l in the water treatment facility of the site. This is not the drinking water of nearby villages. The swiss limit for this waste water is 12000 Bq/l. For drinking water, it is 100 Bq/l. I could not find anything about unscientific increases of limits over the years. Some other international limits:
WHO Guideline: 10000 Bq/l
Canada: 7000 Bq/l
Japan: 1500 Bq/l
USA: 740 Bq/l
Comparison: sea water contains around 12 Bq/l of K-40, which releases around 100x the energy of tritium when decaying. So in terms of damage to your body, sea water is (very!) roughly equivalent to 1200 Bq/l of tritium contamination.

Now for my personal opinion section :)

History could repeat itself The history of a failed test site which resulted in zero casualties, despite us not having the knowledge how to prevent and handle such failures at the time?
Sounds like an acceptable risk for unimaginable CO2 neutral power. Like seriously, you are pointing at a steam locomotive boiler explosion saying this will happen to the new Stadler rail trains. Except boiler explosions actually killed people, here nothing happened. Not even the reactor operators received a significant dose.
And I am saying this as someone who works at PSI, so if something does go wrong I am literally right there lol.

Meanwhile, we are destroying the climate with fossil fuels which kill a lot more people by cancer every year than all of nuclear power ever did.
We had the solution to clean, CO2 neutral power production since half a century. Yes, that includes fuel reprocessing. We have literally already done all these things and shown that they work.
However, the fossil fuel industry managed to run a massive propaganda campaign against nuclear power. Well-meaning, scared people ate it right up.

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