Recent content by etudiant

I'm really surprised that the Japanese government is so determined to dump the Fukushima water immediately. It is less than 2 million tons, so a dozen tankers would easily hold all of it in safe storage, at a construction cost of a few billion dollars at most, a trifle compared to the overall...

It does seem as if the parties have a fundamental disagreement about the difference between 'cosmetic' and 'material'. Qatar may have an extreme use case, most trips bounce from 40*C on the ground to -50*C in the air, so the surfaces get stressed especially aggressively. I believe they...

I hope you are right and I certainly agree that Russia has plenty of nuclear material available, so they don't need this plant. I guess it powers the Donbas, because it is still connected to the grid and being operated by its Ukrainian technicians. What concerns me is that the plant is still...

I looked, but did not find much beyond the plant status reports. There is nothing that I could find that actually deals with the issues created by a strike from an errant artillery shell or misguided missile.

Apparently the Zaporizhzhya NPP is becoming an object of military contention, reportedly struck by Ukraine missiles aimed at Russian military gear on the site, which has also now been mined apparently. Is there any report or evaluation on the vulnerability of this installation, not in terms of...

Interesting that the power rating is up 50%, have to think that reduces the safety margin of the passive cooling setup.

Seem to remember that some big US tunnels had similar issues, so they were mostly run at night, when demands was low.

Happy to say I was wrong, source was a twitter comment, obviously false.

Solar panels did not deploy, so died when the batteries ran out.

Actually a nice PR opportunity there with the Piping Plovers. They are absurdly cute, especially the chicks, but also quite endangered. They nest on the beach and get crushed by people who drive there, because they hunker down and rely on their excellent camouflage rather than running away. So...

Just hope that fear drives Fluor to move the ball forward. There are very few examples of large US companies actually innovating. Perhaps the fear of death because of climate change will help Fluor look at alternatives.

The faint hope is that this debacle may cost Boeing so much money that they recognize that a course change is essential. Sadly the more likely outcome is that the huge loss (they have received over 80% of the contract money, but still have to perform, now on their own dime) will push the board...

Crossing my fingers and toes. Mechanicals are totally unforgiving and the JWST has a lot of them.

You are very much on the mark, the issue with DART is momentum transfer, from the impacter to the body of the target. Spin and target material composition are both important variables, the former because it really impacts the latter. Sending DART to hit a dust cloud would be useless, but we...

Surely the long pole in the tent is management, not technology. Space X is management intensive, not technology limited. Senior people get fired for non performance and the CEO, the richest man in the world, lives in a $50k home by his Boca Chica proof site. That is what management should be...