efaardvark

Nice Ghostbusters reference  

Sorry for the dup.  I switched from my phone to the desktop and somehow sent essentially the same thing twice.

@Wodahs I just know physics myself so I might be wrong as well but leaving things like politics aside and just going with the physics I think there’s already a very good economic case for things like big-rig diesel to switch to electricity, either directly on batteries or using ultra clean “synthetic” hydrocarbon fuel via fuel cell technology.  To produce such fuel with nuclear power we could run the chemistry “backward” to make carbon-neutral hydrocarbon fuel from water and CO2 from the air.  That way nobody needs to switch right away, yet we still take the geopolitical risk issue(s) off the table.  (Though there would still be the distribution problem and point-of-use pollution issue putting pressure on the phase-out of internal combustion, especially within high-population areas.)

I'll point out that electrification of the delivery industry is already happening at the short-range end for delivery by entities like fedex or Amazon but give the battery technology a couple years and an infrastructure / environmental demand for it and I think we’ll be seeing even the long-haul stuff switch a lot sooner than most people think.  This is where Tesla is going with their big-rig designs.

Of course vehicles the size of ships could use nuclear directly.  There are designs for SMRs (small modular reactors) that could even be used without much in the way of training on the part of operators.  They’re designed to be simple, passive heat sources that do their thing for 20 years then get swapped out for another unit.

Couple that / those to one of Stanford’s supercritical CO2 gas turbines and electric motors and you get a very simple, cheap design.  Simpler even than current diesel/bunker fuel designs.  Economically that’s a no-brainer for the merchant fleet.

We don’t need to be digging up “fossil” fuels.

(I do have concerns about nuclear waste because some of these designs are solid-fuel but if we also have larger molten-salt designs for grid power then the “waste” could be destroyed using them.  We just need to be reasonably intelligent about the overall system design.)

As for the lithium supply issue, there are battery technologies out there that are even better than lithium.  Tesla is already moving away from traditional lithium batteries even for EV applications.  We're where we are now because the production was already there due to the consumer electronics industry.  For instance, Toyota's first Prius models actually used batteries that were taken out of laptop battery assemblies and remanufactured into the automotive assemblies for use in the cars.  Needless to say that was a highly uneconomic way to do it but even so it still made a profit for Toyota.  It also showed Panasonic and others that the demand was there to build dedicated factories for the automotive applications, which of course lead more or less directly to full EVs and Tesla's Gigafactories.

Lithium will probably continue to be used in mobile applications because it makes for lightweight and energy-dense batteries.  Obviously that has advantages for things like laptops, cellphones, cars, and planes but I think everywhere else will find other battery technologies that are more optimal for those other uses.  For instance, I think that grid power storage and frequency control will probably switch to sodium-ion and/or iron-based batteries eventually simply for economic/profit reasons, especially if EVs become dominant and cheap electricity becomes common.

Also, even now lithium is not exactly in short supply.  Worldwide there is plenty of the element.  "Reserves" (discovered deposits) are limited because historically there has not been the demand to justify searching for more sources.  Laptops and cellphones only require so much of it after all.  Ultimately there will be more prospecting now because the demand is now higher, which will no doubt lead to more discovered sources, just as it has for oil.

We will never get into the same situation with lithium as oil in terms of geopolitics however.  Or at least doing so should not be necessary if our "leaders" do their job right.  There's a huge source of lithium readily available worldwide.  With nuclear power we will have enough power to separate things like lithium and sodium from seawater.  There's a lot of other stuff in seawater that we could also pull out at the same time that would help with the economics and make it happen sooner than later.  This would include fresh water, which is also in short supply worldwide.

Already the Saudis, Israelis, and others are getting a significant amount of their fresh water from desalinization.  I'm in California in the middle of a severe multi-decade drought that's threatening everything from farming and food supply to hydro power generation.  Cheaper power would have an immediate economic benefit for us, and again help with the geopolitical risk issues.  I mean, I've already got solar on the roof (no-brainer here in the southwest US with SoCalEdison's $0.42/kWh electricity) but distributed solar is really only useful for residential power and personal transport.  It does not help much with water or industrial manufacturing/transport power needs.

i do agree with the there is alternatives that can take the function of oil

my post was more in the aspect of if ye hadnt given putin money for oil up untill now (as it was the point of how he got the capital for his war) we would have been giving it to Xi Jinping of china , who people would probably claim he would be using it for his expansion of territory's in the south china see and so on

we (companies in australia and one next door to my company) seem heavy in to producing hydrocarbon fuels for big equipment and have started exporting it (tho its still made by dirty methods) and have a couple of export ships running on gas for fuel which we also export , along with oil and coal and rear earth minerals including lithium (australia is as big as the us size wise we just dont have the population) we do seem to have a fair amount of resources here too most going to china or the asia pacific

YIKES!!! 

Does your insurance cover for any damages? If not, how much do you plan on spending to fix it? :,(((

@deaaath yes I’m in California so by law I have to have insurance to drive legally on public roads.  I’ve got comp and collision so it will be covered by insurance - or at least what’s left after a $500 deductible.  The impact speed was very low and I don’t see any visible deformation of the metal.  Hopefully that means no metal/body work.  The cruise control still works too, so the radar emitter/sensor is working as well.  I’m hoping it is just the broken plastic around the radar.  Probably have to special order replacement parts from the manufacturer however so that might still get expensive.  I’ll have to see what the shop says.  The Toyota emblem that covers the radar is about $150 all by itself!

Too bad I don’t have a 3D printer or I might just print my own replacements.   

id offer to help with the use of my 3d printer , but im half a world away in the west of australia , so not the cheaper option

like you i have full on my MY18 Jeep GC Trailhawk and seems bout the same deductible unless im not at fault

but it can still be a nuance

Your “Valentines Day poem” reminded me of this

looking forward to season 2

woof woof

whats a CRT

all i do for enjoyment is to look in to my Kinetograph , tho it hat me stuffed at how they put them little moving people in there

@Wodahs  Kinetograph??  Even I'm not that old! 

I just tried googling "CRT".  I got "Cross Timbers Royalty Trust", Critical Race Theory", "Cardiac Resuscitation Therapy", and "Community Renewal Team" but no "Cathode Ray Tube" until about 3 pages in.  You know you're too old when even the internet has forgotten what you did when you were young.

CRT here is also a rural farming supplies store and yes i had heard of most of them but with your comment "time stare into a particle accelerator for their motion picture enjoyment" i had assumed you were going with the Cathode Ray Tube , a part also used in early TV's

hence going with your statement "Am I really that old" i thought id go for the father of the TV the moving picture unit Kinetograph

or in short "im explaining im old too"

actually i thought i put the old in oLDtaku

I never knew! 
I looked up what these dogs looked like, and they are FUNNY LOOKING! Yet...quite cute.

Happy New Yeaaaar!!

I’ve been hearing some pretty wild things about the weather In Cali recently. Any of that affecting you? Where I am they’re now predicting Christmas will be in the low 60s despite yesterdays high being 34F 

@Ohayotaku

So far I’m good here.  A bit of rain started in the wee hours this morning but that’s fine.  We need the water.  We’re supposed to get a series of fronts coming through but not much intensity.  Other than idiots on the freeways not paying attention to the laws of physics it seems like we’ll just have to deal with several days of rainy weather down here in SoCal.  Up north there might be issues.  They’re talking up to 10 feet of snow in the Sierras.  Again, we need the water, but these days the snow doesn’t stick around and people are worried about it melting and causing flooding once the storm is over.

Actually, my brother in Wisconsin seems to be having more “fun” with the weather.  He’s reporting that there’s a 100-car pileup on the interstate due to ice and snow.

Sound similar to where I live being fortunate enough to miss out on the tornados that hit Kentucky & other areas to the south recently. So far the wildly varying temps have just resulted in rain & a couple days of wind gusts in my neck of the woods.

Congrats.

Hope it works out well.

Gratz hope all goes well

Thanks.  Going to have to hit the ground running with the test schedule but it should be a good thing long term.

Envious XD

Mad respect for how much schooling and dedication that must have taken. It all paid off and you love your job, can't get any better than that? I don't even know you and I'm proud of you. lol

Thanks @Kit.  Might be changing jobs in the near future tho.  I’m currently working for a contractor but JPL/Caltech has made me an offer that looks good.  It is in integration and testing and moves me away from real-time ops but it is more in tune with my training as a systems engineer.  Benefits are better and it comes with a bigger paycheck too.

The downside is it drops me right in the middle of GDS - ground data system - testing for all those cubesats going up on Artemis in a couple/few months.    (Currently there’s one guy doing it full time and one loaner half-timer and they’re apparently not getting much sleep.  How do you schedule testing with JAXA, Goddard, and ESA in the same day and still find time to sleep?)

Looks like it’ll happen.  2 interviews went well and I am currently waiting for an offer.  Should know for sure by next week.  

@RyePotatoes I’m 5mumble7 so if the day (mentioned at bottom of pic) hasn’t happened yet then chances are it won’t ever.  I might just be stuck with the sense of humor of a teenager for the rest of my life.   
 

Is that a good thing or a bad?  

I think it’s a good thing though! Hahahaha

I see you are also an alumni of the King Kai School of Comedy  

Waaaah, This feels like how my dad jokes  

@Ohayotaku Maybe....