Nice spread the queens put on. Wouldn't mind 20 mins at that table......but wouldn't stay for the chat.
Yeah - very sad. Loved Blake’s Seven. Mind you, he didn’t look well on Pointless Celebrities recently. RIP
last Ep of Chernobyl. First time I've watched something on tele with my hands on my face the entire time since I was six years old. Scary. Hard to imagine what we all lived through.
We were fell walking in the Lake District at the time. Because communication wasn't great in the mid-80s, if you were away from a Radio or TV, it was only when we returned home that we found out that the radioactive cloud had made its way across to Cumbria while were there. Not good.
What ever apocalypse is coming our way in the next 100 years, you can't say we haven't earned it. Sadly.
Apparently the wild life round the Chernobyl area is doing well....no competing with humans and there is a reduced risk of radiation problems in animals with shorter life expectancy than us. Nature re-establishes itself almost immediately. Some people have returned to the area now because sadly the poor consider the risk's worth it in order to get a house.
Is now a good time to mention that nuclear power is one of the safest things humans have ever invented?
In a way, Qwerty is right. Coal Power and the coal industry have killed far more people than Nuclear Power has, though 'one of the safest inventions ever' is a trifle dodgy. It's safe provided things don't go wrong. Unfortunately, things do go wrong, Plus there is all of that decommissioning and nuclear waste storage, which is a bit of a time-bomb. But in relatively stable geological areas, like France, it can make sense. I said 'can', not 'does'. And 'superfuel' Thorium is suddenly being considered as way dodgier than first thought. Hardly anyone is building Nuclear Power stations anymore because of the cost. There's one in France and one in Finland that they've virtually abandoned, or are 'waiting for better economic times', while Solar and Wind Power costs continue to plummet. So it's unlikely they'll ever be finished. The UK continues with Hinkley C, where several of the execs in charge of the project have resigned, citing that only an idiot would continue under the present costs [my words but that was the gist]. That sums up the UK for you. I doubt whether Hinkley C will be turned on, even if it is completed. The electricity it might supply would simply be too expensive. OK, here's a thought. How about hydrogen fuel as a battery? What you do is produce an excess of electricity from solar, wind, hydro, nuclear power [bear with me], and that excessive electricity produces hydrogen through electrolysis. This is stored in tanks and can be reconverted back into electricity at extremely short order, for example, in the winter. Therefore you have a hydrogen battery. And at large scale the converter need not use precious metals. Plus this battery is transportable and it keeps its energy without needing topping up. However... [there's always a caveat] hydrogen eats away at any container and pipes it contacts. Not quickly, but it happens. One of the reasons why hydrogen isn't good in an internal combustion engine, for instance. Interesting though.
Hinkley is estimated to cost 20bn when finished, but work is progressing. I spoke to someone who works there, and found it hard to get my head round just how big the area is they are working on. Make's me a little nervous. But its safe right, unless it goes wrong.........
Makes you wonder how much Wind/Solar/Battery power hardware you could buy for £20bn, eh? And how much electricity would it produce compared to Nuclear?
Oh, by the way. A video from a month ago bringing news of what is happening this coming weekend. Yes, you can go:
