University Liaison to the National Laboratories
@IllinoisTech
. Associate Dean
@IITSci_Letters
. Professor of Physics and Materials Engineering. Energy Matters
We offer a perspective on the notable features of the SARS-CoV-2 genome and discuss scenarios by which they could have arisen. Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.
I'm going to have to hold on to this article. My students never believe me when I tell them that lava lamps were used for random number generation. Encryption Lava Lamps
@atlasobscura
Backup Power: A Growing Need, if You Can Afford It. Jt: you have got to be kidding me
@nytimes
. You geniuses stood by as the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant closed down. Now you tell people to buy a gas generator so they don’t freeze to death
My good friend, Sam Brinton, is currently the focus of a smear campaign. Sam is one of the foremost nuclear waste experts in the USA. I fully support his appointment as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy at Energy
Now this is a real cold weather science experiment. At -14 F/-26C, boiling water quickly condenses into a cloud of microdroplets. These can freeze due to large surface to volume ratio. Never throw hot water towards anyone. Being hit by boiling water is unpleasant.
Plant Vogtle Nuclear Expansion Enters Service. Jt: great article by
@timechols
. The only thing that he doesn’t touch on is that if we don’t build another AP1000, that all the expensive learning that went into building the first will be lost.
@SpencerGuard
I’ll add if you’re a part of the civilian resistance in Ukraine, you’re going to see a lot of 7.62 x 39 mm ammunition. This is a really effective round inside of 200 meters. Don’t waste ammo shooting at things beyond a football field.
Glacier National Park Quietly Removes Its "Gone By 2020" Signs Jt: predicting the future is hard. Scientists should always recognize this. It is dangerous to our hard and fast dates on things. Error bars are a good thing.
Many thanks to the folks from Argonne who brought out Graphite Blocks from the first nuclear reactor, CP-1. Art of the Reactor. If you look closely, you can see the tiny boreholes that held the uranium slugs.
Palisades nuclear plant to restart in deal with power co-op. The facility stands to become the first decommissioned nuclear plant to be fired back up in the entire United States. Jt: outstanding.
@PalisadesEnergy
@sciam
@500womensci
My problem with Nye is that he rarely recognizes when he is wrong and continues to blaze forward while spreading misinformation. That's not the purpose of science. Maybe celebrity (see goop and Paltrow) but not science.
April 30 marks the one-year anniversary of New York’s premature closure of the
#IndianPoint
nuclear plant. Data collected by the electricity regulator
@NewYorkISO
show that its electricity was replaced by fossil combustion, not renewables & efficiency.
What a night. Ronald Knief just gave me a call. We got to talk criticality safety, reactor wall charts, insane (my word) NRC directors. He wanted me to share this with those interested in the Art of the Reactor exhibit that we have at
@illinoistech
Illinois Representative
@RepKinzinger
introduces The Nuclear Licensing Efficiency Act, H.R. 1578, which would continue the modernization effort at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
There Is Not Enough Time for Nuclear Innovation to Save the Planet. Jt: more insanity from another unqualified former NRC chair. The placing of unqualified people in positions of regulatory authority will continue to decrease our ability to solve problems.
An outdoor pool using waste water from the new Sizewell C nuclear power station is among proposals contained in a blueprint for the transformation of a neighbouring Suffolk town. Jt: put one in my back yard. What do I need to sign? Add a hot tub and sauna
Palisades Plant Shuts Down For Final Time, Ahead of Schedule. Jt: 50 years of clean, carbon-free generation. Hell of a job shutting that down 30 years early. 🤡🤡🤡
When I grade my student's
#Computational
Physics code, I test the programs under conditions under which they should work as well as what they designated it to do. Here I run the student's code to see if it qualitatively supports Torricelli's Principle.
California to let gas plants stay open as time runs low for climate action Jt: great job California. Throw a lifeline to the climate change inducing Nat Gas plants but not the clean nuclear energy at Diablo Canyon. Clowns
Passively safe reactors require different safety rules, not less stringent ones. You don't need backup water pumps in a reactor that doesn't use cooling water. This is a terrible headline: Smaller Nuclear Plants May Come With Less Stringent Safety Rules
Exelon files to deactivate Byron Nuclear Plant Jt: what is there to reach out about? Fossil fuels use the atmosphere as a free dump. Intermittent generation causes problems in Texas and California. Learn from other peoples mistakes. Save these plants 🤦♂️
Many permit applications assume a decommissioning cost of less than $100,000 per wind turbine, but recent experience suggests the cost is more realistically something like $400,000-$500,000; the funds for this simply aren’t likely to be available.
She's been gone for such a long time
(Hey-la-day-la my Sue-friend's back)
Now she's back and things'll be fine
(Hey-la-day-la my Sue-friend's back)
@SUEtheTrex
Wow. This is just so wrong. One only need look to the Palo Verde Nuclear Plant to see how it uses reclaimed waste water for cooling in the desert. If only reality mattered 🤷♂️
@histoftech
Wow. Look at that, old dude, who has been wrong for decades, goes after AOC for coming to a good decision after properly analyzing evidence. Who is surprised by that one?
Why is
@AOC
—co-founder of the Green New Deal—leaving the door open to dangerous nuclear power? Her many followers perplexed. 2 nukes recently closed in her backyard (Indian Point). Read the astonishing story in the new Capitol Hill Citizen (print only) -R
China is kicking our asses in energy and advanced nuclear. Congratulations
@EnergyGOP
@EnergyDems
@WhiteHouse
@energy
@NRCgov
on your successful US advanced nuclear program which apparently can’t even get a six pack of light water SMRs built on a national lab site. 🤦♂️
After a 168-hour demonstration run, HTR-PM (High Temperature gas-cooled Reactor Pebble-bed Module) Demo in Shidao Bay, Shandong Province of China, the world’s first modular high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor, entered commercial operation on Dec 6
Germany hits out at Brussels plan to label nuclear and gas ‘green’. Jt: Do the opposite of whatever Germany does and you’ll be in good shape. via
@GoogleNews
I discussed with my students that some of the dumbest people I know have PhDs. Conversely, some of the smartest people I know don’t have high school diplomas. Degrees aren’t necessarily indicative of intelligence. It’s important to remember that.
Europe is so short of natural gas that the continent -- usually seen as the poster child for the global fight against emissions -- is turning to coal to meet electricity demand that is now back to pre-pandemic levels.
I was awarded the Lewis College of Science and Letters Excellence in Teaching award for 2020-2021. This makes me the
@IITSci_Letters
nominee for the university's Rowe Excellence in Teaching Award. It’s an honor to be recognized for my Grad and UG teaching
Maybe try not forcing them to close Diablo Canyon and replace it with renewables. Then allow them to upgrade the infrastructure with the money saved. Take responsibility for your own regulatory failure. 🤷♂️
Newsom tears PG&E for mismanagement: "They simply did not do their job. We will hold them to an account that they’ve never been held in the past. We will do everything in our power to restructure PG&E so it is a completely different entity"
Full video:
And Three Mile Island is now offline forever after setting a personal best record of 709 straight days in operation. Good luck getting 709 straight days out of renewable energy, Pennsylvania. Good thing you have Nat Gas.
#BurnBabyBurn
So look folks, if you want to learn about reactor safety such as what has been done after Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, ask an expert. Don’t turn to a guy who formed his opinion on terrorism at reactors by watching a miniseries on HBO.
Realistically, people, in spite of the fear mongering being done by
@Noahpinion
, the absolute best a terrorist could do is hydrogen explosion like at Fukushima. You aren’t going to achieve the runaway criticality that occurred at Chernobyl.
@astrochicana
@That_Astro_Chic
Really sorry you had to deal with that. I turned down a job at UT (different department) because of racist and sexist comments. Told that to the chair when I declined. First time I’ve named the university. Thanks for your strength.
How about the damage you did to the nuclear industry with your movie, The China Syndrome? Should you be held responsible for the claptrap that that movie was?
“Just like crimes against humanity have been put on trial at Nuremberg... the fossil fuel industry will hopefully be held accountable.”
Actress and climate activist Jane Fonda says fossil fuel companies have "damaged the whole globe" and should be "held responsible"
#Newsnight
@katyhuff
@BulletinAtomic
I agree. The
@BulletinAtomic
uses terrible images for most things nuclear energy related. Some of the darkest and most unrealistic images that one can find. There are no wheat fields full of nuclear waste drums in the US, nor will there ever be.
On this
#MemorialDay
I love to share this video.
French caretakers take the sand from Omaha Beach in Normandy and scrub them into the letters to give them the brown/gold coloring.
They do this for all 9,386 soldiers who died.
France also gave us this land as American soil.
AWS just dropped $650 million on a data center
built next to a 2.5 gigawatt nuclear power station - and it still might not be enough to keep pace with surging future energy demands
Decline in nuclear power threatens global climate goals, IEA says. Report warns 2/3 of capacity could be lost by 2040 as developed nations phase out old nuclear plants