What grinds your gears?

[DrTiTus]

I recently just flashed my motherboards with a bit of hesitancy - I expected to kill them. They all succeeded, however one board became unstable (it was the oldest one, from 5 years ago), and eventually died. The others are rocking on with no problems.

[kRAdENkO]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Everything sucks, lolz.

Got a replacement CPU, Ryzen 5 5500. But it looks like my motherboard bios needs an update for it. It's supposed to be able to update without a CPU, but it won't power on without one and won't get to the bios with the new CPU.

FML.

Mobo is a Auros x570 Master if anyone is curious to see what my failings might be in this case.

Im sure you're seen this already but just in case. https://www.reddit.com/r/gigabytegam...u_not_working/

Fingers crossed.

Edit, is the damaged pin required for it to function? I recall not all are needed.

[Lightspeed]

lolz, it was just a misnamed bios file holding me up. It's so hard working without my standard environment. 😅

Anyways, it's all back up and running now.

I am definitely a cybernetic soul, I start melting down when my main rig is offline.

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by kRAdENkO

Edit, is the damaged pin required for it to function? I recall not all are needed.

Yeah, I'll check it out, but even if that pin isn't needed, still gotta get all the others straight. They're not that bent but obviously they're not meant to be wiggled back and forth.

[Lightspeed]

Tiwai Point smelter: Significant amount of contamination released into environment

Sounds like it's basically been run without genuine oversight, for how long?

[Ab]

Thread

https://twitter.com/DoombergT/status...63488860286977

[_indigo1]

Originally Posted by Ab

Thread

https://twitter.com/DoombergT/status...63488860286977

I wonder if we've actually been done as a civilisation since Chernobyl, and to a lesser extent the end of WW2 in the pacific - and are just a walking corpse at this point.

Makes you wonder where we might be now if the public at large, at least in western countries, had not become terrified of our most efficient energy source (nuclear)

Maybe the old 'go back in time and kill Hitler' meme should actually be, go back and stop Chernobyl.

[MadMax]

It’s not only nuclear power that’s risky, it’s the whole industry. The fear is justified

The Wikipedia article on this isn’t just a list - it’s a list of lists:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...tive_incidents

[MadMax]

93 grams of waste, 130,000 people flooding hospitals
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident

[StN]

Kyle Hills half life series on YT is pretty good. Goiânia_accident is #10.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by MadMax

93 grams of waste, 130,000 people flooding hospitals
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident

Waste? It was a commercial radiotherapy unit that some dipshits stole and broke open with hammers and screwdrivers. If I stole a solar panel, smashed it, and then slashed someone with a jagged piece, that's not an injury caused by waste from the renewable energy industry.

[MadMax]

Have a look at images of the site it was stolen from. Waste.

[Ab]

You have photos of Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia in 1985?

[_indigo1]

Originally Posted by MadMax

It’s not only nuclear power that’s risky, it’s the whole industry. The fear is justified

The Wikipedia article on this isn’t just a list - it’s a list of lists:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...tive_incidents

This is exactly the kind of uninformed, short sighted, fear mongering that has fucked us - it is misdirection of fear against a general field instead of the specific situations that have had problems.

It's like saying ban electricity because you can get electrocuted.
No. The problem with being electrocuted is you have gone down a technological path that produces a result where someone can get electrocuted.

It does not mean all electric devices are inherently unsafe and we should ban electricity.

Take for example the idea of regular appliances running off 240v (OR MORE!)
This was common at one stage. In fact it was common knowledge at one stage to NEVER touch the chassis at the back of a device like an old radio - it was just known that you don't do it - because it can kill.

Should we ban all electricity?
No, we use our intelligence and develop technology further so that it is safe.
Ergo - stop running devices at line voltage - instead step down to safe voltages and run off them. You think you will ever get a lethal shock with your hands inside a computer (not the PSU), a router, a cell phone?
Inside any other appliance short of maybe a toaster or an oven?

The same goes with nuclear. If there wasn't this unjustified, misplaced fear mongering against the idea of nuclear energy in general, then research would not have dried up and alternative systems could/would have been put in place to make it safe.

NZ could have been an international leader in LIFTR, SMR, or thorium based designs.

Hell, we were first to split the fkn atom.
We should have embraced our greatest technological achievement not snuffed it for some virtue signalling.

The fact is that the reason the current nuclear technology which is unsafe was given precedence over other designs is SPECIFICALLY because in the US and other countries it could be used to make weapons grade uranium - NOT because it was safe and fit for purpose.

Instead of a virtue signalled hand waving response like going NZ Nuclear Free, an actual informed response would have been to fund non-uranium/plutonium based reactor designs so that their better safety and efficiency becomes clear and they displace the old style reactor.

There are safe ways to do nuclear.

[Lightspeed]

What was it specifically? A refined nuclear material left unsupervised and unmaintained in an abandoned, dilapidated facility?

What a tragedy for those poor folk. I definitely would be dead if I found some nuclear material as a kid, I loved^H shiny shit

[StN]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

What was it specifically? A refined nuclear material left unsupervised and unmaintained in an abandoned, dilapidated facility?

What a tragedy for those poor folk. I definitely would be dead if I found some nuclear material as a kid, I loved^H shiny shit

From memory, part of a radiology machine in an abandoned health care unit. Heavy looking chunk of metal looked good to flick off to the local scrap guy. Had a screw cap, and some funny powder that made your skin sparkly and glow when kids rubbed it on them selves.

Yeah, not a good outcome when one of the parents was a bus driver and came into close contact with a bunch of passengers.

On the other hand, I found a nice 90+ year old bowl in Oxford on Saturday - glows like a bastard under UV!

[Ab]

The radiology clinic moved to new building, and following a legal dispute with the landlord of the previous site a Brazilian court legally barred the clinic owners from returning to the premises.

"But... we haven't finished moving."
"Access denied."
"We're a radiology clinic. There's, like, important equipment we have to move."
"Access denied."
"Seriously, it's fucking nuclear material, this is our business, you have to let us collect it."
"Access denied".

That's not exactly what I'd call unsupervised and unmaintained in an abandoned, dilapidated facility. From the wiki:

the owners of IGR wrote several letters to the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN), warning them about the danger
...
they could not remove the equipment by themselves once a court order prevented them from doing so

Hardly an indictment of the dangers of waste from the nuclear power industry, seing as how this was neither waste nor from the nuclear power industry.

[Lightspeed]

I could be conflating disasters in my memory. I've seen the disaster discussed with better sources than Wiki, but it was awhile back.

[DrTiTus]

I agree with indigo on this one. I'm pro-nuclear. New Zealand has done pretty well with our hydro energy. We've also got ample oil/gas, but we've put the kaibosh on that. I'm not sure NZ and nuclear energy are a good fit given our earthquake prone geography, but that doesn't mean we should insist other countries don't adopt it and pretend it's terrible for everyone. Other countries already have nuclear power and they haven't all died from radiation.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

I agree with indigo on this one. I'm pro-nuclear. New Zealand has done pretty well with our hydro energy. We've also got ample oil/gas, but we've put the kaibosh on that. I'm not sure NZ and nuclear energy are a good fit given our earthquake prone geography, but that doesn't mean we should insist other countries don't adopt it and pretend it's terrible for everyone. Other countries already have nuclear power and they haven't all died from radiation.

If South Africa can keep Koeberg Power station running without a melt down (despite allegedly losing all their qualified engineers/scientists running the place), then I feel like just about any country could do it

[StN]

Originally Posted by _indigo1

Instead of a virtue signalled hand waving response like going NZ Nuclear Free, an actual informed response would have been to fund non-uranium/plutonium based reactor designs so that their better safety and efficiency becomes clear and they displace the old style reactor.

There are safe ways to do nuclear.

So what is stopping us from doing that? Is it the public mis-conception that the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987 goes further than banning ships and weapons? As far as I am aware, reactor research is pretty much untapped and totally legal, as long as health and safety concerns are met.

[_indigo1]

Originally Posted by StN

So what is stopping us from doing that? Is it the public mis-conception that the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987 goes further than banning ships and weapons? As far as I am aware, reactor research is pretty much untapped and totally legal, as long as health and safety concerns are met.

Yeah but there is no will or funding because nuclear is defacto taboo due to the social programming of it.
Academic research is kind of irrelevant in real world context. It is a curiosity but can never make the leap to real until it can have a business model behind it to drive the actual development.

No-one is going to sink money into a company akin to Rocket Lab but to develop and market next gen kiwi nuclear tech and make our mark on the industry when the public is all namby pamby about it and they are not likely to get funding from investors because of that, let alone the legislative hurdles that would likely have to be progressed to allow them to progress.

That's my whole point. It's not the legislation of nuclear free NZ. It's the short sighted social stigma that has been programmed into us and allowed to dictate our technological development.

https://www.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/577...c-10123b9976b6

[_indigo1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESAaz9v4mSU

This is highly topical given it came out today and given my current discussion points.
Even if it's delivery is a little insufferable given the audience it's clearly aimed at.

She didn't mention any LFTR stuff though. Prob too much for target demographic.

[Lightspeed]

I am not that audience. Just tell me what they're saying, lolz. I get the feeling the whole talk could be summarised in half a dozen bullet points.

I found Carmack's characterisation of fission over fusion research interesting.

Basically it's just fission is much easier to approach technically.

But while we're all worried about what's happening to those nuclear plants in Ukraine, I think implementing new plants is a hard sell.

[Ab]

yeah I think building nuclear reactors with Soviet designs has been a hard sell for a while!

[Lightspeed]

I suspect the nuance of nuclear reactor design is lost on the general public.

[StN]

It was a pity that Bill Gates kind of went to ground after the Epstein bit and his divorce. He'd solved the cheap 3rd world toilet problem, was close to eradicating Polio in Nigeria and had a really good plan for a travelling wave reactor that used up waste from other reactors then Fukishima happened and many pearls were clutched.

Of course then he moved his focus to infecting the world with 5G vaccinations or something...

[_indigo1]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

I suspect the nuance of nuclear reactor design is lost on the general public.

Did you watch the video?

[_indigo1]

Originally Posted by StN

It was a pity that Bill Gates kind of went to ground ...

TerraPower is happening

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by _indigo1

Did you watch the video?

Did you read my reply?

[_indigo1]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Did you read my reply?

Yes and it wasn't clear. Which is why I asked. Don't be so defensive.

Anyway, the entire premise of the video is 'nuclear bad' is a meme and the nuance is lost on the public.

So yeah. Didn't watch the video then makes obvious reply FTW.

[Lightspeed]

I'm more impatient than defensive. Probably due to having watched the first 2 minutes of that video you shared, lolz.

I did literally ask you to just tell me what was in the video. And then guessed at its content.

[_indigo1]

Yeah it was hard for me to watch.
Not my bag at all - came up in my feed and only reason I watched is to get a dopamine squirt from having my opinion validated.
But it is topical.

[DrTiTus]

I enjoyed it. It's literally a TED talk. That's what you get.

[Ab]

Paypal’s New User Agreement Clause Says It Can Pull $2,500 in Funds From Users That Spread ‘Misinformation’

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/...isinformation/

What

[MadMax]

I'm curious. If today, it was decided that in 2050 we are going to have nuclear power, how the hell are we to achieve that? My cynicism is high but here we go...

We have no operators nor engineers to build it so we'd need to invest more in education. At the moment industries across many sectors in NZ have gear that they have to fly in someone from Australia when a machine breaks down. The training would be a fantastic plus - begin with today's generation of kids with pathways to operating and maintaining such a beast. Keep in mind we'll need to pay them very well so as to keep them from taking their education overseas.

Where are we going to put it? "NIMBY" that's for sure, maybe somewhere off-shore like Motiti Island?

Where to put the waste? Finland's new Onkalo at a cost of 3.5 billion euros for 60km of tunnels will provide storage for 100 years. One hopes that's enough time for a cleaner option to be developed. Curiously (well, due to politics no doubt) the US still doesn't have such a site. One very small point is that the US couldn't find a way to warn future people about the hazard of a long term storage site. The Finnish decided simply that once theirs has been sealed up they won't have any warnings signs at all so as to prevent future humans from digging it up out of curiosity.

Either we build a small one - at a waste of all the above effort or we build a decently sized one, keeping in mind that there would need to be the same amount of alternative generation available on hand for when the nuclear plant needs to be taken offline.

[_indigo1]

Read up on SMR's
Since we have cut off our nose to spite our face with nuclear technology, we have no choice but to rely on external energy supply and purchase them from one of the international suppliers.
There are many developing these at the moment.

Because these are small and modular placement is easier. Likewise training and operation can be more streamlined.

NuScale is one which has it's first plant up.
https://www.nuscalepower.com/projects

One day they might be modular enough to be containerised.

[_indigo1]

https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovati...tion-smr-build
Here's a video (scroll down to build section)

[Ab]

Originally Posted by MadMax

I'm curious. If today, it was decided that in 2050 we are going to have nuclear power, how the hell are we to achieve that?

We couldn't. It's a complicated industry that requires very smart people with deep education in complicated fields. It's not just the we don't have the people; we don't have the university courses and research institutions and professional societies and networks to create the people we need. "Nucular" has been a thoughtcrime in NZ for so long that we don't have the tools to build the tools to build the tools that we'd need. It'd take a (lol) Manhattan Project level of funding and commitment for a generation from the government to make it happen.

Australia's dealing with this issue right now as a result of Scott Morrison's brainfart agreement with the UK and the USA about nuclear subs. Everyone's going "wtf, not only do we now know how to build nuclear subs, we don't even know how to train people to build nuclear subs".

[_indigo1]

Originally Posted by Ab

We couldn't.

We don't have to INVENT nuclear technology. We only need to install and operate it.
28 years is enough time for skill transfer and technology installation.
The companies selling these systems have a vested interest in not only selling the systems but making sure there is support to run them.

It is doable.