#nuclear waste technologies

[fanciedfacts]

The Hazardous Legacy of Nuclear Waste

Nuclear waste ☢️ is a nightmare for many communities around the world🌍. And there is a lot of mix-up on the level of radiation harm. And the proper ways to expose different nuclear waste

[polarhorror]

I've been wanting to make a video game that involves W.I.P.P. (waste isolation pilot project) and exploring it.

What is W.I.P.P?

W.I.P.P. or waste isolation pilot project, is a plan to store all used nuclear waste in a facility in new Mexico.

Since nuclear waste takes thousands of years for it to not be radioactive anymore, they need a way to get people away from the area.

they decided the best way to get people away from a nuclear waste storage facility, was to make it terrifying and scary so that people would be too scared to come close to the dangerous nuclear waste.

This will hopefully get people away from the real danger by creating a sense of terror in the area.

Now, imagine a video game where it is set 200 years into the future. Imagine someone stumbling upon that place, it would be terrifying!

I really want to create a horror game around this place, I think it would be truly scary.

[malpractique]

special interests for me are sometimes infodump zone and sometimes it is i am going to think SO HARD about this FOREVER and keep rereading the wikipedia page until i have it damn near memorized

[yeah-how-about-nope]

"all anti nuclear powerplant sentiments are the result of pro coal/oil propaganda!" babe some people experienced a legit rl nuclear catastrophy right next door in their lifetime and also not everything that the Bad Guys like the coal and oil lobby hate is automatically good, 'the enemy of the enemy is my friend' applies to very few things irl, plus anti nuclear power sentiments being pushed harder by the coal/oil lobby than environmentalists is not a globally univeral experience and neither is living in a place with huge empty stretches of land far away from ppl who would be very bothered by nuclear waste getting buried right next to them

some of you don’t have to limit yourselves on how many wild mushrooms to harvest/eat bc of radioactivity and it shows

[bisexualvalve]

Rita Capitan has been worrying about her water since 1994. It was that autumn she read a local newspaper article about anotheruranium mine, the Crownpoint Uranium Project, getting under way near her home.

Capitan has spent her entire life in Crownpoint, New Mexico, a small town on the eastern Navajo Nation, and is no stranger to the uranium mining that has persisted in the region for decades. But it was around the time the article was published that she began learning about the many risks associated with uranium mining.

“We as community members couldn’t just sit back and watch another company come in and just take what is very precious to us. And that is water – our water,” Capitan said.

To this effect, Capitan and her husband, Mitchell, founded Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (Endaum). The group’s fight against uranium mining on their homeland has continued for nearly three decades, despite the industry’s disastrous health and environmental impacts being public knowledge for years.

Capitan’s newest concerns are over the Canadian mining company Laramide Resources, which, through its US subsidiary NuFuels, holds a federal mining license for Crownpoint and nearby Church Rock. Due to the snail’s pace at which operations like this can move, Laramide hasn’t begun extraction in these areas, but is getting closer by the day.

While the US legal system hasn’t given them much recourse to fight the mining, Capitan and other community members see new hope in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Endaum and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center made a substantial evidence filing last week with the commission, alleging that the US government and its Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have violated their human rights by licensing uranium mines in their communities.

The petition with the commission won’t necessarily offer Endaum legal recourse. However, a favorable recommendation could help them in future legal proceedings against uranium mine projects while also guiding future advocacy on mining policy, said Eric Jantz, senior staff attorney at the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.

He said it would also be a form of vindication: “There is moral value in having an international human rights body lay bare the abuses of the nuclear industry and the US government’s complicity in those abuses.”

Indigenous tribes tried to block a car battery mine. But the courts stood in the way

Read more

While these mines haven’t begun operation yet, the impending threat hangs over local residents’ heads – especially considering the deadly history of mining for the radioactive metal on the Navajo Nation beginning during the cold war.

“There are four generations of Navajo folks who had to deal with existing contamination and who live essentially in the middle of or next door to radioactive waste dumps,” Jantz said. “And the federal government has ignored those communities for the last 70 years.”

The type of mine in question uses in situ leach technology (ISL), also known as in situ reach (ISR), the most common form of uranium extraction. It involves drilling holes into the earth to reach the mineral deposit. A chemical solution is pumped underground, often into the aquifer, to dissolve the uranium deposit. This solution is then pumped back to the surface with the mineral in tow for processing.

“The mineralization at Crownpoint has been previously shown to be amenable to ISR techniques,” Laramide says on its website.

Residents, however, are deeply concerned about the risks of pollution. On the Navajo Nation, most uranium deposits sit in aquifers. Drilling into these aquifers can cause radioactive uranium to leach into the water, contaminating both the underground supply and the water absorbed from the surface.

Laramide did not respond to a request for comment. On its website it says it has an “aquifer exemption on the property” from the Environmental Protection Agency.

More than 500 abandoned uranium mines sit on Navajo Nation land today, each one a potential vector for unleashing more radioactive particles into the air and water, on top of the damage that’s already been done. Uranium mining operations have caused higher rates of cancer, respiratory diseases and kidney conditions among Navajos. From the 1970s to the 1990s, cancer rates on the reservation have doubled, according to its government.

To this day, no mining company has fully cleaned an aquifer it polluted with in situ leach mining, according to the non-profit group Earthworks.

Laramide’s proposed uranium mining operation would involve drilling in the Westwater Canyon Aquifer – which supplies water to about 15,000 Navajo people. For many Church Rock and Crownpoint residents, more uranium mining is simply a nonstarter.

Larry King, a Church Rock resident who used to work on a uranium site, has problems breathing and a heart condition, according to testimony filed with the commission. He’s been advocating against Laramide and other uranium projects for more than two decades and says those fights have robbed him of any normalcy.

“Those 24 years, those should have been the best years, when I could have been enjoying my life. I did not,” King testified.

[canadiangold]

[scientificinquirer-blog]

DAILY DOSE: Water around Japan springs pollution fears while water supplies in the U.S. are running out.

FUKUSHIMA WATER RELEASE REIGNITES CONCERNS A dozen years after the catastrophic Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant incident, northeastern Japan’s residents had begun to recover from the trauma of the magnitude-9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. However, the recent Japanese government’s decision to release 1.25 million tons of treated radioactive water from the plant into the Pacific Ocean…

[electronalytics]

Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) Market Overview and Upcoming Trends 2032

Overview of the Molten Salt Reactor Market:

Global Molten Salt Reactors market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9% by 2032.

The Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) Market revolves around the development, deployment, and commercialization of nuclear reactors that use molten salt as both fuel and coolant. MSR technology offers unique advantages, including enhanced safety, reduced nuclear waste, efficient fuel utilization, and the potential to operate on a variety of fuel types. The market is driven by the growing interest in advanced nuclear energy solutions that address safety concerns, waste management, and sustainable energy production.

Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) are a type of advanced nuclear reactor technology that use a liquid mixture of salts as both the fuel and the coolant. MSRs offer several potential advantages, including increased safety, reduced nuclear waste, and the ability to efficiently use thorium as a fuel source. The MSR market has gained attention as a potential solution for addressing energy needs while minimizing environmental impacts.

Scope:

Advanced Reactor Technology: MSRs represent a novel approach to nuclear power generation, utilizing liquid fuel instead of solid fuel rods. The scope includes research, development, and commercialization of MSR designs.

Fuel Flexibility: MSRs can utilize a range of fuels, including thorium and enriched uranium, which expands the scope to exploring alternative fuel cycles for efficient energy production and reduced nuclear waste.

Nuclear Waste Reduction: The inherent design of MSRs can potentially reduce the long-lived nuclear waste compared to conventional reactors, making MSR technology part of waste management solutions.

Safety Features: MSRs offer passive safety mechanisms, including negative temperature coefficients and natural circulation of the molten fuel, which enhances reactor safety.

Thorium Fuel Cycle: The scope includes exploring the potential of thorium as a fuel source in MSRs, as it is more abundant and potentially safer compared to traditional uranium fuel.

Energy Generation: MSRs have potential applications in electricity generation, process heat production, and even hydrogen production, expanding the scope to various industrial sectors.

Research and Development: The scope encompasses ongoing research and development efforts to optimize MSR designs, improve fuel cycle efficiency, and enhance safety features.

Demand:

Clean Energy Generation: Growing demand for clean and low-carbon energy sources to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions drives interest in advanced nuclear technologies like MSRs.

Nuclear Power Resurgence: The MSR's potential to overcome some limitations of traditional reactors, such as safety concerns and nuclear waste issues, aligns with the global interest in reviving and advancing nuclear power.

Energy Security: MSRs offer a stable and reliable energy source that can contribute to energy security and grid stability, particularly in regions with limited access to traditional energy resources.

Industrial Applications: The high-temperature output of MSRs can be used for industrial processes, such as hydrogen production and desalination, driving demand for efficient and versatile energy solutions.

Opportunities:

Innovation in Nuclear Technology: The development of MSR technology presents opportunities for innovation in reactor design, materials science, and fuel cycle optimization.

Waste Management Solutions: MSRs' potential to reduce nuclear waste and utilize existing waste as fuel offers opportunities for addressing the long-term challenges of nuclear waste disposal.

Energy Transition: MSRs can be a bridge between conventional energy sources and a more sustainable future, presenting opportunities in the global transition to cleaner energy systems.

Collaboration and Investment: Opportunities exist for collaboration between governments, research institutions, and private sector companies to advance MSR technology through funding, expertise, and resources.

Energy Export and Security: Countries with advanced MSR technology can potentially export clean and safe nuclear energy solutions, enhancing energy security and international partnerships.

Nuclear Industry Revival: The development and deployment of MSRs can contribute to a revitalized nuclear industry by addressing public concerns, safety issues, and waste management challenges.

We recommend referring our Stringent datalytics firm, industry publications, and websites that specialize in providing market reports. These sources often offer comprehensive analysis, market trends, growth forecasts, competitive landscape, and other valuable insights into this market.

By visiting our website or contacting us directly, you can explore the availability of specific reports related to this market. These reports often require a purchase or subscription, but we provide comprehensive and in-depth information that can be valuable for businesses, investors, and individuals interested in this market.

“Remember to look for recent reports to ensure you have the most current and relevant information.”

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Market Segmentations:

Global Molten Salt Reactor Market: By Company

• MAN Energy Solutions

• Kairos Power

• Enesoon Holding

• Copenhagen Atomics

• Terrestrial Energy

• Moltex Energy

• ThorCon Power

• Elysium Industries

• Transatomic

• Flibe Energy

• Lightbridge

• Shanghai TaiYang Technology Co.,Ltd

Global Molten Salt Reactor Market: By Type

• Thorium

• Plutonium

• Uranium

Global Molten Salt Reactor Market: By Application

• Oil and Gas

• Power and Energy

• Shipping

• Others

Global Molten Salt Reactor Market: Regional Analysis

The regional analysis of the global Molten Salt Reactor market provides insights into the market's performance across different regions of the world. The analysis is based on recent and future trends and includes market forecast for the prediction period. The countries covered in the regional analysis of the Molten Salt Reactor market report are as follows:

North America: The North America region includes the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The U.S. is the largest market for Molten Salt Reactor in this region, followed by Canada and Mexico. The market growth in this region is primarily driven by the presence of key market players and the increasing demand for the product.

Europe: The Europe region includes Germany, France, U.K., Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and Rest of Europe. Germany is the largest market for Molten Salt Reactor in this region, followed by the U.K. and France. The market growth in this region is driven by the increasing demand for the product in the automotive and aerospace sectors.

Asia-Pacific: The Asia-Pacific region includes Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Japan, India, South Korea, and Rest of Asia-Pacific. China is the largest market for Molten Salt Reactor in this region, followed by Japan and India. The market growth in this region is driven by the increasing adoption of the product in various end-use industries, such as automotive, aerospace, and construction.

Middle East and Africa: The Middle East and Africa region includes Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, and Rest of Middle East and Africa. The market growth in this region is driven by the increasing demand for the product in the aerospace and defense sectors.

South America: The South America region includes Argentina, Brazil, and Rest of South America. Brazil is the largest market for Molten Salt Reactor in this region, followed by Argentina. The market growth in this region is primarily driven by the increasing demand for the product in the automotive sector.

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Reasons to Purchase Molten Salt Reactor Market Report:

• To gain insights into market trends and dynamics: this reports provide valuable insights into industry trends and dynamics, including market size, growth rates, and key drivers and challenges.

• To identify key players and competitors: this research reports can help businesses identify key players and competitors in their industry, including their market share, strategies, and strengths and weaknesses.

• To understand consumer behavior: this research reports can provide valuable insights into consumer behavior, including their preferences, purchasing habits, and demographics.

• To evaluate market opportunities: this research reports can help businesses evaluate market opportunities, including potential new products or services, new markets, and emerging trends.

• To make informed business decisions: this research reports provide businesses with data-driven insights that can help them make informed business decisions, including strategic planning, product development, and marketing and advertising strategies.

About US:

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[reasonsforhope]

"This year the world will make something like 70bn of these solar cells, the vast majority of them in China, and sandwich them between sheets of glass to make what the industry calls modules but most other people call panels: 60 to 72 cells at a time, typically, for most of the modules which end up on residential roofs, more for those destined for commercial plant. Those panels will provide power to family homes, to local electricity collectives, to specific industrial installations and to large electric grids; they will sit unnoticed on roofs, charmingly outside rural schools, controversially across pristine deserts, prosaically on the balconies of blocks of flats and in almost every other setting imaginable.

Once in place they will sit there for decades, making no noise, emitting no fumes, using no resources, costing almost nothing and generating power. It is the least obtrusive revolution imaginable. But it is a revolution nonetheless.

Over the course of 2023 the world’s solar cells, their panels currently covering less than 10,000 square kilometres, produced about 1,600 terawatt-hours of energy (a terawatt, or 1tw, is a trillion watts). That represented about 6% of the electricity generated world wide, and just over 1% of the world’s primary-energy use. That last figure sounds fairly marginal, though rather less so when you consider that the fossil fuels which provide most of the world’s primary energy are much less efficient. More than half the primary energy in coal and oil ends up as waste heat, rather than electricity or forward motion.

What makes solar energy revolutionary is the rate of growth which brought it to this just-beyond-the-marginal state. Michael Liebreich, a veteran analyst of clean-energy technology and economics, puts it this way:

In 2004, it took the world a whole year to install a gigawatt of solar-power capacity... In 2010, it took a month In 2016, a week. In 2023 there were single days which saw a gigawatt of installation worldwide. Over the course of 2024 analysts at BloombergNEF, a data outfit, expect to see 520-655gw of capacity installed: that’s up to two 2004s a day...

And it shows no signs of stopping, or even slowing down. Buying and installing solar panels is currently the largest single category of investment in electricity generation, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an intergovernmental think-tank: it expects $500bn this year, not far short of the sum being put into upstream oil and gas. Installed capacity is doubling every three years. According to the International Solar Energy Society:

Solar power is on track to generate more electricity than all the world’s nuclear power plants in 2026 Than its wind turbines in 2027 Tthan its dams in 2028 Its gas-fired power plants in 2030 And its coal-fired ones in 2032.

In an IEA scenario which provides net-zero carbon-dioxide emissions by the middle of the century, solar energy becomes humankind’s largest source of primary energy—not just electricity—by the 2040s...

Expecting exponentials to carry on is rarely a basis for sober forecasting. At some point either demand or supply faces an unavoidable constraint; a graph which was going up exponentially starts to take on the form of an elongated S. And there is a wide variety of plausible stories about possible constraints...

All real issues. But the past 20 years of solar growth have seen naive extrapolations trounce forecasting soberly informed by such concerns again and again. In 2009, when installed solar capacity worldwide was 23gw, the energy experts at the IEA predicted that in the 20 years to 2030 it would increase to 244gw. It hit that milestone in 2016, when only six of the 20 years had passed. According to Nat Bullard, an energy analyst, over most of the 2010s actual solar installations typically beat the IEA’s five-year forecasts by 235% (see chart). The people who have come closest to predicting what has actually happened have been environmentalists poo-pooed for zealotry and economic illiteracy, such as those at Greenpeace who, also in 2009, predicted 921gw of solar capacity by 2030. Yet even that was an underestimate. The world’s solar capacity hit 1,419gw last year.

-via The Economist, June 20, 2024

--

Note: That graph. Is fucking ridiculous(ly hopeful).

For perspective: the graph shows that in 2023, there were about 350 GW of solar installed. The 5-year prediction from 2023 said that we'd end up around 450 GW by 2030.

We hit over 600 GW in the first half of 2024 alone.

This is what's called an exponential curve. It's a curve that keeps going up at a rate that gets higher and higher with each year.

This, I firmly believe, is a huge part of what is going to let us save the world.

[leebrontide]

Hi everyone!

I'm asking for a (free) favor from y'all.

I'm trying to get more people to sign up for my free monthly author newsletter, and I'd love for you to help me find people who might enjoy it.

Every month, I write an essay about a subject. I'm not just collecting contacts to send ads to!

Sometimes it's about writing process

A Unique Character Development Technique 

The Golden Girls, D&D, and The Newest Way I’m Refusing to Make Writing Solitary 

The Bananabook Method

Lies I Tell Myself, Security Blankets and Backstitch Drafting

On Listening When You Want to Throw Things and Break Stuff

And other times it's a deep dive into a research topic for my books

Why I’m Researching a 19th Century Cult This Month

Spider Goat is Real but is Not Marvel Affiliated

People Just Really Want to Say "Enhance"

That Most Intimate of Thrones

Whose Side is Your House On?

The Care and Feeding of Dream Homes

What Arguing About Captain America Taught Me About Psychotherapy

Nuclear Waste and the Ray Cat Solution

Sometimes it's about mental health, especially through the lenses of fantasy and scifi

Of Flesh and Gundams

What Feeling Are You Most Afraid Of?

Sometimes it's even about legal systems and their interactions with the medical field and expanding medical technologies

Tractors, Cybernetics and the Radical at the Radioshack

Because Everybody Was Calling for YA Scifi About HIPAA, Right? 

Or queer stuff

What Do We Celebrate?

What Stories Are You Made Of?

Or disability

Another Kind of Coziness 

Tinkering With Cyberpunk

Things I Stole from Julian Bashir

What Does Time Feel Like?

Or it could be anything else that I'm willing to think deeper about that month. You can browse the full archive over here.

AND it almost always includes pictures of my very cute cats!

So could you please boost, if you feel your followers might be into that?

The subscription signup is right here.

Help an indie author out?

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Poop Crystals

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)  

The pace in which human technology progressed over the millennia was rather standard for a class 4 species. Even when accounting the periods of scientific degradation which resulted from natural plagues or religious persecution; it was expected that humans would not achieve advanced space travel until another 2-3 thousand years had passed.

Scientifically speaking human scientists were well more advanced than the society they lived in, but due to the technological limitations of the human race they were held back from implementing their designs. A primary limitation was the lack of a sufficiently powerful power source. They did have many different forms of power generators ranging from solar to nuclear, but to power larger machines often required equally large energy sources. To power their ships alone around a third of their vessels were dedicated to the power cores.   

With these restrictions in place travel between stars for humans often relied on decade long journeys in cryo sleep; which ironically required even more power generators to maintain. Their large size made them easy targets for natural disasters such as space debris or prowling space pirates seeking an easy profit margin at the slave markets. These dangers became a standard for human travel until the Terran civilization encountered the planet Nolla 987 and the species that called it home.

During a long duration colonization trip the human ship “Midas” was struck by the trail debris of a rogue comet and knocked off course. The robotic caretakers tried their best to maintain the course, but with the damage done to the ship their primary programming to maintain the lives of the crew kicked in and diverted the ship to the nearest habitable planet for debarkation. Nolla 987 was the closest planet with a stable atmosphere. Originally charted several years earlier but deemed unsuitable for colonization or industrial expansion, it was not ear marked for either and left alone; until the Midas incident that is.

The landing was not a smooth one. Several engines had been damaged and multiple hull breaches resulted in portions of the ship being shredded away during the entry process. It would be safer to say that the Midas crash landed during the final stretch of the maneuver, but with a 73% survival rate of the crew a rather acceptable crash landing.

One by one the crew and colonists were unfrozen to find the ship a burning wreck and only a handful of robotic assistants still functioning. The industrial printing machines were relatively undamaged but without the ships power core they could not be used to print components or tools needed to make the necessary repairs. The crew was then forced to ration its remaining power supply and divided into two teams. The first team would comb through the wreckage and salvage what they could of the wreck while also building shelter. The second group would scout the surrounding area for anything of use and then report back.

It did not take long for the second team to stumble upon a nest of the dominant species of the planet. An insectoid called the “Sectar” which ranged from the size of a house cat to as large as a two story building. These insects digested their food and excreted the waste into a dense crystalian substance that they then used to build massive hive like complexes.

The occupants of the hive had been driven from the hive by the crash landing of the Midas leaving it almost completely empty save for a few eggs and new hatchlings who were not strong enough to flee on their own. Several of the second team members had been scanning the crystal structures while interacting with the newborn Sectar’s. To quote a journal entry of one of them, “They were like insect golden retrievers. Extremely derpy with at least four times as many sets of eyes. They followed us around on their legs like we were their mothers and clung to our legs when we began to return to our ship for the night.”

At least one of the second team was confirmed to have brought a hatchling back to their camp. There was a debate amongst the survivors on if they should try and eat it, but the notion was quickly squashed as they still had food reserves and no one was brave enough to see how the alien’s bio matter would react inside the human digestive system.

The same human who had brought the hatchling back offered it a portion of food which it eagerly ate. Not long after the hatchling excreted a hardened crystal roughly the size of a thimble. When the human made to pick up the seemingly beautiful gem they recoiled as an electrical discharge shocked their hand. This immediately drew the attention of the rest of the crew who began carefully examining the crystal substance. After some rather rough jury-rigging, the crystal was wired into one of the printer machines and to the surprise of everyone powered the machine. The crew quickly learned that the older Sectar’s would produce larger crystal excrements but were extremely hostile and territorial. Smaller Sectar’s were deemed more desirable for the time being as they were easier to train and harvest crystals from.  

Within a matter of days the crew had not only collected enough crystals to power all of their machines and send out a distress signal, but also used the new found crystal power to create a full settlement on the planet complete with water filtration, crop fields, and a sizeable wall to keep out the native wildlife.

It would not be for another thirty years before a passing human shipped picked up their distress signal and went to investigate the planet. When they arrived on Nolla 987 they were astonished to find a fully functioning colony complete with limited orbital facilities. Nearly every human settler and their descendants had a Sectar in their household that they would take care of and feed and in exchange use their crystal excrement to power nearly everything they needed to live.

From there it was only a matter of time before the entirety of human space was aware of the events of Nolla 987 and the Sectar species. Within the decade the colony on Nolla 987 became the capital for a fully settled world with dozens of cities and communities. The Sectar species were transported throughout human space and began being implemented in all aspects of society.

There was initial resistance to the new power source by existing power blocks which realized Sectar power would be far more efficient than nuclear powered engines, but unlike other power sources they had squashed in development the Sectar power option had thirty years of trial and error to back it up with research as well as a fully functioning model with the planet of Nolla 987.

Sectar’s became a common sight on every human planet and were treated like common pets. It was even studied that when introduced to different food sources the energy output of crystal excrement could be increased resulting in certain food industries booming overnight. The composition of spices, cooking technique, and flavoring became an entirely new and highly prestigious academic field with the most successful of its practitioners being highly sought after by companies.

The technological capabilities of humanity experienced a massive surge in advancement within fifty years to the point humans no longer needed cryo ships to travel between stars. Those who had been studying humanity found themselves now being introduced to them as humans winded up on their doorstep with a Sectar on their shoulder and a perverse obsession with collecting its bodily waste.    

[anthurak]

One of my favorite things about Control is just how completely and utterly nuts/bonkers/GONE the FBC is as one of these ‘secret government blackops’ groups.

Like this is a trope we’re all fairly familiar with at this point; some secret government organization formed to monitor, contain and research all kinds of weird shit and keep it secret from the public. Also they may or may not have kinda gone totally rogue somewhere along the way and might now answer only to themselves at this point in a ‘who watches the watchers?’ commentary on the need for oversight.

But the more you find out about the Federal Bureau of Control, the more it becomes clear they just so utterly past ANY of that by the time the game begins. And have been for basically the last fifty some odd years.

Like here is a basic overview of the FBC that you learn within the first thirty or so minutes of the game: They are a secret government organization dedicated to the containment, cataloguing and research of supernatural artifacts and events. They are headquartered in what they call ‘The Oldest House’, a tall, imposing yet utterly nondescript building in the middle of New York City that is literally impossible for anyone to enter or even notice unless they already know about it. And the interior of the building is actually a twisting extradimensional labyrinth that also opens up to other dimensions/realities and might actually be the World Tree Yggdrasil. It also kind of hates any technology made in the last twenty years. And apparently Number 2 Pencils.

Oh, and the FBC doesn’t really report to the US Government. They report to a floating, inverted black pyramid that exists in a space outside of known reality that might also be the collective human subconscious. The pyramid is colloquially referred to as ‘The Board’ and they are an extradimensional entity/group of entities that appoints the Director of the FBC via the use of a physics-defying geometric gun called ‘The Service Weapon’ that is probably Excalibur/Mjolnir/every other legendary weapon in human myth. They also speak in word-salads and probably know they are in a video game.

See, back in 1964 when the FBC first discovered The Oldest House, they basically decided ‘WOW, this place is cool! Let’s make it our new headquarters!’ and promptly moved in. This was also when the current Director at the time found the Service Weapon within The Oldest House, made contact with/was chosen by The Board and from the point on the FBC really hasn’t answered to the US Government anymore.

Also, the Government basically doesn’t even know the Bureau even EXISTS anymore. Remember how The Oldest House has this kind of ‘Perception Filter’ that prevents almost anyone from entering it or even noticing it, which is how basically nobody can find it despite the fact that it is right in the middle of New York City? Well, after they moved in and became effective ‘residents’ of the house, this filter started applying to the FBC itself. They basically CAN’T be noticed or remembered at this point by anyone who isn’t part of the organization. The reason this secret organization can operate entirely off the grid and can’t be tracked is because they literally have freaky extradimensional reality-warping covering their tracks.

This is what I meant when I said that the FBC is just so far GONE. At this point, the FBC is itself a crazy, supernatural thing in and of itself.

Other fun details about the FBC include:

The Bureau facilities in The Oldest House are not powered by coal, oil or nuclear power. No, instead the lights are kept on by a former director who went a tad power-mad and lost control of his pyrokinesis, so the Bureau locked him up in a giant ‘Sarcophagus Containment’ unit and now use him as a power-generator.  He also sometimes talks through the waste-disposal furnace to try and get people to bring him human sacrifices.

The maintenance sector of the FBC includes an area called the ‘Black Rock Quarry’. The so called ‘black rock’ is an extra-dimensional mineral that, among other things, blocks and dampens supernatural effects and abilities. Needless to say, the Bureau mines the stuff extensively. Now, despite being within The Oldest House, the Black Rock Quarry is an open-top quarry. To space.

One of the ways Bureau personnel get around is via pull-strings that show up all over The Oldest House. Pull a string three times and you are transported to the Oceanview Motel, a quaint little motel that probably exists outside of known reality because no one has ever been able to actually go or see outside the motel. Once you’re there, you just ring the bell on the front desk three times, do some random task and procure a room key. The key opens a door, but only one with an inverted black pyramid. From there, you pull another string and are transported back to somewhere else in The Oldest House. So basically a rather convoluted teleportation system. There are also doors with other symbols that probably go to other realities, but the Bureau hasn’t figured out how to open them. Though one does seem to lead to a void of malevolent darkness that feeds off human creativity and is currently holding one Alan Wake.

Also, the bureau’s janitor is probably a Finnish Sea God.

[opencommunion]

"What is this force, these human beings, referred to in this word – resistance? 

First, literally, we refer to the achievement of the poorest and most strategically disadvantaged people on the planet. Within the encircled and immiserated Gaza Strip, many of the Al-Qassam fighters are orphans. Amidst closure and de-development, the popular resistance has been able to consolidate an arsenal and bring 1.5% of its population into a guerrilla force of 30,000-40,000 men that can – man for man – outmatch nearly any in the world. 

The resistance, secondly, has alloyed ideological commitment, willingness to sacrifice for their people, and technological ingenuity into armed capacity capable of going head-to-head with a nuclear power from underground tunnels, the ‘rear base’ and physical strategic depth needed for guerilla insurgency. The concrete is their mountains. From there they have imperiled an enemy with orders of magnitude higher GDP per capita – Israeli GDP is at $52,000 a year, with arsenals worth billions.

Third, the resistance, in launching its October 7 operation, is an example to the world that post-Soviet asphyxiation and extermination procedures, sanctions and terror lists and aid-based countermeasures, could not prevent the rise of a disciplined and new national movement from raising its head to the sky. 

Fourth, the popular cradle brings the word resistance beyond armed men to doctors going to their deaths in lieu of abandoning their patients and women and men in the Gaza Strip’s North – facing white phosphorus rather than abandoning their homes. It is precisely the strength of the civilian commitment to the national project that provokes US-Israeli extermination: ‘the 'civilian' officials, including hospital administrators and school administrators, and also the entire Gaza population’ are, as a result, the targets – not out of cruelty but to break Hamas by breaking its cradle. 

Fifth, through these achievements, the Palestinian resistance has been able to present an acute threat to the settler-capitalist property structures called Israel, to militarized accumulation, to the world’s workshop for counterinsurgency technology, and to the entire architecture of regional repression with its associated petrodollar flows, treasury and security purchases, and arms merchandising. For capitalism is not just the smooth clockwork of accumulation through generalized commodity exchange and labor exploitation, it is the machinery of violence – its technology – which ensures the smooth running of the clock, the thingification of its human elements, the political decisions to maintain and rework the machinery of monopoly accumulation, and the waste of human lives which is increasingly the core Arab input into global capitalism. 

More worryingly from the perspective of monopoly power, the Palestinian resistance is not alone. It is part of a regional populist resistance enfolding the poorest people on Earth. ... It is unimaginable that the neocolonial authoritarian states nor their US benefactor would remotely tolerate massive working-class militia which speak a language of justice and republicanism and raise arms against those states’ sponsors. In turn, it is as natural as the sun rising in the East that the US, the UK, Germany, France, and their Gulf and Arab satraps would converge on support for Israel as the spear’s tip of the assault on the surrounding Arab popular militia. 

And because Israel is the keystone of the regional imperialist order – maintained not by hegemonic consensus but the brutality of Apaches and Merkavas – it is as natural as water falling from clouds that what has developed in the Gaza Strip, as soon as it mobilized politically and militarily, would incite the Western reaction to wipe it from the face of the Earth and impose unimaginable horror to terrify the Palestinian, Arab, and Third World people to never again raise their heads.

The October 7 operation has perhaps overcome the central role of the Israeli state in accumulation on a world scale: ingraining a state of defeat amongst the Arab working classes, as part-and-parcel of the post-Soviet ideological defeat imposed by capital upon labor globally. Deterrence is the form that defeat takes when pushed to the military plane, and Israel openly admits that its deterrence has been shattered.

Seen from this perspective, the risks run by the western capitalist states – their imposition of fascist regulation against freedoms of speech and assembly, their backing for genocide, their desperation to see the Palestinian armed militia wiped from the face of the Earth – is logical, reasonable, and rational in its sociopathy. It is the logic of monopoly attempting to defend itself and the consciousness which bodyguards it with fire from the sky. It is a logic which fills graveyards, and a logic which makes orphans, and it is a logic which might yet meet its end in that crossroads of continents – that salient, and city and their camps and their people."

[zvaigzdelasas]

The National Nuclear Safety Administration’s permit authorises scientists at the Shanghai Institute to operate the reactor for 10 years, during which time they will test its capabilities and limitations. The reactor has an output of only 2MW, however once its technology matures, it will have a number of advantages over conventional uranium-fuelled designs.

For example, thorium is less radioactive than uranium or plutonium, produces less toxic waste and cannot be used to create nuclear weapons. And because it is in liquid form, it solidifies in the event of a disaster, which would limit environmental damage.

The reactor also has advantages that are more specific to China, since the country is thought to have several hundred thousand tonnes of the element, or enough to meet its total energy needs for more than 20,000 years.[...]

As well as their inherent safety advantages, thorium molten salt SMRs can be located in many types of environments, including remote, desert or off-grid areas. This may have benefits for industries such as mining, which often require reliable power sources far from water or conventional utilities. It may also help power infrastructure on the “belt and road” programme in central Asia.

26 Jun 23

[shibiichi]

CANDY KINGDOM AU SUN AND MOON

And here’s some lore about the world! Not all sunshines and rainbows . Sun and moon may look sweet but they are not candy! Wink wink

CANDY KINGDOM AU:

Warnings: Will have heavy themes, much more than a normal candy au! Such as near genocide, nuclear war, very slight religious themes, discrimination and persecution, stuff like that!

Inspirations: FNaF (Obviously), Adventure Time, Mandela Catalogue

Thank you to my friend Qball for helping out with ideas!

Candy Kingdom AU is focused on the Candy Kingdom, the candy people. They used to inhabit their sweet themed world fully, without worry or care. Candy people are very technologically advanced, although in exchange they are physically fragile. Basically everything was alright, until the Ghouls started showing up. No one knows where they came from, most some thing is was a punishment from God (or The Devil) for straying too far off the path. Becoming selfish and confident in their abilities.

The Candy Kingdom was vast and large, millions of candy’s inhabited the planet. In comparison there were around only a thousand Ghouls, but their strength made up for their lack of numbers. The Ghouls, as a species, need candy people to survive, to gorge to their hearts content. They had skills to allow this, as well. Sharp claws and teeth, multiple eyes, biblically accurate forms. But most importantly they could change their size, they could change their appearance to that of a Candy citizen. And so a war broke out between the two species.

While things looked dire at first, the Candy people were very quick to turn the war in their favor. Their technological advancements made it so that they could best Ghouls at their own game. A group of Candy people versus a Ghoul was certainly death, but with their weapons the Candy people changed their fates quickly.

The ghouls were often separate, but they began to build a society to strengthen their forces, their communities, their abilities to sustain a stable food source. The Candy people saw this cooperation as a threat, and so they did something truly vile. A nuclear blast enveloped the Ghoul’s territory, wiping out a majority of their population in one fell swoop. The remaining Ghouls were enraged, no longer killing to feed their needs but rather as compensation for the hundreds of lives lost.

Eventually the candy kingdom built walls, defenses to keep them safe from the Ghouls. Living for decades in lavish housing and upper class life. The Ghouls remained to pick up the pieces of their species, living amongst rubble buildings and nuclear waste. Unfortunately tensions never ceased. The Ghouls had to eat, and Candy people were the best option. Meanwhile Candy citizens never forgave the Ghouls, seeing them as animals, lower lifeforms. Dumb creatures that only knew how to feed. They called them Sours, a derogatory phrase for a Ghoul because they could never be sweet like Candy. They could never be candies. The wealthier Candy folk often make a habit of buying expensive weaponry, hunting Ghouls for sport and mounting their heads on their walls. Some ghouls are treated to a much worse fate, captured by candies to be put into freak shows. There are around only 50 ghouls left.

[mindblowingscience]

Plastic waste breaks down over time into nanoplastics (<0.1 μm). Microplastics smaller than 20 μm cannot be removed in currently operating water treatment plants and must be agglomerated to a larger size and then removed. Iron (Fe) or aluminum (Al) based flocculants are used for this purpose, but they are not the ultimate solution as they remain in the water and cause severe toxicity to humans, requiring a separate treatment process. Dr. Jae-Woo Choi of the Center for Water Cycle Research at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed an eco-friendly metal-organic skeleton-based solid flocculant that can effectively aggregate nanoplastics under visible light irradiation. The research was published in Water Research. Prussian blue, a metal-organic frameworks-based substance made by adding iron (III) chloride to a potassium ferrocyanide solution, is the first synthetic pigment used to dye jeans a deep blue color and has recently been used to adsorb cesium, a radioactive element, from Japanese nuclear plant wastewater.

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