#the other was that episode with the batteries and the kangaroo

[feldsparite]

[fly-pow-bye]

What’s Airing On Cartoon Network (November 2019)

The Futon Critic updated with Cartoon Network’s listings for November, featuring the return of Apple & Onion, the return of Total Dramarama, a Craig of the Creek special, and more! See it after the break!

Apple & Onion

November 2nd:

Apple's Focus - Apple helps Onion achieve his dream of competing on a baking show. Includes special guest Sue Perkins (Great British Bake Off). (9:30 AM)

Lil Noodle - Apple and Onion must remain legit enough to be in their favorite rapper's music video. Includes special guest Timothy DeLaGhetto. (9:45 AM)

Gyranoid of the Future - Apple and Onion struggle to ride Gyranoid of the Future, the craziest roller coaster at the carnival. (10:00 AM)

Fun Proof - Apple and Onion want to become this week's "Most Fun People". (10:15 AM)

November 9th:

Whale Spotting - Apple and Onion need to join an exclusive club to see a rare whale. (9:30 AM)

Heatwave - Apple and Onion try to spread cheer during a city-wide heatwave. (9:45 AM)

Apple's in Charge - Apple is put in charge of the Dollar Store for the very first time. (10:00 AM)

Burger's Trampoline - Apple and Onion must find a way to use Burger's trampoline without making him feel used. (10:15 AM)

November 16th:

Baby Boi TP - Apple needs to acquire a lifetime supply of toilet paper to finish his modern art sculpture. (9:30 AM)

Not Funny - With their 6 month friend anniversary approaching, Apple has to find a way not to lose his best friend. (9:45 AM)

November 23rd:

Onionless - Apple tries to survive a weekend alone while taking care of Onion's plant. (9:30 AM)

Party Popper - Apple and Onion's party plans are interrupted by a grumpy guest. (9:45 AM)

November 30th:

Face Your Fears - Apple and Onion must face their fears while trapped in a pet shop, so they can save French Fry from facing hers. (9:30 AM)

Apple's Short - Apple needs to be tall so that he can be in love. (9:45 AM)

Bakugan: Battle Planet

November 3rd:

Happy/One Way or Another - Happy: The AO expect a fight in Brakistan, but soon discover that old enemies Lord Brakken, Magnus, and Nillious are unnaturally happy to see them./One Way or Another: In the heat of emotions, Shun convinces Lord Brakken that his usual enemies are the best allies he has to sequester a renegade Core Cell. (7:00 AM)

November 10th:

Stormy Weather/Who Can it Be Now - Stormy Weather: On a flight to their next Core Cell mission, the AO's plane falls under attack by Pyravian, who strangely believes the team to be Bakuzon./Who Can It Be Now: The AO find themselves in a battle against the Bakuzon forces of Tiko that upends everything they thought they knew about Core Cells. (7:00 AM)

November 17th:

In My Room/An Army of Their Own - In My Room: When the AO report that they've been fighting the wrong fight, they discover that Benton has been corrupted by the villainous Tiko./An Army of Their Own: The AO are forced to turn to Philomena Dusk for help, only to realize that they have led Benton/Tiko right to the AAAnimus Campus. (7:00 AM)

November 24th:

Calling All Parents/Nowhere to Turn - Calling All Parents: When the parents of the world are turned against their children and confiscate their Bakugan, the AO must seek out the Rowdy Reds./Nowhere to Turn: While the AO attempt to gain allies and warn other children, Wynton is confronted by Armstrong Tripp, who now works for Benton Dusk. (7:00 AM)

Ben 10 (2016)

November 2nd:

My Bodyguard - When Zombozo hypnotizes Grandpa Max's entire baking class it is up to Ben and Gwen to clean up the mess, but it gets even messier when Zombozo unveils his new bodyguard: Kevin 11! (12:00 PM)

Wheels of Fortune - Team Tennyson's thrift store shopping is ruined by the latest high-speed heist of LaGrange - who is now aided by a super-fast electromagnetic racing car - and Ben must convince Kevin 11 to help stop the speed demon's globetrotting robbing spree. (12:15 PM)

November 9th:

Heat of the Moment - After Ben easily dispatches the Weatherheads, Team Tennyson travels to a ski resort for some fun in the snow but when Ben runs into the Weatherheads yet again, this time they are a force to reckon with. (12:00 PM)

Vin Diagram - When Ben sees Vin Ethanol impressed with Kevin's automotive know-how, Ben's jealousy has him convinced that he has to out-do Kevin before the older boy influences Vin to embrace his bad-guy side at a charity race. (12:15 PM)

November 16th:

A Sticky Situation - All Ben wants to do is stop Queen Bee from robbing a bank, but when Kevin shows up to try and be the hero and take all the glory himself, Ben will need to save the day twice or end up in hot honey. (12:00 PM)

What Rhymes with Omnitrix? - At a poetry slam event, Charmcaster's reading of Kevin's poetry causes magical trouble for Ben and Gwen, causing mind swaps that have everyone confused as to who's fighting who. (12:15 PM)

November 23rd:

You Remind Me of Someone - Ben and Gwen look for the infamous Bojamboo (the Bigfoot of the South) and discover that it's actually the Forgeti, at the same time as Kevin 11, but when Ben and Kevin are blasted with the Forgeti's forgetfulness mist, they reverse roles and it's up to Gwen and Max to restore them back to normal. (12:00 PM)

Adrenaland Jr. - Team Tennyson visits the safety-neutered version of Adrenaland known as "Adrenaland Jr.", only to end up facing off against a bitter Kevin 11, out to destroy everyone else's good, and safe, time. (12:15 PM)

November 30th:

Steam Fight at the OK Corral - When Kevin convinces Steam Smythe to adopt a modern approach in fighting Ben, our young hero must resort to old-fashioned thinking to save the day. (12:00 PM)

I Don't Like You - Ben and Gwen's social media battle with Kevin 11 quickly escalates into an all-out war in real life. (12:15 PM)

Craig of the Creek

November 23rd:

Craig and the Kid's Table (Half-Hour Special) - It's a Williams Family Thanksgiving, which means it's time to reunite The Kid's Table! But when Bernard accidentally destroys dessert, Craig uses the power of the Kids Table to help save his brother from certain grounding. (10:00 AM, half hour)

Teen Titans Go!

November 9th:

Teen Titans Vroom (Half-Hour Special) - In this episode of "Turbo Titans Go Force" the Titans gain the ability to transform into cars. Then, in the exciting conclusion of "Turbo Titans Go Force" the Titans must learn to work together to stop Dr. Military. (10:30 AM, half hour)

November 27th:

Beast Boy's That's What's Up - Beast Boy goes to visit the Doom Patrol. Beast Boy, Negative Girl, and Robotman discover some crabs are up to no good. Cyborg becomes inseparable from Robotman. It's time for Beast Boy to leave, but the Doom Patrol try to get him to stay. (6:00 PM)

Total Dramarama

November 2nd:

Mutt Ado About Owen - After accidentally hypnotizing Owen into being a dog, Harold thinks he must reverse the hypnosis to avoid going to jail. (9:00 AM)

Simons Are Forever - Duncan and Leshawna try to take advantage of Izzy's love for the game of Simon Says. (9:15 AM)

November 9th:

Stop! Hamster Time - Owen takes over the job of caring for the class hamster and learns that he's evil. (9:00 AM)

Driving Miss Crazy - Duncan leads Beth to believe she's broken his battery-powered bike and makes her chauffeur him around in a wagon for the day as punishment. (9:15 AM)

November 16th:

Weiner Takes All - After forgetting to book a Hot Diggity Doggity Dog mascot on National Hotdog Day, Chef tries to pass off an Australian man dressed as a kangaroo as a substitute. (9:00 AM)

Apoca-lice Now - When Chef brokers a truce with lice by selecting three kids to "host" them on their heads, Courtney instigates a kid vs. lice war. (9:15 AM)

November 23rd:

Gnome More Mister Nice Guy - When the daycare gets taken over by evil gnomes, Duncan finds himself on the wrong team. (9:00 AM)

Look Who's Clocking - When Harold's warnings not to mess with the clock go ignored, the kids are forced to save themselves when Duncan tears a hole in the fabric of time. (9:15 AM)

November 30th:

Harold Swatter and the Goblet of Flies - After finding what he believes to be a magic wand, Owen accidentally turns Harold into a housefly. (9:00 AM)

Stink. Stank. Stunk. - When a skunk comes seeking its annual revenge on Chef, Duncan sees it as an opportunity to get a vacation from daycare. (9:15 AM)

Transformers Cyberverse

November 2nd:

Spotted - As the Autobots prepare for an attack, Cheetor struggles to find his place amongst the tight-knit group. (6:30 AM)

November 9th:

Secret Science - Shockwave kidnaps Wheeljack to help the Decepticons find Starscream, but he underestimates the wily Autobot inventor. (6:30 AM)

November 16th:

Infinite Vendetta - The Autobots and Decepticons are surprised by the sudden arrival of two bots locked in a millennia long feud. (6:30 AM)

November 23rd:

I Am the Allspark - Starscream unleashes the ultimate attack on the Autobots and Decepticons. (6:30 AM)

November 30th:

Escape from Earth - The Autobots have the Allspark! Now they just have to get it off Earth. (6:30 AM)

[lindoig8]

Monday to Saturday, 2-7 August

Monday

We had toyed with the idea of going on from Richmond to Julia Creek, but we wanted to get back onto the Boulia road that night so eventually decided to cut south-east from Richmond on the Richmond-Winton road. It was quite a pleasant drive with almost no other traffic until we got onto the bitumen closer to Winton. We didn’t need to go right into Winton so turned towards Middleton on the Boulia road about 5 kilometres out of town. We quite enjoyed the drive but had driven well over 300 kilometres on the day so decided on a bush camp 67 kilometres east of Middleton.

It was a great spot. We got our rig about 150 metres off the road, hidden from westbound traffic and only briefly visible by eastbound vehicles. It had been warm and partly cloudy all day, but we still lit a fire and Heather made another great batch of bread in the coals. We had our Happy Hour in the shade behind the van but moved closer to the fire as night fell and it got cooler. I cooked part of our meal outside while Heather cooked in the van and we had a wonderful meal (as always) inside and watched a couple of episodes of our DVD series in bed. I got up for a drink and checked the time at 10.14pm – just as the wind hit. (It often seems to go from dead calm to mini-tornado in Queensland.) It hit us instantly and was ferocious – but died off and came again several times, each time accompanied by a little rain. We have only seen very transient sprinkles twice since leaving home so rain was a novelty, but it gradually got slightly heavier and we started to worry that a heavy shower could leave us at risk of getting bogged given that we were unusually far from the road. We slept fitfully, but at 3.15am, we decided to pack up and get back on the main road. Our fire was still hot so I had to empty that and ensure all the embers were out (the wind was howling at the time and blowing ash and cinders everywhere) and our firebox had to cool before I could pack it away. But we managed to pack up pretty quickly – just dumping some things inside the van to be dried and reorganised in the morning – and fortunately had no problems driving back onto the road. Of course, I was soaked from being out in the rain, but it was no big deal. We drove on towards Middleton, imagining that we had 67 kilometres to drive at night in poor conditions, but only had to drive 9 kilometres before we came to an almost deserted rest stop. There were 3 other vans that among the trees, but all a long way from us. We just drove in and parked close to the amenities and climbed straight back into bed. Getting back to sleep was not easy though!

We have done very little night driving this trip, but before we left home, I had a lightbar fitted to the bull-bar and it makes a HUGE difference to visibility – 20 times as bright in front of the car and with a much wider spread than the spotlights we originally fitted – definitely worth the money because it helped me avoid hitting at least two kangaroos in that 9-kilometre stretch.

Tuesday

We slept late and were the last rig to leave the rest stop – but only by a few minutes. We reorganised all the stuff that had been thrown into the van in the middle of the night and surprisingly, everything was almost completely dry. It stopped raining almost as soon as we broke camp during the night, but there were still a few flecks of rain in the wind when I was packing up this morning – although even that was gone by about 11 am.

We drove on past Middleton and reached the Boulia caravan park soon after lunch. (A notable point along the way today was that we ticked over 15,000 kilometres so far this trip.) We both felt pretty buggered but got set up and comfortable in a good spot quite quickly – and just relaxed. I had a few things that needed doing on my PC and we downloaded and sorted photos, but didn’t do much else. We had an early night, watched a DVD and slept the sleep of the righteous!

Wednesday

We had a huge lot of washing to do – two enormous loads in their big washing machines here – but it was washed, hung out and dry by early afternoon – a good day for drying, warm and windy.

We had a few minor maintenance jobs to do on the van and car, but they were soon done too and we drove into the township for fuel, a gas bottle refill and some groceries. It will be a few days before we get another chance to buy anything so Boulia was our buying opportunity. Fuel is not cheap here and with our long-range tank, it costs over $300 every time we pull up at a bowser. At least it only has to happen about every 1000 kilometres or so.

Thursday

We spent most of the day writing up our adventures from the past week but we did have other things to do. One thing was trying to fix the fan in our rangehood. It turned out to be two wires that had simply shaken loose, but putting them back in place was a nightmare. The wiring is almost completely inaccessible and the only way I could see what I was doing was to bend backwards over the stove, almost at right angles, and work above my head. We got it working at last, but it is a real botch job and I am not confident that it will stay fixed once we get back onto rough roads. (Ten days later, it is still working! [but fourteen days later, it wasn't!]) We took the opportunity to replace the light over the stove that had numerous cracks and pieces out of it, but quite miraculously, it was still working. We cleaned everything around the rangehood but blew a fuse in the process. We have never been able to figure out which fuse relates to which circuit, but we spent an hour or so pulling fuses and testing the results and I think we have now documented the results with a reasonable level of confidence. I wish we could do the same with our water tanks, their fillers and the taps inside the van. We have spent many (many) hours on that over the years and still have only a few tentative guesses.

A really big thing happened today! We became great grandparents again – for the fourth time. We have a delightful new addition to our family – Lily Regan Baker – congratulations Tom and Laura.

Friday

We had a slow start today – not that we slept in, but we knew we had a pretty straight drive that would only take 3 or 4 hours so it was close to 11 am before we actually got our of town. We expected the Donohue (Queensland section) and Plenty (Northern Territory section) Highways to be pretty rough and all unsealed until about 60 kilometres from Gemtree but found that more than half the Queensland section was sealed and wide enough for the 4 or 5 other vehicles we saw to pass with ease. We only stopped a couple of times but when we had our lunch, we explored the nearby area for flora (quite a bit) and fauna (zilch!) so our break was probably more than half an hour. It was a pleasant enough drive although with nothing of great note to look at and we crossed into the Northern Territory without fanfare and checked into the Tobermorey Station camping area a little before 3pm.

There is no power or water here (apart from in the amenities area), but we are completely self-contained so that is no impediment. It is about four and a half years and 20-odd thousand kilometres since we used our generator and I thought it would have become clagged up and hard to start after so long. We could easily get by on gas and battery power, but I have been wanting to try out the generator so I put half a litre of petrol in it and pulled the handle and voila, it sang its happy tune and we had AC power to the van and via the van to our car fridge. Amazing! I went off looking for birds around the area for an hour or so and the generator ran out of fuel just as I got back so I put a couple more litres in it and let it run until it was dark. We were the only van here at first, but three more vans pulled in an hour or two later and two more almost on dark so we didn’t feel that they should listen to our generator all night so I turned it off – even though they could probably not hear it from inside their vans. (I will discuss some of these rigs later because we saw them several times.)

Saturday

We woke a bit earlier than usual and I went straight outside and fired up the generator – good little fellow, it started first pull again. We sat up in bed with a cuppa and did a few puzzles and then it was time for scrambled eggs and bacon for brekky. We puddled around packing up and getting ready to leave and were almost set to go when I noticed that one of the car tyres was half flat. We are not sure if it is a slow leak from the valve or a puncture, but either way, we had to change the tyre. Given the drama of our last flat tyre, we set about the process more scientifically and got all the required equipment out and ready to go before we started trying to fix the problem. We used the hydraulic jockey wheel to raise the back of the car a bit (quite a bit) and then used the trolley jack to get it a bit higher. All went well except that we still couldn’t jack the car quite high enough to get the wheel off – but a bit of muscle finally solved the problem. Then the only problem was that an inflated tyre is bigger than a flat one so we still needed to get the car a bit higher to get the good wheel back on. Not to be defeated, I decided that an alternative to raising the car higher (beyond the limit of the jack) was to lower the ground under it. Out with our trusty little spade and with a few chops and scrapes, I created a depression under the axle and was able to get the wheel almost in place. At least one nut could be started so by tightening that one a bit, it pulled the wheel in far enough to get another one started. That let me start a thirdone and in due course all five nuts were on and our trusty rattle gun came into its own (again) and the whole job was completed and the car and van boots repacked within about an hour – compared with more than two-and-a-half hours last time. At last, we were on our way and it was still not yet noon.

The Donohue Highway terminates at the State border, and on the Northern Territory side, it becomes the iconic Plenty Highway, known as one of the most challenging tracks in Australia – comparable to the Tanami. It truly is! We managed to do 222 kilometres today on some of the worst road I have ever driven. My hands and wrists are quite sore tonight from gripping the steering wheel and trying to point the car where we wanted it to go, rather than where the road wanted to take us. There was one 3-4 kilometre patch of sand/bulldust that was exceptionally challenging (the map referred to it as the Bulldust Stretch). The loose stuff was really deep and the wheel ruts were much deeper than our car’s underbody clearance. This meant that for several kilometres, we were ploughing ten or more centimetres of sand and dust out of the way to allow us to go forward. There were several other equally treacherous, but shorter, patches, but this one was the longest and worst I have encountered. Our amazing vehicle was roaring as it graded a path for us at a maximum speed of perhaps 20 kph with the accelerator almost flat to the floor and steering was a huge challenge. It was all I could do to keep the front to the car pointing in the direction we wanted to go – hence the sore hands and wrists tonight. We have driven some challenging roads in the past decade or two, but this is certainly up with the best of them. Surprisingly, other patches of the road, particularly later in the day, were great and I got up to almost 80 kph in a couple of the best places.

We have bumped into a bunch of 5 or 6 rigs travelling together a few times (the ones I mentioned at Tobermorey) and I have chatted with a couple of the drivers. Three of their vehicles are cute little orange Chamberlain tractors with a top speed of about 55 kph. They travel all over Australia (Heather thinks they were in Broome when we were there in 2019), having a lot of fun, but actually raising money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. I was talking with one of the guys at Gemtree this afternoon and he said they got through the bulldust without too much trouble, but when they came to the worst patch (obviously after us) they found a huge road-train, with three fully laden trailers, hopelessly bogged in the middle of the road. They had to take to the bush to get past him but we had seen a few road graders not far from there so I imagine they will eventually extricate the poor guy.

Every kilometre was an achievement for us but we finally made it to a free camping spot near Jervois Station – a Rest Area on the banks of the Marshall River - passing the camped Chamberlain tractor guys just a couple of kilometres earlier. I was very thankful to have a slightly early end to the challenges of the day, just over halfway from Tobermorey to our next destination at Gemtree.

We did a minimal set-up of the van and I started the generator – not really necessary, but it helps to keep the car fridge cold and it is a bit of fun generating our own power. In the past few days, I reckon we have run the generator for at least 12 hours, maybe 14, on a maximum of 4 litres of petrol. A lot of the time, it is just idling, but it kicks in a bit when the microwave, toaster or kettle are on – nothing else seems to make it work above an idle anyway.

I went looking for birds along the riverbed. I saw quite a few, perhaps 6-7 species, but nothing of particular note, the most exciting probably being several inquisitive Cloncurry Ringnecks.

One other car and trailer pulled in right next to us and started asking questions, but we didn’t encourage them to share our corner of the Rest Area – and maybe the ticking of our generator put them off – but they chose to park almost 100 metres away and didn’t interrupt the serenity of the place for us.

We had picked up a few second-hand DVDs in Boulia – they had at least 100 as well as some books for people to take or swap – and we took a handful. We have left quite a lot of ours at other places so purloining a few from Boulia was perhaps a small quid pro quo (and we have since passed several of them on at other places after watching them ourselves). Anyway, we played one after dinner and watched most of it before it died and we missed the end. Having said that, I am not sure we missed anything – it was no great shakes as a movie. Maybe some of the others will be better – and might play right through.

[gracebolton]

Is Nuclear Power Glowing or Just Green?

An interesting conversation happened on twitter around 4 years ago, including a remark from Dr Karl Kruszelnicki in reference to nuclear power, in response to another tweeter.

Problems with nuclear are 1)potential to make nuclear weapons 2)waste (95% of energy remains in waste) 3)Chernobyl https://t.co/y9tfOejj4y

— Dr Karl (@DoctorKarl) April 22, 2016

The other tweeter is someone I’d run across recently when discussing the nuclear arena, so I decided to enter the discussion using my personal account.

Twitter has what I see as an advantage in the 140 character count, as people can’t waffle on, and therefore get to the point (supposedly). On the other hand, it is really hard to have a detailed, productive discussion.

In a previous discussion about nuclear with the same party, it started to get a little heated, then a third party joined in and the whole thing became a waste of time.

In these discussions, I tend to take a pretty neutral view, as I do with battery storage. Its important to have the conversations and have multiple viewpoints, because sometimes its enlightening, and sometimes it can change an open mind.

As one of my first points, I referenced an article on Renew Economy, which sought to dispel some myths about nuclear as a low-carbon option. A lot of this I had heard before, but the author, Mark Diesendorf, clearly put a lot of research into compiling the numbers for that article.

If you look at the comments on that article, there are a lot of people also fairly derisive of nuclear. That is probably not a surprise when the site is primarily focused on Renewable Energy, and I found myself nodding along to some of it.

Thing is, I’m not anti-nuclear power. Not at all. I’m a Sci-Fi fan and in a lot of that material, there are nuclear reactors involved. Some of them are even man-portable reactors designed to power awesome stuff like exoskeletal armour, mecha, or spacecraft.

But we’re not talking about some kind of Iron man style weaponry or interplanetary exploration that people take for granted. We’re talking about boring old this:

No laser weapons or sexy, sexy aliens here, scifi fans… Credit: Wikipedia

The Basics of Nuclear Power

Similar to other thermal power stations like coal, we have a production facility generating heat, with turns water into steam and drives a turbine. This needs cooling towers to let the steam escape, and you can see a bunch of wires carrying the power away.

Where the nuclear power plant differs is that the fuel lasts longer. Rather than jamming coal in there regularly to keep the home fires burning, the uranium rods in the nuclear facility will last for years. Under a controlled nuclear reaction, the heat produced is what creates the steam to drive the turbines and crank out that sweet, sweet electricity.

And now you’ve probably just asked the question about how dangerous the radioactive material is, and you’re right. There are potential dangers in nuclear power that other power types don’t face.

The Wikipedia entry on the topic of nuclear power plants clearly outlines the dangers and controversies around nuclear power. I’ll let you read it there, but suffice to say nuclear power plants are large, complex bits of equipment. Humans are human. Accidents happen, if rarely.

Even when things are running well, and safety measures are stringent, you can have episodes like Fukushima, where Mother Nature had a hangover and tripped over the rug on her way to get more aspirin.

So, as far as places-to-avoid-human-error go, nuclear power plants are right up there. Throw in the production of weapons-grade radioactive material using nuclear power plants, and it looks a little scary.

Supporters will point out that there are nations around the world who use nuclear power like France (74%) quite happily, and other countries in Europe who have a high proportion of their electricity generated from nuclear power.  They’re also right – carefully managed, nuclear is a great source of low-carbon power.

I say “low-carbon” because you still need to dig stuff up out of the ground. That is also true of solar panels (silicon and metals), wind farms (steel) and any form of energy generation you like. Everything has a price until we learn how to run things on our own sense of self-satisfaction like this guy (Simpsons fans know where its at).

There are also some options for progress in the nuclear power in terms of better reactors, like the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR). More efficient than traditional reactors, with less waste and fewer safety issues (including less weapons-grade material).

Yet, there isn’t a single commercial IFR operating in the world, due to cost, and a few red flags about safety that might actually be red herrings. For now at least, the IFR is the pipe dream for nuclear proponents.

Back on topic: so, I had a twitter discussion about nuclear power in general, versus renewable energy specifically. I found it stimulating and somewhat enlightening, via some links that were shared.

My adversary stated quite clearly he wasn’t anti-renewables, instead believing that renewables can’t provide all the power required in growing economies, and would need help in the form of stable, low-carbon nuclear.

The discussion finished amicably, and I went and did a bit of reading about nuclear power, particularly in Europe. After all that, I thought it best to document what nuclear power means to me, and how it compares to the renewable options in the current climate.

I was particularly interested to explore how I felt about it here in Australia, after some time to think.

Ayres Rock, Australia: A Kangaroo warning road sign in the desert near Uluru

It doesn’t all look like this, BTW…         Credit: Fodors Travel

Nuclear Power Perspective

Let’s forget about the safety thing for a moment, and assume we’re pretty grouse at building and maintaining nuclear power plants. No worries, she’ll be right!

One of the primary drivers of change is economic. Fact.

People generally don’t stop doing a thing until another thing comes along that is better value for money, or at least drops into their available budget.

As a simple example, I remember when power windows were a luxury item on a car that I couldn’t afford. These days, not many production cars still have window winders – technology gets cheaper, more people adopt it, and it becomes commonplace.

Nuclear isn’t getting cheaper, at least not in terms of capital cost to establish. Nuclear power plants cost billions to set up, and with the recent accident at Fukushima, financiers are understandably nervous about pouring that sort of money in.

The European nuclear projects under construction are well over budget and running late. China is gearing up with more nuclear, but finance is never really a thing with them, and besides which they’re also sinking a whack of dosh into renewable energy development, while searching for answers to their fossil-fuel based pollution issues.

Once the nuclear plant comes online, it is actually a very cheap power source, but it still has to be subsidised heavily to pay interest on all those loans in the meantime, and over the lifetime of the facility.

In Australia, where the only reactor we have is for research and medical purposes, nuclear power has never really taken off for the reasons stated in that wiki link. This is another blow to the nuclear lobby, in that while we have oodles of “yellowcake” (uranium) in the ground, and space to build reactors, to do so is widely regarded as political suicide.

Mining of uranium in nature reserves and national parks, particularly areas under the guardianship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, is a move that most politicians won’t countenance.

Perhaps that is more emotional than scientific, but if we’re looking to a more habitable planet, maybe we want to stop killing trees and such. Even if the longer term benefit is wiping out fossil fuel usage, what are we saving in that scenario?

In addition, centralised Nuclear power still suffers the same costs as coal for delivery. Poles and wires, substations, links in a chain that is infrastructure and therefore requires maintenance.

You could address some of that by building more power stations of smaller capacity in the appropriate areas, but then the cost per kWh rises due to base capital cost to build. Smaller does not always mean cheaper on a unit level, and you’re still required to get infrastructure built for users to get the power.

I still haven’t exactly dismissed nuclear as an option, but when you’re talking about the political and financial hurdles it faces in Australia, it looks like a very difficult climb. In a lot of ways, nuclear power has missed the window in Australia, and its hard to see how it can catch up.

This is particularly true when we look at the potential for renewable energy.

Renewable Energy

The fact is, renewable energy is getting cheaper, and more widespread, every day. Critics roundly mock the subsidies needed to establish “free” energy, while failing to look at their own backyard, often strewn with coal that the taxpayer funds.

Politically, fossil fuels are used as a battleground for jobs – particularly the mining industry – though I often wonder how many of those jobs are funded by the taxpayer, as a percentage. The mining magnates seem to fluctuate between reaping massive profits, or crying poor and sticking their hand out. Nice work if you can get it.

“Makes me money AND kills the environment – winning!” – (not) Gina Rinehart… Credit: Foxsports

In Australia, we’re seeing in increase of large scale solar farms, as well as wind farms. There is even some solar thermal around the place, while our wave power tech is getting noticed around the world.

Jeez we’ve got some smart units in this little nation.

So, with the price of solar panels dropping significantly as per Swanson’s Law, and other renewable energy efforts cranking up, we need to look ahead to the year 2020 in the shorter term, because the next step is just around the corner.

Storage has been given a shot in the arm with the announcement of Tesla Powerwall, and it has allowed many other players to stick their hand up and remind people they have battery systems, too.

The price of storage is also falling, and going to fall further. We’re talking about a multi-billion dollar industry that sits ready to launch in households across the world, not just Australia.

We’re best positioned to use it, because we have the sun, the high electricity prices, and the highest consumption of coal per capita in the world. Which is, quite frankly, awful. We need to have a look at ourselves…

We’ve got a population largely distributed along the coast, but also rural communities who struggle for services and maintenance of their power and communications networks, not to mention roads and transport infrastructure.

So its natural to start there, I reckon.

We already have people who live independent from the power grid, because they were faced with a location with no existing infrastructure. In some cases, the cost to run power would be hundreds of thousands of dollars, just for an individual home!

So we scale that up, like the moves to take suburbs or whole towns off the grid. This can also translate into backup power for towns at the end of the line, or in known trouble spots where natural hazards or aging equipment may cause issues.

The power sources can be any form of renewable energy, provided housing efficiency measures are put in place, along with battery storage of suitable size and chemistry. There will be teething issues, but these places stand to benefit the most in the shorter term.

The next step is to establish suburban micro-grids, using solar + storage in suburban areas, lowering the cost of infrastructure and maintenance longer term. Companies like Reposit Power are already looking into enabling this technology in Australia.

As an aside: I’m bemused that we don’t have a situation like San Francisco, where solar panels are now required by law on buildings 10 storeys or under.

With installers like Natural Solar getting into consumer-grade power storage for solar, this will snowball, and allow consumers to wrest back some of the control from the grid.

That is, of course, if “the grid” exists as more than a marginal concern for many users in these neighbourhoods of the future. The grid will likely become an enabler for local people to share a power community, all things going well. Perhaps even export their power if another grid needs it.

And traditional, centralised power? Delivering electricity from hundreds of kilometres away will have its place. For a time. In light of the adoption rates of storage, it cannot be otherwise.

However, in the wide brown land, with ample sunshine and inflated electricity pricing, it seems more likely that our independent streak will gradually wean us off big network power. As a primary feed, anyway.

Having a power station hundreds of kilometres away will seem ludicrous, when you can make your own right on your roof, or the guy down the street can do it for you.

The poles and wires of yesteryear will gradually be marginalised; a chorus line dancer grimacing out a smile, while the lead actors renewable energy and storage bow at the front of the stage.

Here in Australia, it probably won’t matter what is burning inside that power plant.

Coal is dying, while trying to take us all down with it.

Nuclear is the Delorean of our time – everyone knows its cool, and can do some great things. Its never going to appeal as a real option to more than its collection of fans, and with its inescapable history in Australia there for all to see, it won’t be able to get back to the future on current projections.

You don’t need to be a nuclear physicist to figure that out.

from https://www.sustainablefuturegroup.com.au/22/is-nuclear-power-glowing-or-just-green/ from https://sustainablfutg.tumblr.com/post/624511288876351488 from https://gracebolton.blogspot.com/2020/07/is-nuclear-power-glowing-or-just-green.html