OT: Engineering

[CajunNation]

I heard something today that was very interesting regarding energy production.

ESG credit scores are these BS tools socialists use to force investments in "woke" ideas. One of these ideas is ending fossil fuel use. The EU countries have been using this BS.

Well, the Russia/Ukraine war has opened some eyes and some minds. Several EU counties have "woke" up and realized they are in deep doodoo in regards to energy. They are now discussing making Natural Gas and Nuclear power labeled as "Green" to fit their ESG credit scores. You know, so people won't die by the tens of thousands this winter.

I have a funny feeling that this trend will reach us one day. My question is why aren't we looking into Nuclear Engineering at UL? This is going to be HUGE for those willing to invest now.

[STLMOCAJUN]

I’ll give my perspective as someone who is in the nuclear industry. I work at River Bend Nuclear Station in St. Francisville. I have a mechanical engineering degree from UL. Most engineers at the plant, about 100 of them, very few are of them have degrees in nuclear engineering. We have one group of about 6 that focuses on the reactor physics and they tend to have nuclear degrees. The rest of the department is mechanical, civil, and electrical engineers. I think the real push should to be to educate the state on the benefits of nuclear. There are many people I talk to in Baton Rouge that have no clue there is a nuclear plant 45 minutes north of them or another one an hour and half south of them outside New Orleans. It’s a high paying industry that’s very stable in the state of Louisiana. We should be helping UL grads find jobs in the industry throughout the country

[moorecajun]

I’ll give my perspective as someone who is in the nuclear industry. I work at River Bend Nuclear Station in St. Francisville. I have a mechanical engineering degree from UL. Most engineers at the plant, about 100 of them, very few are of them have degrees in nuclear engineering. We have one group of about 6 that focuses on the reactor physics and they tend to have nuclear degrees. The rest of the department is mechanical, civil, and electrical engineers. I think the real push should to be to educate the state on the benefits of nuclear. There are many people I talk to in Baton Rouge that have no clue there is a nuclear plant 45 minutes north of them or another one an hour and half south of them outside New Orleans. It’s a high paying industry that’s very stable in the state of Louisiana. We should be helping UL grads find jobs in the industry throughout the country

Thanks for the info.

I would love it if you started a little info session on here, enlightening us to the pros and cons of nuclear energy. I have a degree in civil and know hardly anything about this option.

[Cajunrunner]

Thanks for the info.

I would love it if you started a little info session on here, enlightening us to the pros and cons of nuclear energy. I have a degree in civil and know hardly anything about this option.

This would be awesome. I was thinking along the same lines as STLM when I read CN's question, though I'm not an engineer and certainly not in the nuclear energy industry, so better to be thought of as a fool than open ones mouth.and all that.

STLM, I would assume Chemical Engineers would be good candidates for such a discipline to, right?

I'd love to have a open thread discussion on energy overall here, especially as it's becoming more and more important in a growing and continually advancing world, but have a bad feeling someone would eventually feel a need to sideline it.

[HelmutVII]

This would be awesome. I was thinking along the same lines as STLM when I read CN's question, though I'm not an engineer and certainly not in the nuclear energy industry, so better to be thought of as a fool than open ones mouth.and all that.

STLM, I would assume Chemical Engineers would be good candidates for such a discipline to, right?

I'd love to have a open thread discussion on energy overall here, especially as it's becoming more and more important in a growing and continually advancing world, but have a bad feeling someone would eventually feel a need to sideline it.

I think Mechanical Engineers with a heavy emphasis on Physics would fit well in the nuclear industry.

Nuclear and Natural Gas are the most eco friendly energy production options but they don't fit the narrative of those pushing the "green new deal" agenda so they are not mentioned or encouraged. As stated above, Europe is in a pickle and they may be realizing the error a bit too late to not inflict severe harm to their economy. We shall see.

[Cajunrunner]

I think Mechanical Engineers with a heavy emphasis on Physics would fit well in the nuclear industry.

Nuclear and Natural Gas are the most eco friendly energy production options but they don't fit the narrative of those pushing the "green new deal" agenda so they are not mentioned or encouraged. As stated above, Europe is in a pickle and they may be realizing the error a bit too late to not inflict severe harm to their economy. We shall see.

They absolutely are. Just read this piece today:

As the world lurches steadily into what seems destined to become a catastrophic energy crisis, it is important for everyone to understand that this crisis is one that is 100% caused by government policy decisions.

There is no true shortage of oil resources across the globe; no true shortage of natural gas; no true shortage of coal, for goodness sake, and certainly no shortage whatsoever of the uranium required to power nuclear plants. What there is and has been for 25-30 years now is a disastrous shortage of understanding and vision among the world’s political class about energy reality.

That critical shortage of understanding and vision has led to the adoption of energy policies that have been based on pretty much nothing but wishful thinking. As I wrote in a recent piece at Forbes.com, the global political class wishes that renewables can replace oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power, and has gone about implementing policies designed to make their wishes come true, like a bad Disney movie.

All over the world today, governments are being hit with the folly of their renewable-subsidizing policies.

https://blackmon.substack.com/p/the-.g-a-government

A smart energy policy with our growing needs both domestically and internationally would be an all of the above approach. All hands on deck. Instead, winners and losers are being picked, and our currently most reliable and efficient sources are being targeted as evil.

[Fais do-do]

Never ask for hafnium free zirconium unless you want to be visited by friendly federal agents…

[HelmutVII]

They absolutely are. Just read this piece today:



https://blackmon.substack.com/p/the-.g-a-government

A smart energy policy with our growing needs both domestically and internationally would be an all of the above approach. All hands on deck. Instead, winners and losers are being picked, and our currently most reliable and efficient sources are being targeted as evil.

Oh absolutely correct on all counts. We have energy policy being made by people that have ABSOLUTELY NO CONCEPT OF THERMODYNAMICS AND PHYSICS.NONE.

I don't think they understand that a battery is an energy STORAGE system not an energy producer. The average weight of a battery on an EV is 1000 pounds. It takes 500,000 pounds of material mined from the earth to make that ONE 1000 pound battery. Tell me that is sustainable. (source the Manhattan institute) Not only that, all the easy deposits of Nickle, Cobalt, Lithium, Manganese, copper and all the other things that go into a battery have been found. More mines will have to be developed and brought into line to meet the demand. Guess whatthe same people that don't want to permit oil wells are the same people that won't permit the mines for the above mentioned resources. They just don't get it and I fear a very rude awakening (second wokeness) coming very soon.

[Atown cajun]

Oh absolutely correct on all counts. We have energy policy being made by people that have ABSOLUTELY NO CONCEPT OF THERMODYNAMICS AND PHYSICS.NONE.

I don't think they understand that a battery is an energy STORAGE system not an energy producer. The average weight of a battery on an EV is 1000 pounds. It takes 500,000 pounds of material mined from the earth to make that ONE 1000 pound battery. Tell me that is sustainable. (source the Manhattan institute) Not only that, all the easy deposits of Nickle, Cobalt, Lithium, Manganese, copper and all the other things that go into a battery have been found. More mines will have to be developed and brought into line to meet the demand. Guess whatthe same people that don't want to permit oil wells are the same people that won't permit the mines for the above mentioned resources. They just don't get it and I fear a very rude awakening (second wokeness) coming very soon.

Absolutely true. Natural gas hybrids are the answer to people on both sides of the aisle.

[ZoomZoom]

Having driven a post production CNG hybrid F-150, the two issues I had were 1) below 30 degrees, the CNG did not produce enough BTUs (per the "engineer"), stalling the truck at the most inopertune times. The other was driving around with a bomb right behind me.

I'm sure greater minds could figure out the performance issue. The safety aspect, is a design issue. The upside, I could drive 700+ miles without refuling.

[SlickRick]

I think Mechanical Engineers with a heavy emphasis on Physics would fit well in the nuclear industry.

Nuclear and Natural Gas are the most eco friendly energy production options but they don't fit the narrative of those pushing the "green new deal" agenda so they are not mentioned or encouraged. As stated above, Europe is in a pickle and they may be realizing the error a bit too late to not inflict severe harm to their economy. We shall see.

The mean tweeting orange man warned them.

[CajunVic]

Having driven a post production CNG hybrid F-150, the two issues I had were 1) below 30 degrees, the CNG did not produce enough BTUs (per the "engineer"), stalling the truck at the most inopertune times. The other was driving around with a bomb right behind me.

I'm sure greater minds could figure out the performance issue. The safety aspect, is a design issue. The upside, I could drive 700+ miles without refuling.

I’m driving a diesel GMC AT4 and getting about 600 miles without refueling

[STLMOCAJUN]

I think the major thing going for nuclear in the US right now is basically zero carbon emissions. That is a huge thing right now for investors so companies like Entergy who runs the nuclear plants in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana are pushing that to get huge capital investments. Also, nuclear plants provide large base loads for areas at capacity factors of over 90%. This lends to being able to not run natural gas/coal at 100% capacity which also goes back to the carbon emissions. And even though nuclear plants create waste, the waste for our plant which has been running for almost 40 years now sits on a concrete pad within our protected area. Perfectly safe and harmless to the environment. Also current plants are large job centers. My plant alone has almost 900 employees and every 2 years during our refuel outages we being in another 500-1000 contractors. This brings huge amount of business to the areas around the plant. Small modular reactors are the future of the business. Posted some wiki links of the different types of reactors.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_water_reactor

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pres._water_reactor

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_modular_reactor

[STLMOCAJUN]

And the biggest con of course is the potential for meltdowns. But one thing the industry does is make changes when there is an event. After Fukushima, all US plants were tasked by the NRC to look at potential accidents beyond their design bases. The industry answer was FLEX. Plants created new ways to provide water and most importantly power to the plants. Also created were two warehouses, located in Memphis and Phoenix, that contains vast amounts of equipment to mitigate accidents that can make it to any plant within 24 hours of a declared event.