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  1. Rod,

    My short answer to your first question, you give this guy more credibility than he deserves just by talking to him.

    I’m torn though. Should I give him the benefit of the doubt, I would ask him to apply his skills as an analyst and speaker to a broader range of energy production/use and put reward/risk into prospective. You gently made that point at minute 58 or so.

    He tipped his hand early. I don’t know, it was two or three minutes in. He made a comment that transformers were susceptible to the solar storms at a particular nuclear plant. Are transformers at nuclear plants special? Are the physics and engineering he is quite an authority about special at nuclear power plants?

    Does water soak into his grits faster than in the rest of the entire grit-eating world?

    Longer answer to your question. Yes, and it is your prerogitive. It is your show, free and worth every penny and then some (thanks expressed in the best way I know how). Pick and choose. I bet your Mommycast episode was the best bang for your buck. Maybe that MTV guy is a close second.

    Seek those types out, not this guy who was making the point, something like, “nuclear is so dangerous that no matter how safe it has been made, we must make it safer, no matter how much that costs, until nuclear power is hobbled!”

  2. In regard to Rod’s question during the show about why transformers are protected against lightning but not Geomagnetically Induced Current (GIC) from solar storms, lightning arrestors are designed for high voltage, short rise time surges, but not long-duration quasi-DC currents. GIC can be up to 100 amps and last for hours or even days, unlike lightning. The voltage from GIC is much lower than from GIC. For more information, see these links:

    http://www.arresterworks.com/ArresterFacts_files/ArresterFacts%20011%20-%20The%20Lightning%20Surge%20and%20Arresters.pdf

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/25544812/Geomagnetic-Disturbances-and-Impacts-Upon-Power-System

  3. Rod,

    Thank you for the show. I enjoyed it very much.

    You should try to invite more outright opponent. I believe the fact it is your show will make a huge difference. Not only in a way you are free to pick a choose as Reese suggests, but also because you would not be limited by broadcasting or publishing constrains such as length of time you are allowed to speak or number of worlds etc. We, your listeners, would have an opportunity to see your opponents points to be challenged in the proper engineering way.

    Just one very minor point. Sometimes there is quite a lot of background nose from your microphone. I appreciate you are not in a proper studio, but for example going on mute when you don’t speak may help.

  4. With respect to the issue of reactors operating without a grid connection, many operating reactors have reactor pwoer cutback systems that allow for losing the turbine without a reactor trip (Palo Verde and Diablo Canyon are examples). More advanced versions (e.g., Shin Kori in Korea) allows the plant to drop to house loads on loss of offsite power.

  5. I was invited to a small seminar on Nuclear Preparedness where the speaker overblew this Fukushima and among other things said “The only thing possible with Fukushima is to blow it up with an atomic bomb when the winds are not blowing toward Tokyo and get it over with. Otherwise, Tokyo will have to relocate.”

    I haven’t yet listened to this episode in my daily commute, but will shortly. I just want to say that Rod & company’s podcasts are a breath of fresh air compared to what I hear among some of my nuttier acquaintenances. Thanks for your show. At one time, I was a fence sitter, but Rod and Kirk & Charle’s blogs helped convince me nuclearwas the right way to go, and Fukushima hasn’t changed my views.

  6. I would love to hear a debate between you and Arnie because the anti-nukes cite him more than anyone else and now that his claims about the spent fuel pools have been debunked it’s time for him to answer for his FUD.

  7. Yes, the transformers at nuclear plants are special. They are usually single phase instead of 3-phase, which means they saturate at levels of GIC several times lower. They may also be more likely to be located in positions of unfavorable geometry, such as at the end of longer E-W conduits, and near large bodies of water.

  8. With respect to the issue of reactors operating without a grid connection, many operating reactors have reactor pwoer cutback systems that allow for losing the turbine without a reactor trip (Palo Verde and Diablo Canyon are examples). More advanced versions (e.g., Shin Kori in Korea) allows the plant to drop to house loads on loss of offsite power. Oh well…

    Best regards,

    Julius

    Diablo 3 barbarian skills

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