I am running a bit late this morning. I was out way past my normal bedtime at the Lynchburg Engineers Week dinner. What an amazing gathering – more than 300 people on a weeknight in a relatively small town who are at least as fascinated as I am with the process of creating useful products and structures.
I learned about a lot of local capabilities and interesting projects that had been invisible to me up until last night. For example, who knew that Sweet Briar College had started an engineering program more than 5 years ago? Who knew that it was possible to obtain a graduate degree in engineering from five major Virginia universities through distance learning and local laboratory facilities at a place that is just 10 minutes away from my new abode?
Most surprisingly, who knew that Lynchburg, VA is the home of Edison2, a company that has succeeded in creating a very lightweight automobile that won the automotive X-prize by meeting all of the standards and obtaining a measured average EPA MPG rating of about 112 miles per gallon? Last night, the featured speaker was scheduled to be Ron Mathis, Chief of Design for Edison2. Unfortunately he had a conflict arise in his schedule. Fortunately, we were treated to an entertaining and informative talk given by Oliver Kuttner, the founder and CEO of the company.
Wow. I am energized by his story of how a small team of the best people he could find managed to accomplish a feat that has eluded teams backed by at least three major automobile companies with combined annual revenues of $400 billion.
The story of why Kuttner decided to locate in Lynchburg was enlightening – he told us that it was because the city still has residents that make things, that there are machine shops that can handle special requests and that there are people who know how to work with a wide variety of materials. That was music to the ears of those 300 plus engineers and engineering supporters. I think I landed in the right town.
PS – Of course, there was also a large contingent of engineers who are working on new nuclear energy systems – this is, after all, a technical hub for both B&W and Areva along with a number of smaller suppliers. Many of the attendees told me that Kuttner’s talk was the first in several years that was not focused on nuclear energy developments.
Kuttner was entertaining. It’s funny. While he was praising Lynchburg, he also subtly put down Charlottesville, where he happens to live.
Lynchburg has dramatically increased its technical/engineering learning opportunities in the last decade or so. In addition to the program offered at Sweet Briar, there is an engineering program at Lynchburg College that is partnered with Old Dominion University and the University of Virginia. On a more vocational level, AREVA and Central Virginia Community College have partnered to offer a work-study program where students can earn an Associate in Applied Science (AAS) in nuclear technologies in about three years. They earn a pretty good salary while doing it too.
Cars like E2’s could drastically change the way we fuel our transportation. If the efficiency of the vehicle is high enough, the price of fuel no longer becomes a significant part of the total life cycle cost (just like nuclear fission). This opens up the possibility of using waste heat form nuclear to synthesize fuel. Even if this method produces fuel at $5/gallon, the price wouldn’t be much of a factor because the interest on the car loan and auto insurance would probably be a more significant cost.
John,
how do you think is possible to produce liquid fuels using (only ?)” waste” heat from nuclear plants ? I see it very unlikely, if not actually impossible at all
Terrific