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GM7HUD > FUEL 22.08.09 17:50l 38 Lines 1832 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : E65449GM7HUD
Read: GUEST
Subj: Re: Fuel Cell Buses
Path: DB0FHN<DB0FOR<DB0SIF<HB9EAS<DB0ZAV<HS1LMV<CX2SA<ZL2BAU<GB7PZT<GB7MAX<
GB7ESX
Sent: 090822/1315z 50322@GB7ESX.#31.GBR.EU $:E65449GM7HUD [Witham, Esx]NNA V3.1
VK2TV wrote:-
> but some Richard Cranium (Dick is short for Richard, head is
> another word for Cranium) engineer or politician decided they had to go.
> Full marks to Melbourne for keeping trams.
Trams are being reintroduced at great cost in Edinburgh.
Most of the UK trams were removed after WWII simply because the cost of
maintaining them, repair damage inflicted by German bombers and modernising
them was vastly greater than using diesel buses. Anyway, the popular press
was full of the nonsense that we'd all be travelling by nuclear powered
personal helicopter by the mid-70s so who would waste money on a cheap
trams.
Most political decisions are based on picking the minimal engineering input
needed to support the decision the politician wants to make!
A "for example": One of the earliest nuclear power stations in the UK was
Chappelcross. This consisted of 4 reactor cores that were modest in size
rather than bigger and thus more efficient reactor cores. Why? Well
electricty generation was a byproduct from Chappelcross. It's primnary role
was to produce plutonium for warheads. Having 4 cores meant you could run
more fuel cycles and thus run more extract cycles to get the pu-239.
Normally you'd run the fuel longer to burn it up more and generate more
electricity before you had to fig about refuelling. But you'd get more
pu-240 and np-237 which poison pu-239 for weapons. So by having small
reactors you could have a more production line environment for pu-239
extraction. Later on it became the UK's primary Tritium source which, of
course, is a primary requirement for thermonuclear warheads.
Chappelcross is no more. Long since into decommisioning. The problems being
nobody considered how to take the thing apart safely. Making pu-239 was the
only thing on the politicians minds.
73 de Andy GM7HUD
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