Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Posts

  • Going Nuclear , again

    Turns out Manitoba is getting back is the nuclear game with a new reactor at the Pinawa site. I like it!

    In the March 1, 2023 issue of the Winnipeg Free Press there is an article titled No such thing as ‘absolutely safe’ nuclear reactor by Dave Taylor. Dave is clearly not a fan of nuclear.

    I’ve had a renewed interest in nuclear reactors since I listened to the Joe Lonsdale: American Optimist podcast Episode The New Age of Nuclear: Oklo’s Amazing Small Reactor That Reuses Nuclear Waste

    If you are of a certain age you’ll remember the “Not you fathers Oldsmobile” advertising, well the the nuclear reactor proposed for Pinawa, a Small Modular reactor (SMR), is “Not your father’s nuclear reactor”.

    It appears that Manitoba is going with StarCore Nuclear for the Pinawa Demonstration site. I found the StarCore web site very marketing heavy, a bit like a bad sales job. Personally, I think the technology from Oklo is far better and I especially like their plans to reuse existing nuclear waste. Their web site is extremely minimalist and you have to do a bit of digging to find out more about them.

    The Oklo Aurora SMR is a very exciting development! I’d put this in my neighbourhood.

    Artist’s rendition of the Oklo Aurora SMR

    Unfortunately, nuclear has a lots of stigma attached to it thanks to Three Mile Island, Fukushima & Chernobyl. Of course, nothing is absolutely safe. Cars are not safe, lots of people die every year in car fatalities and yet we still drive. Fatalities related to nuclear incidents are infinitesimal when compared to car deaths, but we’re in-sensitized to car deaths and just accept the risks. Nuclear accidents are sensationalized to the max. Movies are made about the accidents and fear is pushed (sold?) to the general public.

    Oklo is facing that fear and over regulation with the NRC rejecting their application to build and operate a 1.5-megawatt fast reactor in Idaho. Thankfully, they are not deterred and have re-applied. Oklo Relaunches NRC Licensing Process for Nuclear Microreactor

    We, the planet, needs to reduce the use and reliance on fossil fuels. The urgency of how fast this needs to happen, if at all, is quite controversial. However, to me it seems that solar and wind, while getting al the attention, won’t do the job soon enough. Bringing solar & wind technologies to the scale to impact the use of fossil fuels is much farther away than the use of nuclear. Countries around the world, like Germany, that were shutting down their nuclear efforts are quietly extending they nuclear programs in country to get their quicker and reduce their dependency on fossil fuels from other countries, like Russia, that are becoming increasingly expensive and unreliable. France on the other hand never backed away from nuclear and gets 70% of it’s energy from nuclear and is building 6 new reactors and considering 8 more.

    Until solar, wind and fusion can do the job at scale, nuclear energy is the way to go if we want to meet all these aggressive climate change goals by reducing or eliminating fossil fuel usage

  • Wired

    Right on time the electricians arrived just before 8:30am to start on the electric wiring repair where service enters the house.

    We’re about to find out how well we can cope with a short (hopefully) power outage as they replace a section of the wire between the meter and the mast.

    8:44 – power is off

    After about 30 minutes the electricians are done. Now we’re waiting for the city inspector.

    90 minutes later and the inspection arrives. After 5 minutes the inspection is done and passed. Now we’re waiting for Hydro to do the reconnect. It’s 12 noon

    So at 2:20pm there is still no hydro guy. I call and after a couple of transfers and a call back, “he will be there in 30 minutes “. House is cooling a bit but here on the sofa under a sunny window it’s pretty nice.

    3:12 and hydro is here and 3:45 the power is back!

    New wires connected to the mains

    Made a few changes around the house during our outage. We still have a land line but all of the handsets are wireless and depend on power to the base station. All except the old school phone in the basement shop. This is not super convenient. I thought the bedroom corded phone would be ok but nope, it’s plugged into the wall too! So, I replaced it with the old phone from the lake, where there is no more land line.

    The main bathroom doesn’t have any windows so it’s a little dark. I just happened to have purchased some battery operated cabinet lights, also handy in a power outage.

    Cabinet lighting

  • Peace in the storm

  • Gratitude

    An opportunity to receive more.

    Shape Of Your Heart: Discover The Building Blocks Of Great Relationships: Day 2 • Devotional

    As the one leper came back to thank Jesus for what He’d done, Jesus told him that his faith had made him “well.” The word “well” translated here is the Greek word “sozo.” It’s a different word used than the word translated “cleansed” in verse 17. Sozo means, saved, forgiven and whole. That means the one who came back to express gratitude received something none of the others did. All ten were healed, but only one was made whole. The truth is, showing gratitude isn’t an obligation, it’s an opportunity. It’s not about what it does for the other person, it’s what it does in your own heart and how it changes you.

  • 3 phrases, 3 words

    I am sorry. I love you. Please forgive me.

    Three little phrases. Three little words. So much power.

  • Out of Control

    So much of the anxiety arises from the parts of ourselves that want to plan and control and know the outcome of things. Of course, none of us knows these things, and life is largely out of our control.

    breath prayer – Christine Valrters Paintner

  • Love of my life

  • All things are possible.

  • Electrifying

    I heard a noise in the night. It was a windy night and our hydro wires are right outside the bedroom window. They usually make some noise on a windy night, but this was different.

    The next day while getting something from the shed I looked at the hydro wires and saw what was causing the noise

    Broken insulator

    The insulator (middle left) had broken which released the strain cable from the under eves bracket (top centre). Now the power wires are taking the load of the line to the pole. This didn’t seem too good so I called hydro thinking they would come out a fix it.

    Well, they came out, had a look and then informed me about this!

    Cracks in the wiring insulation

    Both the red power wires have cracks in the insulation right around the wire. It’s original wire, about 58 year old. The hydro guys said they could re-attach the cable to the bracket but there would be about a 50% chance the wire would break and/or a lot of insulation would come off. In either case they would turn off the power to the house. In fact they were only OK with leaving the power on in it’s current condition if we called an electrician today and had it repaired ASAP. Turns out the wire from the meter to the top of the mast where it connects to the hydro line is the home owners responsibility.

    Other Hydro guy good news was that our mast in not up to the current code which requires the conduit to go through the roof to a mast head above the roof as opposed to a bracket on the eves. However, we might be “grandfathered”. If we need to come up to code he estimated $3,000+, yikes!

    So I check around for a recommendation on an electrician and make the call. He seems quite good and ready to do the work. I send my contact info an some pictures and he offers to stop over tonight and have a look.

    In response to one of the pictures he says the soffit will need to come off. I ask Scott to stop by that evening and he removes the soffit for me.

    Soffit off

    While he’s here the electrician arrives and checks out the wiring. He’s already checked with the City of Winnipeg electrical inspector and I’ll be allowed to just replace the wire from the meter to the mast head, the way less expensive option. With permits and coordination the repair should get done in about a week. Hopefully, before the wires break which would be a whole new scheduling problem.

  • God is my help

    God, I am so grateful I can look to You in times of trouble. Thank You for being my constant help during challenging times. When I don’t know what to do, I ask You to guide me and fill me with Your peace and wisdom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.