Heating Your Greenhouse in Europe This Winter

[Bern]

I just checked the model forecasts for Tropical Depression 13 and almost all of the projected tracks are offshore of the continental US at this time. This is a welcome finding. Things could change over the next few days, so it is worth monitoring.

Here's the link with the forecast models for the storm's track.

https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/storminfo/

[Bern]

With hurricanes on the east coast of the US and earthquakes and possible tsunamis on the west coast of the US, I have to wonder how nuclear power plants came to be located so close to the shoreline. I can remember vividly the videos of the tsunami hitting the coast of Japan near the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011.

Turkey Point Nuclear Plant in located on the shores of Biscayne Bay in South Florida. It is a 1.6 gigawatt generating station. It is essentially located adjacent to Biscayne National Park and nearby to Everglades National Park. Without it, civilized life in Miami and south Florida would be impossible because of the subtropical climate. 

https://www.fpl.com/clean-energy/nuclear/turkey-point-plant.html

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Turkey+Point+Nuclear+Generating+Station/@25.4324723,-80.3126881,44336m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x88d9d97d20f0bb61:0x7bb701b44ddb8265!8m2!3d25.434475!4d-80.3310504!16zL20vMDV4NnMx?entry=ttu

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant is located on the Pacific Ocean in California.  It is a 2.24 gigawatt generating station. 

https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/how-the-system-works/diablo-canyon-power-plant/diablo-canyon-power-plant.page

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Diablo+Canyon+Power+Plant/@35.2116935,-120.8550374,2507m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x80ecf0fcd3faeb67:0xa0426b7cea05f00d!8m2!3d35.2116935!4d-120.8550374!16zL20vMDRyNTlk?entry=ttu

Obviously, the siting requirements were more lax at the time these plants were constructed.

[David Pilling]

It is quite common for nuclear plants in the UK to be located on the coast - I can't think of any that are not. UK is a small country, probably nowhere is more than 50 miles from the sea.

(checking, there is one power plant inland, Trawsfynydd (Wales), now decommissioned, it took its cooling water from a man-made lake, they put them near the sea for cooling water, furthest you can be from the sea in the UK, 75 miles)

I liked where they put the UK's "fast breeder" reactor, right on the top of Scotland as remote as possible, inspired confidence. At the moment nuclear power is popular (!), be interesting to see if it gets to the point where they need to resort to such techniques to produce more fuel.

[Bern]

At the moment nuclear power is popular (!)

And just a few sort years ago nuclear energy was a despised and dirty source of electricity.  Now it's being touted as clean energy.  I'm sure the nuclear utilities are breathing a collective sigh of relief that the carbon fixation has, at least for now, removed the spotlight from them and their radioactive waste byproducts.

[David Pilling]

UK has long and sorry history of nuclear power - world leaders at the start, Mrs. Thatcher fought an epic battle to get a single US design PWR plant built. After that they built none for 30 years. Considerable political protest against reprocessing and so on. Now they are building some new plants, French design backed by French and Chinese money - running years behind.

Somewhere there are people who have protested against nuclear power and are still against it - fair enough. But there are also those who were against it, are responsible for there now being little of it, and now complain about the situation.

In a field where consistency is required over 10's of years, or 1000's of years if you're talking about storing the waste, politicians whose views change every few years are in charge.

There is a gap between what the politicians would like to happen, what can happen, and what is actually going to happen - how they fudge matters we will see.

There was an old guy on the BBC news vox populi this week saying "well wind power is cheap" - it is starting to look like the "world leader in wind power" UK has bet everything on a technology that is not cheap. Energy prices doubled when the Ukraine war started and word now is that they will never be coming back down.

[Bern]

The latest on Hurricane Lee, a massive storm, is that it will impact New England and make landfall in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.  The track right now is straight up the Bay of Fundy, already famous for its tides. Fortunately, the storm will weaken before impact to land, but it will still cause a lot of damage. Landfall should be in the late afternoon this Saturday, local time.

Here's the current track from the US National Weather Service.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at3+shtml/090725.shtml?cone#contents

Here's the satellite gif from Tropical Tidbits.

https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/sat/satlooper.php?region=atl&product=truecolor

And here's the gif from Zoom Earth.

https://zoom.earth/maps/satellite/#view=35.04,-56.9,5z

[David Pilling]

the Bay of Fundy

Coyote
by Joni Mitchell

"He's too far from the Bay of Fundy
From appaloosas and eagles and tides
And the air conditioned cubicles
And the carbon ribbon rides
Are spelling it out so clear
Either he's going to have to stand and fight
Or take off out of here
I tried to run away myself
To run away and wrestle with my ego
And with this flame
You put here in this Eskimo
In this hitcher
In this prisoner
Of the fine white lines
Of the white lines on the free free way"

[Bern]

In a field where consistency is required over 10's of years, or 1000's of years if you're talking about storing the waste, politicians whose views change every few years are in charge.

Sad, but true.  The US tried to construct a high level radioactive waste disposal site in Nevada at Yucca Mountain for commercial and government spent fuel rods. It was contested from the get go, ran about a decade of development, then was shut down by not being funded in the 2011/2012 timeframe.

"This leaves the United States government (which disposes of its transuranic waste from nuclear weapons production 2,150 feet (660 m) below the surface at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico)^[7] and American nuclear power plants without any designated long-term storage for their high-level radioactive waste (spent fuel) stored on-site in steel and concrete casks (dry cask storage) at 76 reactor sites in 34 states."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository

No alternative storage site has been proposed to my knowledge.  It is a big safety and security concern that there is so much high level radioactive waste in temporary storage at reactor sites scattered around the country.  "Clean" nuclear energy in the form of new nuclear power plants cannot proceed until this issue is satisfactorily addressed. 

How about harnessing the tidal power at the Bay of Fundy to make electricity?

[David Pilling]

How about harnessing the tidal power at the Bay of Fundy to make electricity?

"The world's largest tidal range of 11.7 metres (38.4 feet) occurs in Bay of Fundy, Canada, a similar range is experienced at Ungava Bay also in Canada and the United Kingdom regularly experiences tidal ranges up to 15 metres (49 feet) between England and Wales in the Bristol Channel."

It is another mystery why the UK has never exploited its tidal power.

When I was a lad the "Morecambe Bay Barrage" was the thing, building a big dam across an estuary to provide a shorter road to the North, generate tidal power, reclaim land and be home to a couple of nuclear power stations. I wrote essays on how the nuclear warmed water could be used for fish farming.

Politicians are frightened of such schemes. Our old friend Boris Johnson decided to build a railway line from London to the North (there already is one, you say, knocked together 200 years ago). Ah but this is HS2, a 125 MPH railway that will take 30 years and cost many billions of pounds to complete. Every few years a report comes out and they shorten the line. By the time it is finished it will reach the outskirts of London.

Environmentalists who are busy tearing down sea defences dating back 100s of years would not permit any of the grand tidal power plans, or even small ones.

There was more belief in technology in the 1960s, ask Miss BOMARC.

[Arnold]

I've seen the Bay of Fundy.

Quite a sight when the tide is out and the wharfs are so high

[Bern]

Quite a sight when the tide is out and the wharfs are so high

The Bay of Fundy also experiences a tidal bore on incoming tides. Apparently, it is quite a sight to see.

"During a tidal bore, a standing wave of water occurs at the front of the incoming tide. This wave travels upstream at speeds that can reach 15km per hour and against the natural current in the Bay of Fundy."

https://www.ferries.ca/experience-the-bay-of-fundy/

You can even book an adventure with an outfitter who will take you on a rafting trip to ride the tidal bore there. It looks like great fun!

https://www.bayoffundy.com/about/tidal-bore/

https://raftingcanada.ca/river-rafting-adventures/about-the-tidal-bore/

[Bern]

There was more belief in technology in the 1960s, ask Miss BOMARC.

Here's the real story behind Miss BOMARC. It's worth a quick read and Fran (Miss BOMARC) turned out OK.

https://conelrad.blogspot.com/2011/01/meet-miss-bomarc.html

Nuclear tipped interceptor missiles, not so OK.

[David Pilling]

Interesting story about Miss BOMARC.

If they had any left in inventory they could send them to Ukraine. Probly they'd work against drones.

"British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles were the key element of a highly sophisticated Ukrainian air and sea attack this week that represented the most powerful strike against Crimea since the war began."

[Bern]

What a surprise. A predicted rainy day has now transformed into a tropical storm. Wind gusts Saturday night will be almost 40 mph. I'll be bringing my tall plants inside for the duration. I am right in the path of the center of the storm.  At least it is not a hurricane.

[Bern]

There's nothing like a tropical storm to focus the attention of gardeners in its path. Potential tropical cyclone #16 will bring high winds, heavy rain, coastal flooding, and inland flooding for a large swath of the mid-Atlantic states for the next day or so.  Here's what I'll be experiencing in Williamsburg, Virginia. It's time now to move some plants into the garage for safe keeping.