A Visit To Wendover Field

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The Wendover Base Operations Building with restored Control Tower. Today a sleepy airport, 80 years ago a very busy place

I have always enjoyed seeing places of historical importance, with their evidence of importance hidden in plain sight. Virginia City, Nevada is such a place. To most of the visitors, it is simply an old western town whose shops now sell ice cream and T Shirts.

For those who know the history, it’s where Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain. It’s a place that produced so much silver that it built San Francisco, and was the beginning of a few major corporations today.

The Wendover Airfield is another such place. My curiosity about it was built over some years. On a past cross country trip of some years ago, I stopped there and saw dozens of old wooden buildings whose condition reminded me of the Bodie State Historic Park, which is kept in “arrested decay”.  And there was a huge hanger just to the east of the main facility. It looked a bit different from a typical hanger, as it had offices or workshops all along the sides.

Hidden in plain sight.

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Worthwhile Reading

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Cable news…past and future

The Golden Age of Substack.   Basically, a revitalization of long-form blogging.

Earth Day as a formal religious holiday?   (It strikes me that this fits right in with energy secretary Granholm’s call for electrification of all military vehicles by 2030.   This is so disconnected from any military or technical rationale that it can only be religiously motivated)

Absence of maternal warmth in childhood has some serious long-term implications.

The Golden age of Aerospace:

Aerospace is one of the deepest branches of humanity’s technological tree. It is a telling fact that more countries have produced a nuclear bomb than mass-produced a jet engine. Recent history illustrates how hard it is to build these capabilities.  

China is recruiting former air force pilots from the West.   And see this post about Jeffrey Katzenberg (Dreamworks), Joe Biden, and China.   More here.

Black Powder.   Still militarily important, though as an initiator for more-powerful explosives rather than as a primary explosive in its own right.   The US was dependent on one.single.factory to manufacture this substance.   It blew up.

Fiction as simulation:

Much like the way a differential equation can summarize the properties of a pendulum, fictional literature abstracts, summarizes, and compresses complex human relations by selecting only the most relevant elements. This abstracted level of comprehension also enables one to see how these principles apply elsewhere and how they may be generalized…Like mathematics, narrative clarifies understandings of certain generalizable principles that underlie an important aspect of human experience, namely intended human action.

Nuclear News Update

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The big news, of course, is that Germany has now closed its remaining reactors.   You can see the changes in their energy production and consumption mix at Electricity Maps.   It would be an irrational decision in any case, and under current circumstances seems pretty close to insane.   The good news is that there seems to be a lot of strong negative reaction to the shutdown, coming not only from conservatives and people mainly concerned with the economy, but also from a lot of people who are strong environmentalists and believers in the essentiality of CO2 reductions for climate reasons.   (Here’s a pro-nuclear rally at the Brandenburg Gate in Germany)   It is also interesting that Forbes magazine, a publications which IMO has becomes substantially less impressive and useful in recent years, ran an article responding to the shutdown with the headline Germany Embraces Pseudoscience.

Around the world, there are a lot of very positive things happening with Nuclear.

One of the two new reactors in the   very-long running expansion of the   Vogtle power plant in Georgia, Unit 3,   is operational and connected to the grid. Unit 4 is scheduled to enter service around the turn of the year.   These reactors are Westinghouse AP1000s.

French Members of Parliament voted to eliminate the targeted limit of 50% of energy produced by nuclear, which was passed in 2015 in the name of being ‘green’.   Mark Nelson recalls a righteous rant from 2017 in protest about a plant shutdown that was required by this limit.

In Poland, there are a lot of nuclear projects on the table.   The US is lending the country $4 billion to partially fund the construction of up to 20 Small Modular Reactors, which are projected to be BWRX-300s from the GE-Hitachi joint venture.   However, it appears that the first plant in Poland to go operational will be a large plant based on Westinghouse AP1000s.

Here is a spreadsheet of the potential Polish nuclear projects, with the customers, reactor types, and estimated timing.

A major problem with nuclear, and a reason often given for taking a dismissive attitude toward this energy source, is the length of time require to build new plants.   An example of a nuclear project accomplished on a considerably better than typical schedule is the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the United Arab Emerates.   The link (twitter) describes the approach that was taken; there’s also a video interview with Mohammed Al Hammadi, CEO of Emirates Nuclear. Looks interesting–I watched the first 15 minutes so far–Al Hammadi is an EE and started out as an engineer doing power network design. The reactors in this plant are based on a Westinghouse design and fabricated and installed by a Korean company.

Attitudes are changing toward nuclear in Denmark.

A large nuclear plant in Egypt is being constructed by Russia, with 85% of the cost ($28 billion) paid for via a loan from that country.

4.2 GW of nuclear capacity under consideration in Bulgaria.

Nuclear plant construction costs by country, over time.   (at Twitter)

Attitudes toward nuclear in Germany, by age range. (also at Twitter)   Compare these numbers with those from the same poll, two years ago (in the comments)…attitudes have become more positive. Will the politicians listen?

A deal among GE-Hitachi Nuclear, the TVA, and the Polish company Synthos Green Energy, involving GEH’s small modular reactors.

NuScale Power, which is focused on Small Modular Reactors, has placed an order for long leadtime materials with Doosan Enerbility of Korea.   The initial modules are for a project of Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, targeted to be in commercial operation as early as 2029.

But also, some not-so-favorable news:   Taiwan is shutting down a nuclear reactor which is apparently in perfectly good shape.    Angelica (at Twitter) says:   “The 985MW BWR from GE has served Taiwan well for 40 years. But for politics, it could have served for 40 more. What a tragedy…but also, a farce.”   (I wonder what kind of message about Taiwan’s strength and seriousness this shutdown sends to the CCP…never mind, I already know)

This post isn’t by any means a comprehensive report, just a roundup of some recent news and analysis that caught my eye.   See also my previous Nuclear News, featuring the currrent Miss America, Grace Stanke.

A Weekend Energy Information Drop – Random Thoughts

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A friend of mine recently bought a Tesla and I asked him last week how he was enjoying his coal and natural gas powered vehicle, since those two fuels represent the majority of power generation in Wisconsin. It led to an interesting discussion, and one that I have been trying to have with many people, most of whom simply won’t listen, don’t care, or would rather just talk about something else. The source of electricity generation seems to get glossed over or lost in the haze to most.

I live in HVAC world, where we are right now in the middle of massive changes in efficiency and product selection due to new energy mandates (and some old ones now coming due). While these changes and the stampede toward electrification seem to make some sense (and are loved by voters, apparently) the cost of the equipment keep skyrocketing. The equipment is now larger so you get fewer units on a truck, and fewer in the warehouse, which also adds costs. No matter how hard you want to fight physics, it stays undefeated. To hit the new standards, you need more materials. Which brings me to mining.

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