Because The United Kingdom?

[Argus]

Just on the subject of agriculture, Clarkson or not that whole sector is going for a Burton at some point, as its just not that viable. The micro terrain is such that field sizes are never going to be huge, so broad acre efficiency is low, and while it's bloody productive for what it is, there's no getting around being at the latitude of Northern Canada. So even before people and politics get involved, against global benchmarks the UK's agriculture is low productivity and low efficiency and always has been.

The fact they can get as close to viable as they do is bloody marvellous, proof people will find a way. But for the last 50 years UK farming has been pretty much a national lawncare service outsourced to the EU. Even if Westminster wanted to subsidise farming directly, out in the world trade space that comes with a high price, particularly for an agricultural importer like the UK. So the 'small' famers are fucked regardless. It might not be the church and aristocracy this time, but the land will conglomerate up into whatever the new minimum viable farm agribusiness is, and history will roll on over the top of another crop of yeoman famers. That Nu-Nu Labor is going to be a pack of pricks and rifle their pockets on the way out isn't very nice, but... its Government with their eye on a pot of dosh.   

[JWB]

British bill payers have spent an “absurd” £1bn to temporarily switch off wind turbines so far this year as the grid struggles to cope with their power. 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/britain-paying-wind-farms-record-1bn-to-switch-off/ar-AA1v7sxU?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=78be3f2c963146838d1347760660c74b&ei=55&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2mRpl4acdcIc1u40RRbXPVG6ukGlTKaBHkR8IV_CeoDUzlpjwifq7lQik_aem_5ZLI-R3F2z9l9Y8cgQeBHA

[Stuart Galbraith]

But, but, but, I was told green energy couldnt provide for the country's needs?

 

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

9 hours ago, Argus said:

Just on the subject of agriculture, Clarkson or not that whole sector is going for a Burton at some point, as its just not that viable. The micro terrain is such that field sizes are never going to be huge, so broad acre efficiency is low, and while it's bloody productive for what it is, there's no getting around being at the latitude of Northern Canada. So even before people and politics get involved, against global benchmarks the UK's agriculture is low productivity and low efficiency and always has been.

The fact they can get as close to viable as they do is bloody marvellous, proof people will find a way. But for the last 50 years UK farming has been pretty much a national lawncare service outsourced to the EU. Even if Westminster wanted to subsidise farming directly, out in the world trade space that comes with a high price, particularly for an agricultural importer like the UK. So the 'small' famers are fucked regardless. It might not be the church and aristocracy this time, but the land will conglomerate up into whatever the new minimum viable farm agribusiness is, and history will roll on over the top of another crop of yeoman famers. That Nu-Nu Labor is going to be a pack of pricks and rifle their pockets on the way out isn't very nice, but... its Government with their eye on a pot of dosh.   

I was watching Countryfile last sunday (Its on Iplayer if you are interested, you might be able to get it via VPN) and the Government disagrees that the inheritance tax is going to affect the vast majority of farmers, particularly those that are married. It would seem the farmers union is playing it as a game to help the Conservatives or Reform. Of course the problem is, most people in the UK dont really give a flying toss about the farmers, and we know that from how long tescos and the other supermarkets have been screwing them.

We will see in a few years whether there is any reality to this, or the farmers are just being exploited the same way the fishermen were over Brexit.

[urbanoid]

 

3 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

But, but, but, I was told green energy couldnt provide for the country's needs?

 

It can't, you were told the truth.

Edited December 3, 2024 by urbanoid

[Stuart Galbraith]

But they are dumping energy because they have too much... but energy is still costing too much for the householder.. so....

Oh dear, its all so confusing. Its almost as if someone is getting screwed. Again.

[urbanoid]

Sometimes there is too much, other times there's too little - or none, because the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine. You want to be green AND maintain an industrial, consumerist society where there's always enough energy to go around, build the NPPs. And hydro, obviously, in countries where it's possible.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Well, we are looking at small modular reactors, and they do sound pretty damn tempting. Though its only cheap in comparison to a full size reactor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_SMR

The intended fuel is uranium dioxide (UO₂).^[28] A modular forced draft cooling tower will be used.^[26] The design targets a 500 day construction time, on a 10 acres (4 ha) site.^[28][29] Overall build time is expected to be four years, two years for site preparation and two years for construction and commissioning.^[30]

The target cost for a 470 MWe Rolls-Royce SMR unit is £1.8 billion for the fifth unit built,^[31] or around £3.8 million per MWe. As a comparison the estimated cost for the full-size 3.3 GWe Sizewell C nuclear power station is £22 billion,^[9] or around £6.7 million per MWe.

[urbanoid]

Yep, that's cheap.

Also it looks like your eggheads came up with something interesting:

Quote

Nuclear SMR welding breakthrough: A year's work now takes a day

Small Modular Reactor (SMR) construction shifts into high gear, as UK company Sheffield Forgemasters welds a full-size nuclear reactor vessel in under 24 hours instead of the usual 12 months. The rollout of this game-changing tech could be massive.

Modular reactors have the potential to revolutionize the nuclear power industry by turning nuclear generating plants from major civil engineering projects to factory-produced commodities. Instead of being essentially one-offs, modular reactors have a standardized design, can be mass produced, installed in any number required to serve local needs, and don't require the incredibly expensive buildings conventional reactors depend upon.

The problem is that there are bottlenecks in how to build reactors of any size. One is welding the vessels used to contain the reactor core, isolating it from the outer environment. Using conventional techniques, this can take over a year, but Sheffield Forgemasters have reduced this to under a day using what is called Local Electron-Beam Welding (LEBW) to complete four thick, nuclear-grade welds.

LEBW is a revolutionary method to weld two pieces of metal together using a high-energy density fusion process centered on a high-powered electron gun operating in a local vacuum. This melts and fuses components to one another and allows for an efficiency of 95%, deep penetration, and a high depth-to-width ratio.

The upshot is that Sheffield Forgemasters was able to complete a vessel three meters (10 ft) in diameter with 200-mm (8-in) thick walls with what is claimed to be zero defects and at lower costs. In addition, the welding machine can handle innovative sloping-in and sloping-out techniques to start and finish the weld.

This demonstration, a world first, is a significant milestone for the British nuclear sector, which has been moribund for decades with advances only in reactors for nuclear submarines, a couple of showcase power plants, and nuclear fuel processing. Now, the UK government is looking toward a nuclear renaissance, with new plants planned – including 15 modular reactors to be constructed by Rolls-Royce.

"The implication of this technology within the nuclear industry is monumental, potentially taking high-cost welding processes out of the equation," said Michael Blackmore, Senior Development Engineer and Project lead. "Not only does this reduce the need for weld-inspections, because the weld-join replicates the parent material, but it could also dramatically speed up the roll-out of SMR reactors across the UK and beyond, that’s how disruptive the LEBW breakthrough is."

https://newatlas.com/energy/nuclear-reactor-weld-one-day/

[Stuart Galbraith]

Thanks, Id completely missed that. My father would have loved that, he was a welder and he loved new technical advances.

This might have implications for Aukus. Its certainly going to reduce the cost for the reactors on nuclear submarines.

[sunday]

20 minutes ago, urbanoid said:

Yep, that's cheap.

Also it looks like your eggheads came up with something interesting:

https://newatlas.com/energy/nuclear-reactor-weld-one-day/

Mighty interesting. Could have applications in submarine hull building even.

Edited December 3, 2024 by sunday

[JWB]

Scots face cuts to NHS services after years of SNP mismanagement, report warns as doctor's leader says the country's health service is in 'crisis' and care will get 'much worse'

https://x.com/MailOnline/status/1863925040942559738

 

[Murph]

You know the UK was a great place once, now, it has fallen to Islam, and the crazies.  The US was (and could still be) headed that way, but perhaps we might survive.  The UK, I don't think they can survive when you get arrested to speaking the truth, and the derka derkas are running lose murdering your citizens.  I think the Grand Old British Empire is long gone, and we are watching the death throes of the remnant.  It makes me really sad.  

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yes, its perfectly true. Daily I wake up to the smell of book burnings, and the screams of Jews being ritually tortured on the village green. What's worse, there is nothing on BBC other than the flagellation of women for wearing immodest clothing. Though thankfully it being winter now, and all of them in fur lined burqas, that's nowkept to a minimum. Still, roll on Mohamedmass!

[rmgill]

9 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

But they are dumping energy because they have too much... but energy is still costing too much for the householder.. so....

Oh dear, its all so confusing. Its almost as if someone is getting screwed. Again.

The grid can't store electricity. The wind generating capacity has to be turned on and turned of. Think of it like engines with no throttle (WWI Biplanes with just a switch for magnetos). The wind is the throttle. You can't control the wind. So if it's all full speed but over powering, you can't use it so they're off.  (to some degree you can throttle by changing blade incidence to get the correct wind turbine speed but that's within a certain range, outside the range you have to feather and turn off the windmill). 

This is why the green tech is so stupid becasue you don't have control over it at all. With Hydro, you can turn up and turn down portions of the system and it's designed to work with a given water flow. With steam plants of any sort, you can certainly throttle it up and down in two ways. One how much fuel you burn for the boiler AND how much steam you put to the turbines. 

And as to being screwed. Your greenies demanded this. Just lie back and think of England. 

Edited December 3, 2024 by rmgill

[Stuart Galbraith]

I wanted cheap energy. Unlike you luddites I'm not wedded to coal as a solution to my problems.

[rmgill]

Good, fast, cheap. Pick two. 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Nuclear power. Water and wind to fill in gaps.

[rmgill]

So, when was your latest nuke plant built? What about hydro dams? 

Personally, a life goal is to live in the mountains and build a mini micro scale hydro power system big enough for my house and maybe a few neighbors. 

 

[Murph]

2 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Yes, its perfectly true. Daily I wake up to the smell of book burnings, and the screams of Jews being ritually tortured on the village green. What's worse, there is nothing on BBC other than the flagellation of women for wearing immodest clothing. Though thankfully it being winter now, and all of them in fur lined burqas, that's nowkept to a minimum. Still, roll on Mohamedmass!

Just look at Londonistan, Manchesteristan, and the other stans in Jolly old England Stuart.  It really saddens me that the land of Churchill, Disraeli, Chaucer, Shakespeare, et al is being destroyed.  It actually bothers me a great deal, since I am very much an anglophile.  

[Stuart Galbraith]

9 hours ago, Murph said:

Just look at Londonistan, Manchesteristan, and the other stans in Jolly old England Stuart.  It really saddens me that the land of Churchill, Disraeli, Chaucer, Shakespeare, et al is being destroyed.  It actually bothers me a great deal, since I am very much an anglophile.  

It really saddens me that a man of  evident intelligence can be taken over by such misguided ideological crap, that he actually thinks any of this is true.

Tell me, when was the last time you went to Manchester Murph? Gloucester, Bath? Have you personally verified this takeover is occurring with your own eyes? I hear more Russian and Polish voices than I do Asian down my way.

When you say 'Anglophile' you really mean you are a fan of that country that ceased to be between 1948 and 1956. We are no longer an Empire. Yes, It would be fair to say our Empire followed us home, for good and for bad. But we are no longer a nation of 200 million, and our decline parallels its disappearance. We never recovered from it.

Here is a breakdown on the population. 75.98 of the country is British, bumped up to 83 percent white by the Europeans and presumably Canadians, New Zealanders and Australians, the British diaspora wherever they come from. Only 8.6 percent of the country is actually Asian, and nearly 1 percent of that is Chinese.

Yes, its not even 10 percent. So frankly before you start shoving what you assume to be facts down peoples throats, lamenting the apparent Asian takeover, why the hell dont you people fact check = first?

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

You actually have fewer Whites as a percentage of your population, by over 20 percent, than we do. Do you see us Brits wailing about the decline of the US because of the Asian and Black influx? No, now, why is that?

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

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

9 hours ago, rmgill said:

So, when was your latest nuke plant built? What about hydro dams? 

Personally, a life goal is to live in the mountains and build a mini micro scale hydro power system big enough for my house and maybe a few neighbors. 

 

The last hydroelectric plant was built back in the 1980's. But it was a truly amazing project, and I regret I didnt go to see it when I had the chance.

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

Hinkley C power station is underway, coming online in 2031, about 6 years late.

And you are right, its lamentable. Successive British Governments have put off building the damn things for a mixutre of environmental concerns (I notice the greens have gone very quiet about nuclear power these days), and the cost. Once can only hope that the Small Modular Reactors, if they ever arrive, will bridge the gap. I think they will, because they are the only evident quick solution to our energy cost problem, but then im an optimist. We build nuclear power plants for nuclear submarines all the time, doing a shore based version is a no brainer.

There was a guy in Northern England that bought an old water mill, restored the wheel, hooked up a generator, and now puts energy back into the national grid, as well as living energy bill free most of the time. Not everyone can do that of course, but its a fascinating prospect for those that can.

[JWB]

Reactor installed at UK's newest nuclear power station.

Reactor installed at UK's newest nuclear power station

[JWB]

British Army would be wiped out in 'six months to a year' if it was drawn into a large scale war, veterans minister warns as he calls for rebuild of country's reserve forces 

https://x.com/MailOnline/status/1864327321827614779

[Stuart Galbraith]

Should never have got rid of the Territorial Army.