Monday, December 12, 2022

China's demonstration HTR-PM reaches full power

09 December 2022

The demonstration High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor-Pebble-bed Module (HTR-PM) at the Shidaowan site in Shandong province of China has reached its initial full power with "stable operation under the mode of 'two reactors with one machine'".

The site is on the coast in north east China (Image: CNNC)

The plant features two small reactors that drive a single 210 MWe turbine. It is owned by a consortium led by China Huaneng (47.5%), with China National Nuclear Corporation subsidiary China Nuclear Engineering Corporation (32.5%) and Tsinghua University's Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (20%), which is the research and development leader.

They reported that it had reached "initial full power" on 9 December and "this operating state has verified that all systems of the demonstration project meet the design functions, laying the foundation for the project to be put into operation".

The Huaneng Shidaowan High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Demonstration Project is the world's first pebble bed modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, and having achieved the initial full-power operation of the dual reactors and "tested the operation control capability" of it in "two reactors with one machine" mode, the operators describe it as "laying the foundation for future commercial operation".

The first reactor reached first criticality in September 2021 and the second one that November. The connection of the first of the unit's twin reactors took place in December 2021.

The HTR-PM features two small reactors (each of 250 MWt) that drive a single 210 MWe steam turbine. It uses helium as coolant and graphite moderator. Each reactor is loaded with more than 245,000 spherical fuel elements (‘pebbles’), each 60 mm in diameter and containing 7 g of fuel enriched to 8.5%. Each pebble has an outer layer of graphite and contains some 12,000 four-layer ceramic-coated fuel particles dispersed in a matrix of graphite powder. The fuel has high inherent safety characteristics, and has been shown to remain intact and to continue to contain radioactivity at temperatures up to 1620°C - far higher than the temperatures that would be encountered even in extreme accident situations, according to the China Nuclear Energy Association.

In an interview earlier this year for World Nuclear Association's World Nuclear Performance Report 2022, Lu Hua Quan, chairman of the Nuclear Research Institute, Huaneng Company, explained: "HTRs have the highest operating temperatures of all existing reactor types, and are also the only reactors that can provide very high-temperature process heat. In the near future, HTRs could be used as a new generation of advanced reactors and a supplement to China's nuclear power, for small and medium-sized modular nuclear power generating units."

He said that there was export potential, including to countries and regions where freshwater resources are scarce and for countries where the power grids are not suitable for nuclear plants of more than 1000 MWe. He added that "HTRs could in the future provide a source of high-quality high-temperature process heat for various industries, in particular those that are required to limit their carbon emissions".

The HTR-PM follows on from China's HTR-10, a 10 MWt high-temperature gas-cooled experimental reactor at Tsinghua University's Institute of Nuclear & New Energy Technology, which started up in 2000 and reached full power in 2003. Beyond the HTR-PM, China proposes a scaled-up version - HTR-PM600 - with one turbine rated at 650 MWe driven by six reactor modules.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Tunisians protest against Saied ahead of parliamentary elections

Opponents say a vote on December 17 under the country’s new constitution is illegitimate and are calling for a boycott.

Supporters of Tunisian opposition groups protest against the upcoming parliamentary election in Tunis

Hundreds of Tunisians have taken to the streets to protest against President Kais Saied a week before parliamentary elections are set to take place under a new constitution.

“Saied get out!” protesters chanted as they marched in the centre of the capital, Tunis, on Saturday.end of list

Speakers at the protest, including senior politicians from opposition parties, said the vote scheduled for December 17 was illegitimate and urged a boycott, accusing Saied of carrying out an undemocratic coup.

“All the opposition is agreed on one position which is rejecting a coup and calling for a return to democracy,” Samira Chaouachi, a deputy speaker in the elected parliament that Saied dissolved, said.

The president shut down the previous parliament in March 2021 and ruled by decree before rewriting the constitution to accrue more powers.

Only about a quarter of registered voters turned out to vote “yes” in July to a referendum on the new constitution, which gives the president the ultimate authority over the government and judiciary.

The International Commission of Jurists’ Regional Directo Said Benarbia warned that the new constitution “defeats the very idea of separation of powers and checks and balances”.

He said that the “proposed constitution provides for an unbridled presidential system, with an omnipotent president, a powerless parliament and a toothless judiciary”

Saied claimed his actions were legal and necessary in order to save Tunisia from years of crisis and has repeatedly said he will not become a dictator.

The National Salvation Front, a body representing the main parties in Tunisia’s opposition, including Ennahdha, has been urging supporters to boycott the vote.

“The elections will be held under the supervision of a body that is not neutral and is loyal to the ruling authority,” Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, the head of the alliance, said as he announced its stance in September.

Many Tunisians are far more focused on a growing economic crisis and threats to public finances that have caused salary delays and the risk of shortages of key subsidised goods.

Saied still retains support from Tunisians who see him as a bulwark against political elites they blame for the country’s poor economic conditions over the decade since a 2011 revolution overthrew former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Why the Laws of Physics Don't Actually Exist

(newscientist.com)171

Sunday December 11, 2022

Theoretical physicist Sankar Das Sarma wrote a thought-provoking essay for New Scientist magazine's Lost in Space-Time newsletter:I was recently reading an old article by string theorist Robbert Dijkgraaf in Quanta Magazine entitled "There are no laws of physics". You might think it a bit odd for a physicist to argue that there are no laws of physics but I agree with him. In fact, not only do I agree with him, I think that my field is all the better for it. And I hope to convince you of this too.

First things first. What we often call laws of physics are really just consistent mathematical theories that seem to match some parts of nature. This is as true for Newton's laws of motion as it is for Einstein's theories of relativity, Schrödinger's and Dirac's equations in quantum physics or even string theory. So these aren't really laws as such, but instead precise and consistent ways of describing the reality we see. This should be obvious from the fact that these laws are not static; they evolve as our empirical knowledge of the universe improves.

Here's the thing. Despite many scientists viewing their role as uncovering these ultimate laws, I just don't believe they exist.... I know from my 40 years of experience in working on real-life physical phenomena that the whole idea of an ultimate law based on an equation using just the building blocks and fundamental forces is unworkable and essentially a fantasy. We never know precisely which equation describes a particular laboratory situation. Instead, we always have to build models and approximations to describe each phenomenon even when we know that the equation controlling it is ultimately some form of the Schrödinger equation!
Even with quantum mechanics, space and time are variables that have to be "put in by hand," the article argues, "when space and time should come out naturally from any ultimate law of physics. This has remained perhaps the greatest mystery in fundamental physics with no solution in sight...."

"It is difficult to imagine that a thousand years from now physicists will still use quantum mechanics as the fundamental description of nature.... I see no particular reason that our description of how the physical universe seems to work should reach the pinnacle suddenly in the beginning of the 21st century and become stuck forever at quantum mechanics. That would be a truly depressing thought...!"

"Our understanding of the physical world must continue indefinitely, unimpeded by the search for ultimate laws. Laws of physics continuously evolve — they will never be ultimate."

PHYSICIST SAYS THE LAWS OF PHYSICS DON'T ACTUALLY EXIST

"LIKE PEELING AN INFINITE ONION, THE MORE WE PEEL, THE MORE THERE IS TO PEEL."

Galaxy Brain

The majority of physicists live under the assumption of a strict and immutable set of laws that govern the universe — but not all.

"What we often call laws of physics are really just consistent mathematical theories that seem to match some parts of nature," theoretical physicist Sankar Das Sarma writes in the beginning of a must-read new column in New Scientist column. These laws of physics are meant to describe our shared reality, even if they "evolve as our empirical knowledge of the universe improves."

"Here’s the thing," Sarma continues. "Despite many scientists viewing their role as uncovering these ultimate laws, I just don’t believe they exist."

Prior to Albert Einstein's groundbreaking — and ultimately unfinished — attempts to create a theory of everything, and all the leaps in fields like quantum mechanics that followed, the physicist argues, such an assertion wouldn't have seemed outlandish.

Indeed, Sarma says he finds it "amazing" that humans "can make sense of some aspects of the universe through the laws of physics" at all.

"As we discover more about nature, we can hone our descriptions of it, but it is never-ending," he writes. "Like peeling an infinite onion, the more we peel, the more there is to peel."

Multiverse Madness

Pointing to the concept of the multiverse, or an infinite number of universes, Sarma ponders how humans could have such hubris as to imagine that the apparent rules that seem to govern our reality would apply in every universe.

Raising a theoretical argument, Sarma adds that even in the face of a theory as substantial as quantum mechanics, which he describes as being "more like a set of rules that we use to express our laws rather than being an ultimate law itself," there remain too many mysteries and variables to ever consider this so-called fundamental theory sacrosanct.

"It is difficult to imagine that a thousand years from now physicists will still use quantum mechanics as the fundamental description of nature," he continues. "Something else should replace quantum mechanics by that time just as quantum mechanics itself replaced Newtonian mechanics."

What that replacement may be, Sarma declines to speculate. But he nevertheless sees "no particular reason that our description of how the physical universe seems to work should reach the pinnacle suddenly in the beginning of the 21st century and become stuck forever at quantum mechanics."

"That would," he adds, "be a truly depressing thought!"

Scientists Discover a New Ecosystem – “The Trapping Zone” – That Is Creating an Oasis of Life

By UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD DECEMBER 7, 2022

Nekton Omega Seamaster II Submersible. Credit: Nekton Maldives Mission (c) Nekton 2022

The new ecosystem is located in the depths of the Indian Ocean.

Researchers from the University of Oxford and the Nekton Maldives Mission have discovered evidence of an ecosystem known as “The Trapping Zone” that is creating an oasis of life 500 meters (1640 feet) under the surface of the Indian Ocean. The Maldives Government has hailed the finding as highly significant.

Video evidence from Nekton science cameras onboard the Omega Seamaster II submersible, together with biological samples gathered and extensive sonar mapping, show that predators such as sharks and other large fish feed on swarms of small organisms known as micro-nekton in this zone. These marine organisms can swim against the current and often migrate from the deep sea to the surface at night before returning to the depths in the morning (known as The Vertical Migration). However in this region, at 500 meters (1640 feet), the micro-nekton get trapped against the subsea landscape.

Nekton Maldives Mission. Credit: Nekton Maldives Mission (c) Nekton 2022

The Maldivian atolls’ volcanic subsea strata and fossilized carbonate reefs combine steep vertical cliffs and shelving terraces. The trapped animals are then targeted by large pelagic predators, including schools of tuna and sharks, along with well-known, large deep-water fish including the spiky oreo (named after the biscuit) and alfonsino. Tiger sharks, gill sharks, sand tiger sharks, dogfish, gulper sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks, silky sharks, and the very rare bramble shark were all documented by the mission.

Marine ecosystems are defined by both topography and ocean life. “This has all the hallmarks of a distinct new ecosystem,” explained Professor Alex Rogers (University of Oxford) who has spent over 30 hours underwater in the mission’s submersibles observing ‘The Trapping Zone’ during the expedition. “The Trapping Zone is creating an oasis of life in the Maldives and it is highly likely to exist in other oceanic islands and also on the slopes of continents.

Bramble Shark. Credit: Nekton Maldives Mission (c) Nekton 2022

Lucy Woodall, Associate Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Oxford and Principal Scientist at Nekton, said: “We’re particularly intrigued at this depth — why is this occurring? Is this something that’s specific at 500 meters, does this life go even deeper, what is this transition, what is there, and why? That’s our critical question we need to ask next. Why are we seeing the patterns that we have observed on this expedition? This will enable us to understand the deep ocean in much better terms.”

A video summary of the Nekton Maldives Mission’s discovery of the Trapping Zone. Credit: Nekton Maldives Mission (c) Nekton 2022

Whilst a trapping effect has been associated with biodiversity hotspots on subsea mountains or seamounts, it has not previously been linked to the different geomorphology and biological parameters of oceanic islands, like the Maldives

Nekton Omega Seamaster II Submersible Above Water

Nekton Omega Seamaster II Submersible. Credit: Nekton Maldives Mission (c) Nekton 2022

Analysis of the video and biological data is ongoing in the Maldives, Nekton’s UK headquarters in Oxford, and at partner laboratories. The discovery could have important implications for other oceanic islands and the slopes of continents, sustainable fisheries management, the burial and storage of carbon and, ultimately, climate change mitigation.

President of the Maldives H.E Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, said: ‘The discovery of ‘The Trapping Zone’ and the oasis of life in the depths surrounding the Maldives provides us with critical new knowledge that further supports our conservation commitments and sustainable ocean management, and almost certainly support fisheries and tourism.’

The Nekton Maldives Mission is coordinated and managed by Nekton, a not-for-profit research institute based at Begbroke Science Park in Oxford. The mission is a partnership between the Government of Maldives, Nekton, and the University of Oxford alongside a dozen organizations in the Maldives and an international alliance of technology, philanthropy, media, and scientific partners. The purpose is to conduct the first systematic survey of ocean life in the Maldives, from the surface to 1000 meters deep, to help inform conservation and sustainable development policies. Until the mission, almost nothing was known about what lay below 30 meters (100 feet) deep in this region.

Credit: Nekton Maldives Mission (c) Nekton 2022

Oliver Steeds, Chief Executive and Mission Director of Nekton said: ‘The Maldives Mission has been co-created and co-produced with our Maldivian colleagues to meet national priorities with all data and biological samples owned and vested with the Maldives. Nekton’s scientific leadership is anchored by our research team from the University of Oxford and it’s this scientific collaboration between the Maldives and Oxford that is at the heart of the mission’s success and long-term impact.’

The mission set sail on September 4 and was at sea for 34 days. Other discoveries from the mission so far include:

Ancient beach lines: Terracing and wave erosion at depths of 122m, 101m, 94m, 84m, and 55m revealed evidence of different beach lines from sea level rise over the last 20,000 years since the end of the last glacial maximum.
Coral Reefs: The mission systematically mapped, surveyed, and determined the location, health, and resilience of coral reefs in six major locations to inform the Maldives Government’s conservation and management policies. The reefs are essential to life in the Maldives and help reduce the impacts of sea level rise and the increasing frequency and intensity of storms caused by climate change.
A deep-sea refuge: At depths from 120 meters to 300 meters, the team systematically surveyed the Rariphotic Zone for the first time in the Maldives — home to corals, reefs, and organisms, some of which are highly likely to be species new to science.

Womb with a view: EctoLife baby farm eliminates pregnancy and labor

By Loz Blain

December 12, 2022

Push-button childbirth after an out-of-body pregnancy: it's going to be an option soon, says Hashem Al-Ghaili

Hashem Al-Ghaili

VIEW 7 IMAGES

The EctoLife Artificial Womb Facility envisages a controversial new way to be pregnant, with the baby growing in an idealized, but completely inhuman environment: transparent "growth pods" arranged by their hundreds in human baby farming operations.

To be clear from the outset: this is just a concept at this stage, the brainchild of Berlin-based "producer, filmmaker and science communicator" Hashem Al-Ghaili. There are no immediate plans to build an EctoLife facility, this is merely a piece of science fiction Al-Ghaili has extrapolated from the current state of fertility research.

It's designed to start a conversation and make an argument for a new model of parenthood that Al-Ghaili believes will be possible within years, and widespread within decades.

Al-Ghaili's argument goes something like this: pregnancy is not fun. It can be exhausting, painful, nauseating, intrusive, inconvenient and sometimes flat-out dangerous for a mother, and there are all kinds of ways it can be suboptimal for a baby. If you're pregnant and you smoke, or party, or stress too much, or catch certain diseases, or you simply don't play enough Mozart at your burgeoning belly, you might not be giving your child the best start you can.

The science isn't far off, says Al-Ghaili, from being able to replicate the ideal gestation conditions in a temperature-controlled, infection-free womb with a view. An artificial umbilical cord can provide oxygen and nutrition as the tot floats in artificial amniotic fluid, continually refreshed with precisely tailored hormones, antibodies and growth factors. Baby waste products can be removed, run through a bioreactor and enzymatically converted back into "a steady and sustainable supply of fresh nutrients." Yummo.

Little speakers can make sure the tyke is getting the best possible brain nutrition, too. We're talking all the classical music it can handle (which may be more than the parents can handle), as well as your own soothing voice piped in as well, to start building that invaluable bond.

Vital signs will constantly be monitored – as, rather forebodingly, will physical defects and genetic abnormalities. Real-time data on your little Tamagotchi will pop up through a phone app, along with a live HD fetus cam and the ability to scroll through time-lapse videos of your child's development from embryo to nine months...

...And potentially, beyond. Human babies are among the most helpless and underdeveloped in the animal kingdom. Why can't we pop out of the womb and take our wobbly first steps five minutes later, like a calf does? It's because our brains are too big for the human female hip gap; we're born undercooked, with soft, pliable skulls, several months behind other animals developmentally. But in an EctoLife EZ-Womb, there's no such biological limit. You could experiment with much longer gestational periods, the results might be terrific.

If this all sounds a little impersonal, cold and disconnected to you, Al-Ghaili has more technology to soothe your mind. Think you might miss the feeling of the baby kicking? Boom. A haptic suit can bring that sensation back for any parent that wants it, and only when they want it. Want to see the beginning of life from your kid's point of view? Whack on a VR headset and tune in to a 360-degree camera any time you like.

What's more, if you don't dig the idea of your precious bundle of joy being grown in a 400-pod baby lab, at a baby farm boasting 75 of those labs and pumping out 30,000 babies a year, you can have a battery-powered pod installed in your own home. Heck, keep it there post-birth to get some little brothers and sisters happening.

You might not have the same intensely human birthing suite experience as the billions of parents before you, but on the other hand, you'll arrive at your first day on the tough job of parenthood feeling physically fresh and well-rested, instead of having been gradually weighed down and latched onto by a parasitic organism that tends to leave rather a path of destruction upon its exit even in the best case scenario. Given the option, I'm sure some mums would choose to push a button and watch a little pod open up.

It'll start out, Al-Ghaili feels, as the only option for certain parents: those who can't conceive or bear kids naturally. But as it's refined and proven, it'll become an option for all prospective parents, linking in easily with the IVF, genetic screening, embryo selection, genetic potential modelling and genetic engineering we know is coming rapidly down the chute.

Once it's well-developed and available, it might start looking like a pretty attractive option for folk that like the idea of a baby but can't see why they should have to go through the ordeals of pregnancy and childbirth to get one. Heck, you might not even need a day off work, just hold hands with your significant other after a day at the office, head down to the baby farm and pop the lid on life as a parent. EctoLife will even hook you up with a free genetic test to make sure you're not heading home with the wrong kid.

That's the argument, in a nutshell, for growing your kids in an artificial nutshell. You can explore it in more detail in the extraordinary video below. I'm not gonna lie, I find this concept pretty twisted, inhuman and dystopian. But given the Matrix-reminiscent layout of the EctoLife facility and a certain Paul Verhoeven-esque quality in the narration, one gets the impression Al-Ghalil wants to provoke strong reactions.

And at the end of the day, if I search my heart, I've got two kids that I feel very connected with and close to, and I didn't have to go through pregnancy or labor; I left that bit to my wife. So I'm hardly in a position to criticize the idea. We'd be fascinated to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

EctoLife: The World’s First Artificial Womb Facility

Source: Hashem Al-Ghaili via Science and Stuff

Shulamith Firestone Wanted to Abolish Nature—We Should, Too

https://www.thenation.com › Article

Jul 14, 2021 — Shulamith Firestone Wanted to Abolish Nature—We Should, Too. Revisiting her brilliant, irritable, deeply flawed manifesto in the pandemic.

The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

https://teoriaevolutiva.files.wordpress.com › firest...

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In THE DIALECTIC OF SEX: THE CASE FOR FEMINIST. REVOLUTION, Shulamith Firestone cuts into the prejudice against women (and children)--amplified through the.

130 pages

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The Museum of Anthropology

Iconic Vancouver museum shutting down for most of 2023

You have a month to go visit before it's shut down for most of next year

Brendan Kergin
a day ago

The Museum of Anthropology is shutting down for most of 2023.

Museum of Vancouver

The University of British Columbia's (UBC) iconic Museum of Anthropology (MOA) is going to be relatively empty for much of 2023.

This is because it is shutting down on Jan. 15, 2023 for seismic upgrades.

"MOA will be closed until late 2023 to accelerate the completion of the seismic upgrades to the Great Hall and conduct other building improvements," states UBC.

Construction has been going on since 2021 but will expand early next year.

The renovations are being done in a way that will retain the look of famed Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson's design but will make it more resilient to earthquakes.

The museum is taking the opportunity to do additional upgrades as well, like lighting, landscaping, and other aesthetic and safety improvements.

This was not the original plan.

"The museum had hoped to continue to remain open throughout the Great Hall upgrades, but has since determined that a closure will expedite the timeline for visitors to return and enjoy the full museum experience without disruptions," states UBC.

While the museum will be closed to the general public, Indigenous communities will still have access to the collections. And while the physical space will be closed, the museum will still operate special virtual events.

Until mid-January, it will remain open.

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