Big fan of @FrameworkPuter and their repairable laptops. We have two of them, and I've convinced a few others to get one as well. But I'm having a pretty frustrating experience with mine now. On July 13, it stopped turning on. No lights, nothing! I did the normal debugging and opened a ticket. They walked me through more debugging and asked for lots of photos and videos. By July 22 had me remove my SSD and expansion cards and mail it in. They received it on the 24th, found that there was a RAM issue, and I got the repaired laptop yesterday, Aug 7th. But when I put my expansion cards and SSD back in and went to turn it on, it was still totally dead! Has anyone else had this problem? Maybe one of my expansion cards is killing the RAM?

Reactor discussions are most productive when informed by a clear understanding of the reactors involved. Therefore, I propose we begin using standardized Nuclear Reactor Consumer Labels to display key information. Nutrition facts on cereal boxes and the Broadband Label Order offer clear, standardized, and accurate information. Standardized Nuclear Reactor Consumer Labels would be a beneficial addition. Taxpayers, investors, and other stakeholders involved in reactor development programs should rightfully demand access to at least this fundamental information from prospective reactor vendors. This information, a general definition of the reactor, is not proprietary or subject to export controls.

A nuclear reactor on the moon!? Yes, this is a great idea, and totally doable! You need lots of power on the moon for people to live there full-time. They need heat, closed-cycle life support, and oxygen from oxides in the soil or ice. Here's a nuclear-powered lunar base 🧵

I like DC ok so far, but I do miss the Pacific Northwest

I did the math so you don't have to. Here are energy equivalents for one pellet of nuclear fuel in non-breeder reactors (e.g. our workhorse fleet) and in advanced breeder reactors (proven but not economical). So 1 pellet = 4.5 barrels of oil in a LWR or 79 barrels in a breeder.

In fast reactors, tritium is produced as a ternary fission product or from the control. Check out this crazy threshold (n,2α) reaction that kicks in at 1 MeV in Boron-10. At 4 MeV, it's the dominant reaction! And that's why you need tritium handling systems in your fast reactor.

Getting these 45 historical nuclear films from 1955-83 dug up and digitized has been one of the coolest and most rewarding things I've done with What is Nuclear. Thanks to you all for your interest and support in this project! There are only ~100 left to get.

For all you Anki users out there (free spaced repetition learning app), I made a deck for memorizing the US Nuclear Power Plants. Planning to expand it more later but its starting out with just the operational commercial units. ENJOY! (link in comments).

Serious question: why don't we have any startups working on Supercritical Water Reactors (SCWR)? They're officially Gen-IV and are basically BWRs that can reach 48% thermal efficiency.

Liquid metal fire testing at CANEL in Middletown, CT. This is the initial stage of a lithium liquid metal fire. Great shot!