leonidasrup

You don't buy Oracle because of RDBMS

https://programmerhumor.io/programming-memes/when-your-tech-...

Individual radiation exposures are calculated for different pathways (external radiation, internal radiation), different kinds of ionizing radiation (UV, X-ray, alpha, beta, gamma, neutron, cosmic rays - high energy protons or atomic nuclei), energy of the ionizing radiation, different weighting for different kinds of tissue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_dose_(radiation)

In the end you get the stochastic health risk to the whole body, which is the probability of cancer induction and genetic effects in Sieverts. 1 sievert (Sv) corresponds to a 5.5% chance of developing cancer.

In most cases you deal with mili Sievert amounts of dose, which correspond to very small increases in probability of cancer and they are hard to prove in medical studies because the base rate of cancer in humans is large and you have many factors that affect cancer rate: sex, weight, age, smoking, life style, environmental factors, food.

I read the article about higher incidence of cancer for the flight personnel of airlines, it would be interesting to compare it to risks of thermal spa workers. Or miners, there can be a lot of radon underground, especially with insufficient ventilation.

> All living beings have mechanisms for repairing damages caused by radiation to their nucleic acids, so the very low levels of ubiquitous natural radiation are not worrisome, except in certain locations where they are much higher than normal.

It is quite hard to say, how much radiation (natural, or man-made) is worrisome, because people have been living in locations with high level of background radiation for centuries, or even longer.

Ramsar (in Iran), Guarapari (in Brazil), Orissa and Kerala (in India) and Yangjiang (in China)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13504...

Alsa indoor radon levels in thermal spas, is quite high.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319898073_Indoor_ra...

Today, Europe is not even manufacturing solar cells for installations in Europe.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/d...

https://statranker.org/economy/top-10-countries-leading-sola...

https://www.sunsave.energy/solar-panels-advice/solar-energy/...

https://www.iea.org/reports/solar-pv-global-supply-chains

It really depends on luck, timing and inflation.

For example if you bought S&P 500 in Jul 1929, you got your investment back in 1955 (inflation adjusted). If you bought S&P 500 in Apr 2000, you got your investment back in 2014 (inflation adjusted).

https://www.multpl.com/inflation-adjusted-s-p-500

" Drax received record annual subsidies of £999 million in 2025. "

" Drax power station is likely to remain the UK’s largest emitter out to 2030. Although Drax generation is due to halve from 2027, Drax will continue to emit more CO2e than the second-largest emitter. "

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/uks-largest-emitter...

The giant battery storage array would probably come from batteries made in China, another big CO2 emitter.

Using Global Solar Atlas we can calculate the economics of Dama Solar project. 1.3GWp solar plant should in Arad, Romania produce on average 1654850 MWh each year.

Project costs $636.3m (€561m)

https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/rezolv-secures-636...

At the guaranteed price EUR 40.35 per MWh, the project should pay back in about 8.4 years.

" CfD beneficiaries will not receive CfD difference payments for any quantity of electricity delivered into the national energy system in any period in which the market value corresponding to that delivered quantity is negative. "

https://cms.law/en/rou/legal-updates/romania-enacts-cfd-supp...

https://energy-solutions.co/policy-intelligence/tax-credits-...

" The target quota for photovoltaics was slightly surpassed, with 1.49 GW approved. Conversely, only 1.26 GW was allocated in the wind project segment, against the available 2 GW. Average winning prices were EUR 40.35 per MWh and EUR 73.89 per MWh, respectively. "

https://balkangreenenergynews.com/romania-completes-second-r...

Currently, Germany should invest much more in battery storage as even after a day with peak solar production (May 28), Germany runs on gas and coal during night.

https://cleantechnica.com/2026/06/08/solar-records-getting-b...

https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/power/chart.htm?l=en&c...

Drax, largest biomass power station in the world, will stop burning trees from British Columbia entirely within the next year.

The company Drax Group said its Canadian wood pellet plant, may still continue to produce pellets in Canada, but these will be exported to third-party buyers, primarily in Asia.

https://www.businessenergydeals.co.uk/blog/drax-biomass-powe...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/26/drax-pow...

€561 million is been loaned to build the EU's largest solar park, Dama Solar, Romania.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/energy-developer-rez...

Of course, banks are not risking, that the future electricity price will be low during peak solar production and they don't get their money back:

"Dama Solar was also awarded two Contracts for Difference (CfDs) by the Romanian government last year. The grants are part of a low-carbon energy-support scheme paid for with EU funds, based on CfD, which set the power price at an agreed level for 15 years."

Wind energy, or any any energy, should not be subsidized. This is only hides the real costs from the customers, moves the energy costs to tax payers or government debt.

Maybe governments should support energy with cheap loans. This is not a subsidy, as loans have to be payed back.

> coal generation collapsed

Coal generation was taxed out by EU Emissions Trading System, physical costs of mining lignite in Germany and operating coal power plants are the same as 20 years ago. (and the health impacts are still very negative)

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/german-regulator-says-n...

> nuclear disappeared

Nuclear in Germany disappeared not for economic reasons, but for political reasons.

" Following a wide public debate, the Atomic Energy Act was amended accordingly on April 22, 2002. The aim was to phase out nuclear energy for the commercial generation of electricity in an orderly manner. To this end, each nuclear power plant was assigned a residual electricity volume such that the total output of the respective plant corresponded to an average 32-year lifetime. The construction of new nuclear power plants was banned altogether. "

https://www.base.bund.de/en/nuclear-safety/nuclear-phase-out...

The objective in Germany changes over time, in the 2000s it was removing nuclear power from electric grid, without much consideration for CO2 emissions. ( Construction of the last new coal power plant in Germany, Datteln 4, began in November 2007. Entered commercial operation on May 30, 2020)

https://www.powermag.com/germany-brings-last-new-coal-plant-...

Now in 2026, it's slowly removing fossil fuels from electric grid and the whole industry. I say slowly, because state subsidies are already allocated for construction of new gas power plants in Germany.

" Germany will initially hold two sets of auctions for new backup power plants with a combined capacity of 11 gigawatts (GW). Of these, the first tenders (8 September and at the end of December 2026), covering 9 GW, are aimed at so-called "long-term capacity", which is capable of supplying electricity continuously over an extended period, ensuring that even prolonged periods without sufficient renewable energy generation can be covered. It is likely that only gas-fired power plants will be successful in these auctions. Successful bidders receive remuneration for having electricity available once a facility is built, providing the financial incentive needed to invest in the first place. "

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/germany-passes-law-subs...

The Civaux 2 reactor was connected to the grid in 1999, marking the end of the main 20th-century deployment wave. Flamanville 3 (EPR) reactor in Normandy was connected to the grid on December 21, 2024, marking the first new nuclear reactor added to France's network in 25 years.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/462168/nuclear-reactors-...

France really decimated it's nuclear industry, it takes lot of money and time to restore back capabilities (heavy forging, nuclear grade quality construction) and train people.

Let's not forget that in 2015, French president Hollande promised to slash nuclear's contribution of power generation by 2025.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/renewables-up-nuclear-down-in-fren...

It was really only 2022 Russian invasion, that showed that slowly replacing nuclear power with imported gas was a bad strategy. (This error is still not acknowledged in Germany)

The article doesn't provide much details about installed solar, wind capacity, installed battery capacity, electricity produced each month, and so on. But this is data that Ukraine would not like to get public.

The biggest issue is only hinted in the article:

> ‘There’s just enough sun [in January/this winter thus far] to make it work,’ says Olena Kondratiuk

Solar+batteries work well in summer months, but for winter months, solar has much lower output. This is why Russia is attacking thermal plants especially in winter.

You use tactical nuclear weapons, as was planned by NATO in case of attack of Warsaw Pact tanks through Fulda Gap

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

In reality this escalates very fast into all out nuclear war. Which is why you don't see wars between two nuclear armed countries. There is no winner in a nuclear war.

Nazism had lot of supporters in the US in the 1930s, before WW II.

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

And even after WW II

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

Von Neumann family was affected also by the communist "red terror" in Hungary in 1919, and by the subsequent "white terror" of the militant anti-communist authoritarian government after 1919.

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

Einstein also cooperated, or competed, with another giant of mathematics, David Hilbert.

" By 1907, Einstein had framed the fundamentals of the theory of gravity, but then struggled for nearly 8 years to put the theory into its final form. By early summer 1915, Hilbert's interest in physics had focused on general relativity, and he invited Einstein to Göttingen to deliver a week of lectures on the subject. Einstein received an enthusiastic reception at Göttingen. Over the summer, Einstein learned that Hilbert was also working on the field equations and redoubled his own efforts. During November 1915, Einstein published several papers culminating in The Field Equations of Gravitation (see Einstein field equations). Nearly simultaneously, Hilbert published "The Foundations of Physics", an axiomatic derivation of the field equations (Einstein–Hilbert action). Hilbert fully credited Einstein as the originator of the theory and no public priority dispute concerning the field equations ever arose between the two men during their lives. "

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

There are many "steam" locomotives around in China and India, but you just don't see them.

Coal is burned and converted to electricity in coal power plants and the electricity is used to move the electric locomotives around.

Even with distribution losses, the thermal efficiency of coal power plant -> electric network -> electric train is much higher then the old steam locomotives (Only about 5% of the potential energy produced by a steam locomotive’s boiler is translated to the wheels in the form of actual driving power.)

The original argument was that renewables are alternative to nuclear:

> It's comparing nuclear to alternatives, one of which is natural gas. Others are renewables. One cannot make or justify a decision on nuclear without considering all the alternatives.

Renewables (solar, wind) alone are not alternative to nuclear, without energy storage. This additional energy storage can be: short term energy storage, long term energy storage, or fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are solar energy stored in ancient times.

China is currently building many new coal plants as an backup for solar and wind power plants.

Germany is building new gas power plants, in future possible running on H2.

https://themunicheye.com/germany-approves-new-gas-power-plan...

> This is a common misconception.

I should have clarified it more precisely:

Weather dependent renewables (wind, solar) without storage are not an alternative to nuclear.

Now we can discuss more precisely the kinds of storage: pumped hydro, battery storage, H2 storage, thermal energy storage, the costs and space and material needs of each kind of storage.

> https://model.energy/

This energy model is not 100% renewables, Combined cycle gas turbine with CO2 capture is also included in the mix.

"On August 20, 1942, a trace quantity of this element was isolated and measured for the first time. About 50 micrograms of plutonium-239 combined with uranium and fission products was produced and only about 1 microgram was isolated."

So small were the amounts of early produced plutonium, than new methods to study it had to be used.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ultramicrochemist...

Of course we have now military plutonium production reactors.

It makes quite sense to ask, how much did get Germany for the money it spend.

In term of decarbonization of electricity production and independence of imported fuel for electricity production, it got less then France for comparable amount of money.

But this is quite clear as the first and foremost goal of German Energiewende was denuclearization of German electricity production, not decarbonization of electricity production.

Hundreds of billions have already been spend on learning renewables in Germany.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321765366_How_expen...

Weather dependent renewables (wind, solar) are not an alternative to nuclear, even when they are perceived in this way by the public.

From point of view of an electrical grid operator only wind/solar+fossil are alternative to nuclear, if you want to maintain stable electric grid without blackout or rolling blackouts.

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

You can also synthesize plutonium in particle accelerators without a nuclear reactor, but only in very small quantities and very slowly.

" Plutonium (specifically, plutonium-238) was first produced, isolated, and then chemically identified between December 1940 and February 1941 by Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin McMillan, Emilio Segrè, Joseph W. Kennedy, and Arthur Wahl by deuteron bombardment of uranium in the 60-inch (150 cm) cyclotron at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium#Discovery

There are interesting designs for Subcritical reactors. A nuclear fission reactor operating without achieving criticality, but with additional neutrons from a particle accelerator.

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

Lithium-ion batteries have higher upfront cost then Lead-acid, but Lithium-ion batteries have longer service life.

https://www.whalebattery.com/blog-detail/lead-acid-vs-lithiu...

Cost per kWh per year:

lead-acid batteries: $100 per kWh per year

LFP batteries: $50 per kWh per year

https://www.justplugsolar.com/blog/lithium-vs-lead-acid-batt...

US is outsourcing recycling of Lead acids to Africa.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/11/18/world/africa/...

Even top Democrats supported natural gas fracking.

" President Barack Obama used his State of the Union speech to underscore the role of natural gas in transitioning to a lower-carbon nation, the White House indicated tonight.

According to a White House briefing document issued in conjunction with the speech, Obama’s agenda for natural gas includes a call for Congress to work with the administration to create new “Sustainable Shale Gas Growth Zones” to help “regions come together to make sure shale gas is developed in a safe, responsible way that helps build diverse and resilient regional economies that can withstand boom-and-bust cycles and can be leaders in building and deploying clean energy technologies.”

"

https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-now/2014/01/obama-to...

Also software like SQLite:

" SQLite is built using a DO-178B-inspired process. The testing standards for SQLite are among the highest for commercial software.

SQLite is open-source but it is not open-contribution. All the code in SQLite is written by a small team of experts. The project does not accept "pull requests" or patches from anonymous passers-by on the internet. "

https://sqlite.org/hirely.html

https://sqlite.org/testing.html