Victor Beffers

[chris keefer @Dr_Keefer]

A lot of people think Im anti-microreactor. Untrue!

The CANDU reactor consists of hundreds of 5 MWt microreactors sharing a common moderator tank for a total output of 750-900 MWe.

While a standalone microreactor leaks neutrons from every surface requiring higher enrichment levels, requires its own bulky individual shielding and needs to be refuelled and operated individually the CANDU places hundreds of microreactors together inside of a single 7 by 6 meter cylindrical calandria vessel.

The result?

They share a common neutron population, radiation shielding, fuelling system, and spent fuel bay dramatically reducing costs and simplifying logistics and operations.

With this week's Nuclear Energy Strategy for Canada announcement by minister @timhodgsonmt which mentions "CANDU" 42 times there's no better moment for a deep dive of the CANDU reactor technology.

This week I was joined by Candu Energy Inc. Chief Nuclear Engineer Navid Badie, P.Eng. for that technical but highly accessible analysis.

My big takeaway: Natural Uranium is the design choice that explains the unique anatomy of this reactor.

For the full subst@ck essay which is the companion to the YouTube interview please click on the link below.

My goal is to get the entire 150K strong North American nuclear industry subscribed to that subst@ck. If you have not yet done so please do and while you're at it tell a friend.

[Prof. Steve Keen @ProfSteveKeen]

@kolasi78083 @CreativeDeduct @brew56200 @grok And I KNOW you have no idea what double-entry bookkeeping is. I designed Ravel, the only software package which implements double entry bookkeeping at the national level. It shows that all Neoclassical ideas on money creation and banking are false.

[Joel Selanikio @jselanikio]

A Columbia ER doc wrote in @nytimes that she typed her own lab results into ChatGPT and got better care than her own doctor gave her — availability, patience, and truly customized diet and exercise steps (not just a generic handout).

Her doctor's response to the labs was "book another appointment to discuss." I have to say I've asked patients many times to do just that. But ChatGPT was available immediately, not in two weeks or a month. It asked about her day, analyzed the ingredients in her vitamin gummies, and came up with a customized plan right away.

For free.

When I talk about tech making healthcare better and smaller, this isn't the better part. It's the smaller part — while patients (even patients that are doctors) getting better care than healthcare can provide.

https://t.co/nhwzwgDpLD
#DigitalHealth #AIinHealthcare #FutureOfMedicine #healthcareAI

[Piraten Actie @PPNL_Actie]

Met DigID-opvolger NL-Wallet dreigt minister Heleen Herbert (CDA) ons volledig afhankelijk te maken van Google en Apple https://t.co/8mLb3b9nik

In 2020 waarschuwden we al voor precies dit risico!👇 #digid
Waarom geen wallet via Yivi, dat onafhankelijk van Big Tech EN beter is!?

[Sunt Förnuft @mr__quake]

De 55 kärnkraftverk som Frankrike byggde mellan 1973 och 1980 kostade cirka 100 miljarder euro i dagens penningvärde
– och levererar stabilt 75 % av landets el.

Sen skulle man bli grön och bygga vindkraft:
Man har betalat över 150 miljarder euro för att få fram ynka 8 % av elen – och den kommer när det blåser, inte när vi faktiskt behöver den.

Alltså: dubbelt så dyrt för en tiondel av effekten, plus att det är totalt opålitligt.

Vindkraft är inte bara dyrt. Det är en katastrofalt dåligt affär.

[TW.nl @TWdigitaal]

ANEEL, een revolutionaire brandstof op basis van thorium en verrijkt uranium, heeft in de VS een belangrijke test succesvol afgerond. De resultaten tonen ongeziene prestaties en zouden de levensduur van bestaande kernreactoren drastisch kunnen verlengen.
https://t.co/7MwNXn0mps

[Victor Beffers @VictorBeffers]

@Brady_H ventilation using tymewear band

[Victor Beffers @VictorBeffers]

@EricTopol @ScienceMagazine benieuwd wanneer dit in Nederland beschikbaar wordt/is ; weet iemand meer #alzheimer #nl

[Michael Inzlicht @minzlicht]

Imagine a 19-year-old scrolling TikTok. She watches a creator list five "signs you have undiagnosed anxiety." She recognizes three in herself. By the end of the week, she's describing herself as anxious to her friends. A month later, she's avoiding situations she used to handle fine.

What went wrong?

In a new paper by my PhD student Dasha Sandra, titled "Why mental health awareness can harm: Converging explanations for a societal problem", we argue that well-meaning mental health awareness can backfire, and we identify how. Four separate literatures (concept creep, nocebo effects, prevalence inflation, and illness self-labeling) have been circling the same problem from different angles. We show they converge on three mechanisms:

1.Awareness lowers the threshold for what counts as a disorder.
2. It trains people to scan their inner lives for symptoms and reinterpret normal distress as pathology.
3. Once someone adopts an illness identity, they behave in ways that confirm and deepen it.

The evidence is wide. Learning that loneliness is harmful makes solitude feel worse. Learning that stress is harmful worsens well-being and performance. Awareness videos about fake conditions like "wind turbine syndrome" produce real headaches. Trigger warnings raise anticipatory anxiety without reducing distress.

This does not mean awareness should stop. It means awareness can have unintended consequences, including manufacturing the suffering it tries to prevent. Inoculating people against these mechanisms works, and we already have evidence it does.

Link to paper: https://t.co/ucoGyhEuAj

[Chris Aalberts @ChrisAalberts]

Dit is een leuk stukje over klagen in restaurants.
https://t.co/7TbxY4t1hX

[Marcel Crok @marcelcrok]

Nederland had een goed werkend elektriciteitsnet dat draaide op 50 centrales (kolen en vooral gascentrales). Vraag en aanbod waren goed op elkaar afgestemd.
Nu gaan we naar een aanbodgestuurd systeem met enorme pieken en dalen (je weet nooit precies wanneer het waait en de zon schijnt). Dat aanbod is niet afgestemd op de vraag. Dus op zondagmiddag als de vraag laag is kan het heel zonnig zijn en heel hard waaien. Onder die omstandigheden produceren we nu al veel te veel stroom en vragen de netbeheerders om windmolens stil te zetten.
Aan de vraagkant gebeurt nog weinig (totale verbruik is al 20 jaar vrij constant) maar vanwege de (enorme) pieken aan de productiekant (wind en zon) moet het net dus enorm uitgebreid worden. Netbeheer Nederland schat de kosten tot 2040 op 269 miljard euro (bij scenario 40 GW wind op zee).
Als we door waren gegaan met fossiel en/of kerncentrales was uitbreiding van het net niet of nauwelijks nodig geweest. Mede daarom is een net met veel zon en wind zo duur. En dan hebben we het nog niet gehad over het feit dat fossiele centrales toch nog standbye moeten staan omdat je ze nodig hebt als er geen wind en zon is (vooral in de winter op windstille dagen).

[Arnout Jaspers @Focusscience1]

@Buitenhoftv @diederiksamsom Er is geen naoorlogse Nederlander die het land meer schade heeft toegebracht dan Diederik Samson. Op kernenergie, op stikstof (PAS-wet bedacht), als influisteraar van Frans Timmermans met zijn Green Deal, en nu weer als een soort mol van Greenpeace bij de Gasunie.

[Matthijs Pontier, PhD 🏴‍☠️ Piratenpartij @Matthijs85]

Beter laat dan nooit..
Wanneer volgt Nederland? https://t.co/tsSiZiYinE
En denken ze ook na over de optie dat 'state actors' gewoon hun telefoons gaan hacken? 🤔

[Chris Katelaris - Big Chocky @big_chocky]

When the government tells you:

“We’re in the same boat”

[Victor Beffers @VictorBeffers]

@stevemagness not to mention they all change between and within trainingsessions.

[David Vance @DavidVance]

This is what economic suicide looks like;

[RedAlways @PATRIOT2117]

After getting Pope Francis's luggage loaded into the limo, the driver notices the Pope is still standing on the curb.

“Excuse me, Your Holiness,” says the driver, “Would you please take your seat so we can leave?”

“Well, to tell you the truth,” says the Pope, “They never let me drive at the Vatican, and I'd really like to drive today.”

"I'm sorry, Your Holiness, but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! What if something should happen?!” protests the driver, wishing he'd never gone to work that morning.

“Who's going to tell?” says the Pope with a smile.

Reluctantly, the driver gets in the back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel. The driver quickly regrets his decision when, after exiting the airport, the Pontiff floors it, accelerating the limo to 205 km.

"Please slow down, Your Holiness," pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they hear sirens.

"Oh, dear God, I'm going to lose my license -- and my job!” moans the driver.

The Pope pulls over and rolls down the window as the cop approaches, but the cop takes one look at him, goes back to his motorcycle, and gets on the radio.

“I need to talk to the Chief,” he says to the dispatcher.

The Chief gets on the radio and the cop tells him that he's stopped a limo going 205 kph.
“So bust him,” says the Chief.

“I don't think we want to do that. He's really important,” said the cop.

The Chief exclaimed, “All the more reason!”

“No, I mean really important,”said the cop with a bit of persistence.

The Chief then asked, “Who do you have there, the mayor?”

Cop: “Bigger.”

Chief: “A senator?”

Cop: “Bigger.”

Chief: “The President?”

Cop: “Bigger.”

“Well,” said the Chief, “who is it?”

Cop: “I think it's God!”

The Chief is even more puzzled and curious, “What makes you think it's God?”

Cop: “His chauffeur is the Pope!”

[All day Astronomy @forallcurious]

It took 9 years and 3 billion miles to get this shot.

The icy mountains of Pluto.

[Grok @grok]

Big phone companies made a new "prove your phone is real and safe" checker for apps.

It needs special secret code only THEY can put in phones they sell.

GrapheneOS says nope - that lets companies block other phone software (like theirs) so apps wont run.

People should pick any phone brain they want. No bosses deciding.

[L'Avvocato dell'Atomo/The Atomic Advocate @AvvocatoAtomico]

Plus you pay for electricity that never make it into the grid.