NPR reports that a British soldier in Afghanistan is missing , and that the Taliban are taking credit for his capture. No link yet to the report, broadcast as part of the hourly news just after 1300 hours (EST).
The Costs Of War: Billions In Air Conditioning
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Steven Anderson, Brigadier General, Retired, has estimated the costs of air-conditioning U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to $20.2 Billion. Anderson served as chief logistics officer for General David Petraeus in Iraq.
The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion, according to a former Pentagon official.That’s more than NASA’s budget. It’s more than BP has paid so far for damage from the Gulf oil spill. It’s what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.”When you consider the cost to deliver the fuel to some of the most isolated places in the world — escorting, command and control, medevac support — when you throw all that infrastructure in, we’re talking over $20 billion,” Steven Anderson tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. He’s a retired brigadier general who served as chief logistician for Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq. He’s now in the private sector, selling technologies branded as energy-efficient to the Defense Department.
Excerpted from”Among The Costs Of War: Billions A Year In A.C.?”, broadcast June 25th on the weekend edition of All Things Considered:
This is a more complicated because it includes the logistics costs of building roads in order to deliver equipment and fuel. Building and rebuilding road infrastructure, of course, have lasting value apart their use for delivering fuel to U.S. outposts.
Anderson further estimates that 1,000 U.S. troops – excluding private contractors – have been killed guarding fuel convoys.
This is illustrative of the scale of our logistical lines and expenses – and the centrality of energy in military logistics.
What can be done and what could have been done?
Having invested this much in capital and overhead (fuel), and with the future of our engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan uncertain, what can be done. From Among The Costs Of War: Billions A Year In A.C.?”
The 33,000 troops who will return home by the end of next year match the numbers sent to Afghanistan in 2010, at a cost of about $30 billion. That comes out to about $1 million a soldier. But the savings of withdrawing those troops won’t equal out, experts say.
“What history has told us is that you don’t see a proportional decrease in spending based on the number of troops when you draw them down,” says Chris Hellman, a senior research analyst at the National Priorities Project.
“In Afghanistan that’s going to be particularly true because it’s a very difficult and austere environment in which to operate,” he says.
That means most war expenditures lie not in the troops themselves but in the infrastructure that supports them — infrastructure that in some cases will remain in place long after troops are gone.
“We’re building big bases,” American University professor Gordon Adams says, describing the money invested as, in economic terms, “sunk” costs.
“We’re seeing this in Iraq. We’re turning over to the Iraqis — mostly either for a small penny or for free — the infrastructure that we built in Iraq. But we won’t see back any money from that infrastructure.”
General Anderson has proposed what is usually the most efficient initial strategy: “negawatts, which is to say, conserving energy and reconfiguring the U.S. tents to resist heat and thereby use less power in keeping the tents comfortable. Below are images of tents modified with polyurethane to increase their ability to resist heat:
Courtesy Steven Anderson and NPR/All Things Considered (weekend edition).
Courtesy Brig. General Steven Anderson (United States Army, retired) and NPR's All Things Considered (weekend editio).
Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant – Update
in the Missouri River
Tweet The flooded Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant is not exactly like the nuclear plants at Fukushima Daichi and Fukushima Diana. There are three main differences: First of all, there’s one plant, not 12. The difference of scale is tremendous. Secondly, it was offline – shut down for refueling – when flooded. Meaning, we got lucky, really lucky. Finally, it was hit by the gradually increasing pressures of rising floodwaters, not by an earthquake, a tsunami, and aftershocks. This is huge!
Steve Everly, at the Kansas City Star, reported that David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists was “Reassured.” (here). I spoke to Mr. Lochbaum about the flooded plant on June, 29, 2011.
Most of the releases of radioactive material, generally tritium and tritiated water, occur when plants are online. Because the plant was offline, very little radioactive material has been released into the biosphere as a result of the flooding. While it is easy to filter heavy metals, it is very expensive to isolate tritiated water from water.
The damages due to the flooding are likely to be in the ballpark of $1,000,000 per day in lost revenue – $23 Million since June 6 – because the plant produces power worth about $1,000,000 per day. The buildings that have been damaged are collateral buildings, not the reactor itself. Those buildings would be less expensive to repair than the reactor.
At 35 years old, the plant is near the end of its design life. While we can engineer plants that are as safe as the NRC requires, new wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, and efficiency cost less than new nuclear or coal with carbon sequestration. Safety, security, and waste management are not the challenges with sustainable technologies that they present with nuclear and coal. Therefore, it seems logical to consider that once it is decommissioned, the plant will be replaced with wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, and efficiency.
GDP or GPI? – My metric is better than yours.
As any freshman economics student should know, the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, is a measure of spending, derived from the Gross National Product, GNP, defined by Simon Kuznets during the Depression (click here for econlib). GDP is, at best, an indirect measure of wealth. The Genuine Progress Indicator, GPI, defined by Think Progress in 1995, measures genuine progress.
Consider the case of Joeseph Q. Bloggs, MBA, J.D., Esq., an investment banker. Bloggs has a J.D. from Harvard or Yale, an undergrad degree from Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, or another ivy league school, and a high school diploma from the Citadel or an acclaimed private school. As with his colleagues on Wall Street, he is self-proclaimed “Master of the Universe.” He leaves work one night after negotiating a highly leveraged hostile takeover, buys a Lamborghini, and rents the time of an expensive “friend.” He buys her an expensive outfit, and takes her to dinner at an the Four Seasons, or a similar expensive restaurant. He has a few drinks before dinner, a bottle of wine with dinner, and a glass or two of port after dinner. On the way to the Hamptons, he crashes his Lamborghini into a Ferrari driven by another lawyer / banker / actor / “Master of the Universe.”
Brookings, SAP, NRG, and the City of New York on our Energy Future
NRG Energy
Tweet Will moving to the new energy future – deploying Solar, Wind and other sustainable alternatives create 2.7 Million New Jobs?
At “How Cities and Companies Can Work Together to Operate in the New Energy-Constrained Economy” a panel discussion (press release), Bruce Katz, Vice President and Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution, said “2.7 million new jobs” will be created in moving to the clean energy / low carbon economy.
Mr. Katz also noted that two out of three Americans – 200 million people – live in the 100 biggest metropolitan areas, and those 200 million people are responsible for 75% of our GDP. High carbon energy is no longer cheap. The people in those metropolitan areas, and elsewhere, therefore, must act. Continue reading
Libyan rebels' DIY weapons
Widely distributed technological expertise makes all sorts of things possible.
Typically, Do-It-Yourselfers frequent hardware stores, lumber-yards, and work in their basements, garages, and other workshops. They build things – bookshelves, computers, etc. Henry Ford built his first cars – Model A’s – on his farm Ford Motor Co. Steve Wozniak built the Apple I in Steve Jobs’ parents garage. Apple.
They also build revolutions. Engineers in Libya have been experimenting with mounting machine guns on remote control toys. They are also cleaning and using weapons they capture from Gadafi forces. Fire Arm Blog, Nifty Remote Weapons, Weaponomics. See also “DIY Weapons of the Libyan Rebels,” on the website of The Atlantic magazine.
Technological parity coupled with a will to defend yourself and your family or people wins wars – which we have seen in the American Revolution, the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948, ’56, ’67, and ’73, Viet Nam, the Afghan war against the Soviet Union.
This bodes well for the people of Libya, but does not bode well for the forces of Muammar Qaddafi.
Flooding at Nebraska Nuclear Power Plants
Courtesy of AP, NY Times, Fellowship of the Minds
Tweet Omaha, Nebraska. Flooding on the Missouri River at The Cooper and Fort Calhoun nuclear power stations. I suppose the good news is that given the flooding, one or both of these two Nebraska plants will be decommissioned after the floodwates recede, so there will soon be one or two fewer nuclear plants operating in the United States. And terrorists will have a difficult time attacking these plants now that they are surrounded by a moat. The real good news, if you can call it that, is that these floods are the result of heavy rains, not a tsunami triggered by an earthquake. The pressures are different. It is a steady buildup and which will be followed by steady decrease. It is not the surge / vacuum of a tsunami. And there was no earthquake and series of aftershocks.
BBC News – Common medicines for elderly linked to death
Callout:
Drugs examined
Category one, mild
- Codeine (painkiller)
- Warfarin (blood thinner)
- Timolol maleate (eye drops)
Category three, severe
- Piriton (antihistamine)
- Ditropan (incontinence drug)
- Seroxat (antidepressant)
End of Callout
Commonly used drugs – for conditions such as heart disease, depression and allergies – have been linked to a greater risk of death and declining brain function by UK researchers.
They said half of people over 65 were prescribed these drugs.
The effect was greatest in patients taking multiple courses of medication, according to the study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Experts said patients must not panic or stop taking their medicines.
The researchers were investigating medicines which affect a chemical in the brain – acetylcholine. The neurotransmitter is vital for passing messages from nerve cell to nerve cell, but many common drugs interfere with it as a side effect.
Eighty drugs were rated for their “anticholinergic” activity: they were given a score of one for a mild effect, two for moderate and three for severe. Some were given by prescription only, while others were available over the counter.
A combined score was calculated in 13,000 patients aged 65 or over, by adding together the scores for all the medicines they were taking.
A patient taking one severe drug and two mild ones would have an overall score of five.
Deadly consequences
Between 1991 and 1993, 20% of patients with a score of four or more died. Of those taking no anticholinergic drugs only 7% died.
Patients with a score of five or more showed a 4% drop in ratings of brain function.
Other factors, such as increased mortality from underlying diseases, were removed from the analysis.
However, this study cannot say that the drugs caused death or reduced brain function, merely that there was an association.
Dr Chris Fox, who led the research at the University of East Anglia, said: “Clinicians should conduct regular reviews of the medication taken by their older patients, both prescribed and over the counter, and wherever possible avoid prescribing multiple drugs with anticholinergic effects.
Dr Clare Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said the findings of the study were important.
She told patients: “The first thing is not to worry too much, the second thing is to discuss it with your doctor or the pharmacist, and the third thing is do not stop your medicines without taking advice first.”
She said doctors reviewed medication every 15 months and were aware of the risks of combining different drugs.
Dr Fox said he wanted to conduct further research to investigate how anticholinergic drugs might increase mortality.
A more modern study is also thought to be desirable. Practices and drugs have changed since the data was collected two decades ago.
Ian Maidment, an NHS pharmacist in Kent and Medway, believes the situation may now be even worse.
He said the use of anticholinergic drugs had “probably increased as more things are being treated and more drugs are being used.”
Brain decline
Reduction of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine has already been implicated in dementia.
The drug Aricept is given to some patients with Alzheimer’s disease to boost acetylcholine levels.
Dr Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said a 4% drop in brain function for a healthy person would feel like a slow, sluggish day.
“If you are at a level where one little thing pushes you over into confusion, then that is much more serious,” she added.
“However, it is vital that people do not panic or stop taking their medication without consulting their GP.”
Rebecca Wood, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This comprehensive study could have some far-reaching effects. The results underline the critical importance of calculated drug prescription.”
via BBC News – Common medicines for elderly linked to death.
David Protess of the Innocence Project Now Defends Himself – NYTimes.com
Mr. Protess, who taught at the Medill journalism school at Northwestern University, was the founder and driving force behind the Medill Innocence Project, which was instrumental in exonerating at least 12 wrongly convicted defendants and freeing them from prison, including five who were on death row in Illinois, and in prompting then-governor George Ryan to clear the rest of death row in 2003.
via David Protess of the Innocence Project Now Defends Himself – NYTimes.com.
Indian Point 1 – A Zombie Nuclear Power Plant
Bucolic? Pastoral? Looks that way, but looks can be deceiving. First of all, there’s Indian Point 1. Then there’s the water issue. Other issues are waste and national security.
Operating Modalities, Copyright, (c), 2011 L. J. Furman
Indian Point 1
- Brought online in August, 1962.
- Shutdown in October, 1974.
- Spent fuel is stored on site.
- Scheduled to be closed in 2026.
- Operated 13 years.
- “Zombie” 52 years.
Talk about externalities! “Zombie” since ’74 and scheduled as such for another 25 years, total of 52 years. NRC. What does it cost to maintain and manage as a “zombie?” And who pays? The owners or the taxpayers? And did the plant produce so much power in the 12 years of operation that it will make a profit after 52 years of being managed and serviced?
Indian Point 2
- Rated Thermal Power: 3216 MW
- Net Electrical Rating: 1032 MW
- Water Requirements: 840,000 gallons per minute
Indian Point 3
- Rated Thermal Power: 3188 MW
- Net Electrical Rating: 1051MW
- Water Requirements: 840,000 gallons per minute
(source: Entergy / Indian Point website)
Summary – Indian Point is a 2.083 GW complex. Replacing it with new nuclear would cost about $12 to $18 billion, plus the cost of fuel, security, and the costs of interest during the 8 to 10 years of construction. Replacing it with solar would require about 2 million PV solar panels, at a cost of $8 to $12 billion, or 570 wind turbines at a cost of $4 to $6 billion. 2.0 gw of wind and solar do not require 1,680,000 gallons per minute of cooling water, or even 1.0 gallons per minute. Solar and wind do not require fuel and do not produce waste. Nor do they present national security challenges.
Energy Alternatives
- 2 Gigawatts
- Modality Nuclear Solar Wind
- Cost (billions) $12 to $18 $8 to $12 $4 to $6
- Fuel Yes No No
- Waste Yes No No
- Security Hole Huge No No
Nuclear Power and Russian Roulette
Tweet After Chernobyl, Hans Bethe, pictured at left, said “the Chernobyl disaster tells us about the deficiencies of the Soviet political and administrative system rather than about problems with nuclear power” (PBS). Dr. Bethe is right. Managing nuclear power and our energy infrastructure is not limited to physics and engineering. It also involves economics, human ecology, national security and systems dynamics. It is logical to conclude that because the Chernobyl disaster was a hydrogen explosion in a badly designed nuclear power plant brought about by Soviet style mis-management, nuclear technology can be implemented safely. However, the data from Three Mile Island and Fukushima suggest that nuclear power, when implemented safely, is too expensive to compete with alternatives (hence the industry needs loan guarantees here in the USA). We need to think about energy in the context of Systems Dynamics, as discussed in “Thinking in Systems,” by Dr. Donella Meadows, also pictured at left, of MIT, Dartmouth, and the Sustainability Institute.
Similar arguments have been advanced after Fukushima. “As long as we don’t build them near earthquake faults, especially earthquake faults near oceans …” While the probability of an accident is low (altho business as usual does raise some concerns) the probability of an accident that occurs being catastrophic is very high!
Looking at Indian Point, which is on an earthquake fault, and thinking about systems, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima …
The area within a 50 mile radius of Indian Point includes New York City, Westchester, Rockland, and Nassau counties of New York, western Connecticut, and northern New Jersey. About 20 million people live there. Entergy says it’s “Safe, Secure, and Vital.” Others – who live near the plant – say it’s not safe, not secure, not vital, and Should Be Closed!
16,000 panel/2 mile solar rail tunnel completed in Belgium.
Paul Ridden at Gizmag.com report that a two-mile stretch of the Belgian high-speed rail system has been fitted with solar panels:
07:27 June 10, 2011
8 Comments
7 Pictures
About 4,000 trains per year – or the equivalent of a full day’s worth of Belgian rail traf…
The roof of a two mile stretch of tunnel over Belgium’s high speed rail line has been fitted out with 16,000 solar panels to provide power for trains running through Antwerp Central Station and the surrounding railway infrastructure. Solar solution provider Enfinity says that about 4,000 trains per year – or the equivalent of a full day’s worth of Belgian rail traffic – will be able to run entirely on solar power generated by the installation
via Solar Powered.
Europe’s largest ecological catamaran sets sail
X-51A Waverider fails to reach full power in second hypersonic test flight
FishEyes rod and reel shows you the fish before you catch them
Boeing 747-8 Freighter to make first biofuel-powered transatlantic flight
PolyZion project developing zinc-plastic battery
China building world’s biggest radio telescope
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ON THE WATER
Europe’s largest ecological catamaran sets sail
By Ben Coxworth
10:26 April 15, 2011
4 Comments
5 Pictures
The Eco Slim, powered by wind, solar and diesel-electric sources, is officially Europe’s l…
The Eco Slim, powered by wind, solar and diesel-electric sources, is officially Europe’s largest ‘green’ catamaran (Photo: Drassanes Dalmau)
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It may be 24 meters (79 feet) long, 10.5 meters (34.5 feet) wide and be able to carry up to 150 passengers, but the Eco Slim seagoing catamaran produces less of a carbon footprint than vessels much smaller than itself. There are two main reasons for this – its electric motors, which are powered by several onboard renewable sources, and its lightweight, streamlined hull, that allows it to move through the water using a minimum amount of energy. Created by Spain’s Drassanes Dalmau shipbuilders and launched on March 31st, it’s officially Europe’s largest “green” catamaran.
The Eco Slim was officially launched on March 31st, 2011 (Photo: Zytech Solar)
The Eco Slim was officially launched on March 31st, 2011 (Photo: Drassanes Dalmau)
The Eco Slim, powered by wind, solar and diesel-electric sources, is officially Europe’s l…
The Eco Slim’s solar array and wind turbines combine to produce 9.5 kW of power (Photo: Zy…
Propulsion
The Eco Slim’s two electric motors are powered by a bank of 90 lead acid batteries. Those batteries are in turn charged by two onboard wind turbines, an array of 40 deck-mounted monocrystalline solar panels, and/or a diesel-electric thermal generator. An electronic management system regulates these different power sources, and is accessed via two screens (one of them a touchscreen) built into the catamaran’s control panel. In order to operate autonomously, both the electronic management system and the navigation instruments are powered by a dedicated lead acid battery and a 2 kW hydrogen fuel cell.
Hull design
Unlike traditional hulls, the Eco Slim’s was built in two halves – port and starboard – which were then joined together. It is also the first hull to be built in Spain using a vacuum infusion system. These innovations resulted in a hull that is reportedly half as heavy as conventional models. Because of its hydrodynamic design, it is also said to offer 20 percent less resistance when cutting through the water.
Performance
With its various power sources and light, slippery hull, the Eco Trim can sail continuously for four hours at 6 or 7 knots, with a top speed of 12 knots – the batteries can be recharged in about 90 minutes. While such performance might not be perfect for all applications, the boat is intended mainly for use in the tourism industry … and the tourists will no doubt appreciate the lack of engine noise.
Drassanes Dalmau collaborated on the project with yacht design firm ISONAVAL and Barcelona’s Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
The inspired Platypus Electric Underwater Exploration Craft
The inspired Platypus Electric Underwater Exploration Craft
By Mike Hanlon
08:04 April 6, 2011
4 Comments
19 Pictures
Platypus
The French-designed Platypus is a new and immensely practical two-person electric underwater exploration concept designed to travel for eight hours above the water at 10-12 knots (18.5-22.2 km/h), or below the water at 3-4 knots (5.5-7.5 km/h). Most importantly, it offers a safe and stable below-water platform that requires no operating equipment to be worn by the pilot or passenger other than masks because the pontoons contain an integrated compressor which supplies air via hoses. The Platypus requires no license, produces no local emissions, is completely silent and offers plenty of storage space and a stable platform for many applications including diving, photography, bird watching and eco tourism. Read More
via On the Water.
On the Water
StrongArm helps load boats onto cars
By Ben Coxworth
09:02 March 29, 2011
2 Comments
The StrongArm Kayak Loader levers a user’s canoe or kayak onto the roof of their vehicle (…
Sea kayaks are quite possibly one of the finest things ever created by mankind, but they can be rather difficult to load onto the top of one’s car – this is particularly true for people who are trying to do the job single-handed, or who have a tall vehicle. Australia’s Steve Scott identified this problem as an opportunity, and invented the StrongArm Kayak Loader. Read More
via On the Water.