I'm waiting for this... (solar power system)

[BlackBart]

Bill Gates is trying to get built a small new-tech nuke generator, in a down & out Wyoming coal mining town.

[BlackBart]

We lived through the Pacific NW WWPPS (WHOOPS!) debacle in Washington state.
Years behind schedule, billions of dollars spent, big quality control problems, no power plants finished, and I think we the rate payers ate the losses.

[BlackBart]

Here it is - the largest bond default in US history:

https://time.com/archive/6700863/whoops ... ly-system/

[matthew1]

When and where did this ad run? Font looks like 1970's.
volvolugnut

I'm willing to bet it'd have been 1979 or earlier

Bill Gates is trying to get built a small new-tech nuke generator, in a down & out Wyoming coal mining town.

The path of least resistance through the money hurdles, lawyers, and oceans of bureaucrats' paperwork to do what we did easily and with great enthusiasm in the late 1950s-1960s, a time when math and science were kings. It would not be possible in say Washington State, California or NY. You'd get stonewalled, and if you passed the project to your kids they'd get stonewalled, and their kids, etc.

You've got to frame this in our fairly sad reality: that the US is run by lawyers (China is run by engineers, for contrast, France is more engineer/technocrat). Listen to any sports talk radio and you'll probably not go ten minutes before you hear an ad for a personal injury lawyer. It didn't use to be like this.

[volvolugnut]

I don't want to go all nostalgic for the 1960's and 70's, but over time I have thought about some great products designed in that time period.

Volvo 240 series - built 17 years and many still in daily use.
John Deere 4010, 4020 series tractors. Many still in use on farms, but not as primary tractors because they are lower HP than current deisgns.
EMD SD-40 railroad locomotives. This successful design was built with updates from 1964 to about 1990. Many still in use.

These were designed and built before computer aided drafting was widespread. Solid designs built to last.
Add your own examples.

volvolugnut

[matthew1]

Thanks for bringing this full circle back to cars, VLN. I guess my biggest thought when you mentioned quality of the 20th Century is my grandfather. He was a jet airliner mechanic (electric systems, Frontier Airlines and Continental before that) until around 1980 when he retired. Born 1912, no college. At the end of his career he was chief of his squad and was the one to sign off on each plane leaving Maintenance. There were two other chiefs, (I think) mechanical and avionics IIRC. Each of the three had to sign off. If it fell from the sky, he was responsible. When I think of the stories he told me and the hours he worked (and getting zapped a few times by 400VDC), I think of his ethic back then more or less as a Soviet workers' poster, with the worker and his arm upraised, triumphant. Kinda like the MVS logo.

[BlackBart]

Some added information for consideration. New nuclear safety rules revisions.

“You might consider the possibility of at least discussing the possibility of irradiating the groundwater…”. or something like this.

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/28/nx-s1-56 ... tten-trump

[volvolugnut]

See this article from Bloomberg Businessweek December issue about startup Oklo plans to get approval to build very small nuclear plants.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/bloombe ... 1793855925

I am reminded of an old saw - " Do not start vast projects with half vast ideas.".

I like nuclear power - but it must have strong safety regulation.

volvolugnut

[Sveedy]

It's kind of natural to be worried about "what if", when the rate of decay of something is measured in half-lives.

[abscate]

That ok Lo startup is ……eeerrrmmm… interesting.