Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Random Facts

Here are some fun facts I found out this week.

The area of the bottom of the ocean is equal to approximately the surface area of two planets the size of mars, and two moons the size of ours. That fact combined with high commodity prices mean that bottom of the ocean mining is starting to look really attractive. The first example of metal mining on the bottom of the ocean is currently planned to begin in Paupa New Guinea in about two years.


You can likely fit a Nuclear Reactor the size of one in a major power plant in your bedroom. My Nuclear Engineering Professor drew a life size cross section of one on the blackboard. From what I could see dimensions of it are a cylinder of about ten feet diameter, and twelve feet in height. This volume is enough to hold 4.5 years worth of fuel! Compare that to the two coal trains a week that head to our local coal power plant. This is why the nuclear waste of several decades time has been able to be stored on site. It is quite low in volume compared to the waste of any other type of power plant.

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