Gordian Knots

“Astronomers claim to have found a 10th planet beyond Pluto. Though there is some continued debate as to the ‘planet-ness’ of Pluto, astronomers are calling this object a planet since they are confident that this object, dubbed 2003 UB313, is much larger than Pluto. Apparently it’s a good day for Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), since an object, 2003 EL61,70% the size of Pluto was also announced today. Man, two TNOs in one day? It’s like Christmas. Maybe that’s why they nicknamed 2003 EL61 ‘Santa’. Update Astronomer Mike Brown’s webpage about the 10th planet states ‘We have proposed a name to the IAU and will announce it when that name is accepted.’ Hmmm..”

Despite its earlier doldrums, the nuclear industry is still a sizeable business. General Electric’s nuclear division, which designs and builds plants but does not handle fuel or waste, turned over about $1.1 billion last year (its turnover was double that figure if sales of non-nuclear bits of nuclear plants, such as generators and turbines, are included). Westinghouse, an American brand currently owned by BNFL, which recently put it up for sale, had sales of around $2 billion.

Better management allows companies to make existing plants much more efficient. In America, for instance, the country’s 103 nuclear plants are no longer owned by individual municipalities. ?Nuclear consolidators are the key,? argues Michael Wallace of Constellation Energy, a utility that owns several plants and hence can retain good managers, share best practices, gain economies in maintaining parts and inventories and so on. The top ten nuclear firms now own 61% of the sector. Exelon, the largest firm, has a 15% share. American nuclear power plants’ capacity utilisation has risen from 56% in 1984 to more than 90% today.

This is a lesson that France had already learned, says Bernard Dupraz of Electricité de France. EDF is responsible for all the country’s nuclear plants. Unlike America, where no two nuclear plants are exactly alike, France stuck with a few standard designs. ?We standardised nuclear plants like Ford did the Model T.? The results: 20% lower operating costs and 30-40% lower capital costs than those of one-off designs used elsewhere, notably in Britain.

Nuclear Energy Agency, an arm of the OECD, has just released a study done jointly with the International Energy Agency (IEA). After reviewing the economics, it seems to conclude that there is indeed a bright future for nuclear: ?on a global scale, there is room and need for all baseload technologies.? Assuming a discount rate of 5%, it argues that the cost of generating power from new nuclear plants would cost between $21/MW-hour and $31/MW-hour; costs for gas-fired power, it reckons, would range from $37/MW-hour to $60/MW-hour. (The report also assumes high gas prices, which favour nuclear, a view contradicted by the IEA’s official forecast of a medium-term reduction in gas prices.)

But there’s plenty of scope for argument about the economics of nuclear power generation, because they are so sensitive to assumptions about the cost of power from other sources. As Ed Cummins of Westinghouse insists, ?The biggest motivator for nuclear today is $6 [the price per MBtu] natural gas. If gas goes back to $3.50, then nuclear plants aren’t competitive.?

Using cryptic model names is bad for business. Do people go into a store and ask for an iPod or a Sony NW-HD5? An iMac or a Sony VGC-RB42G?

There are exceptions to this, but I’m not sure if they really are exceptions, or the companies think they are exceptions.

One of the main ones is luxury vehicles. European brands (MB, BMW, Saab, Volvo) never named their cars, and stuck to number/letter combinations. When Honda introduced Acura, they kept to the Japanese idea of naming vehicles, but, when Infiniti and Lexus were introduced, Nissan and Toyota, respectively, wanted to emulate the European style of number/letter combinations. Eventually even Acura dumped names for number/letter combos. (As I said, I’m not sure if it makes any difference or not.)

Another example is home appliances. You can go to Best Buy and find the exact same Whirlpool washer that’s at Circuit City and the two of them will have completely different model numbers (which will be long and violently complex.) One hypothesis a friend of mine has, to explain this, is that all appliance stores have policies saying they won’t be undercut on the same model, and the way they can get away with such a a policy is by not selling the same ‘model.’ I can’t see any reason why Whirlpool would build the billions of different types of washing machines that’s offered by the model number combinatorics, so I remain mystified.

“Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised – a ‘female’ android called Repliee Q1.

She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner.

She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe.

Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University says one day robots could fool us into believing they are human”

Bob Cringely’s latest article shows evidence that some aspects of the 90s bubble are indeed back: Why would Rupert Murdoch think of paying $3billion for a mostly free online service like Skype? But his last line shows a keen understanding of Murdoch’s skills and methods: ‘By putting Skype in play, he distracts for no money at all most of the major media companies. And while they try to figure out how to respond to VoIP, old Rupert will be attacking them on some completely other front. He’ll be stealing their shoes.’