Help imagine or find dream job...

[lakedude]

I've got a good job but it doesn't hurt to dream.

Dream job ideas:

1) Work without direct supervision or at least with a boss you respect.
2) Job related to clean/renewable energy somehow.
3) Face new challenges regularly.
4) Not too demanding physically or at least not every day.

Well so far that is it. Number 2 is a biggie, I'd love to work with wind or solar power somehow. Biofuel would be another good one. If not working for clean power, working against dirty power or nuke power would be almost as good. Working with hybrid or electric cars would be great.

Anybody got more ideas?

[hobbit]

Funny, after studying the prius and lots of related issues, I've
been feeling almost exactly the same way. But nobody in
alternatives/renewables seems to be hiring, or even answering
mail in the MA area. I've had my "seeking a job" hints stuck
up amidst all the other doc plastered to my car at various shows,
and nobody's taken the bait there either.
.
There's no f*ing way I want to go back into the "internet
insecurity" biz, because people simply refuse to learn best-
practice and keep clicking on the nasties and getting themselves
0wned. And insisting on running that microsoft garbage. So
I can't help them anymore. But after realizing that understanding
about hybrids and power conversion and more sustainable thinking
seems to come to me fairly well, there's *got* to be someplace
I could put that to good use and actually get paid for it.
With these industries supposedly poised for some serious takeoff
and advancement, why the heck aren't they talking to people
who are passionate about making a difference??
.
_H*

[lakedude]

Wow, you are farther along than I am. I was just wondering what kinds of jobs were even out there, none appearently.

As far as security goes I've been thinking of the perfect virus proof solution. A Knoppix CD based system with no hard drive or anywhere else to store a virus. Turn it off and everything goes poof like new again. The only problem I'm having is that the Knoppix disk does not like my modem so I've been thinking of getting an external.

[xcel]

Hi Lakedude and Hobbit:

___Although both of you may not agree, working in the nuclear industry is rewarding to me for a number of reasons. All except the absolutely horrendous hours anyway I really do enjoy my job and knowing the electrical power generation is done so with a minimum of SMOG and GHG related output makes it one of the best non-renewable positions I could ask for at this time. All the requirements posted above have been met with the exception of #4 some of the time. Some jobs in the heat are really tough but for the money, I have to say it’s not bad?

___IIRC, Gpsman1 was a school teacher as of last year and recently became employed in the Ethanol production field in Colorado somewhere. I do not know if any or all the requirements would be met but I have not heard him complain about his new field of employment yet?

___Hobbit, although I do knot know if the ethanol industry could use your particular skills, you may want to consider it until you find your own future dream job in whatever field that may be? As for Windows and Internet Security, taking care of the mindless pays the bills no matter if you believe it to be garbage or not?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

[philmcneal]

i wish i can drive a hybrid and make money, that's my dream job at the moment. I would be happy with less than 5 low figures a year since all my dreams are completed when I'm going to work wee!!!!

ahhaa joking i'll continue going to school bleh ;(

[lakedude]

Wayne a few questions if I may....

1) Is the nuke plant you work at advanced to the point it generates no long term radioacive waste? (I'm guessing no)

2) Assuming the plant does generate long term radioactive waste what is currently done with it?

3) Since you are a direct financial beneficiary as well as a user of the power your plant produces can they put the waste in your backyard? (assuming again that there is any)

4) Why not? (world's stupidest question)

[lakedude]

My yard is not a good spot to put a windmill but I'd be happy to have a windmill in my backyard if it were feasible. I could make some room for some solar panels. Wouldn't it be better to have a hydro lake as a backyard then a backyard full of radioactive waste?

[xcel]

Hi Lakedude:

A few questions for you.

1. When you throw the light switch, does the lights come on? Can’t rely on that with wind.

2. See below.

3. See below.

4. NRC won’t let them.

___Take the effluent from a coal plant and run it through your house. You might live 30 seconds. If you were to live off Hydro, you would have power for ~ 1.7 hours per day as hydro is just about tapped in the US. What you do with the other 22.3 hours is up in the air? Wind. At a CAP factor of ~ 30%, it might get awfully cold waiting for the power to come back on to run the furnace fan.

___We here in the US do not recycle our fuel like the European’s do. If we did, there wouldn’t be 40 swimming pools worth of high level radioactive waste from the entire 40 years + of Nuclear electrical generation, there would be 1 pool of high level radioactive waste for the entire US Nuclear power generation industry over those same years! Because fuel reprocessing was outlawed here in the states back in the Carter admin, we have ~ 40 swimming pools worth and if someone were to place it in a swimming pool in my backyard for a few million $’s a year, sure! I would receive ~ 100X’s less dose from the spent fuel then I do from the sun on a yearly basis let alone the trace elements spewed in the burning of coal.

___The real question then is can you live a comfortable lifestyle with < 2 hours of power a day all the while there is a non GHG emitting solution that can give you power 24/7?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

[lakedude]

Did you answer my questions or change the subject and avoid the issue? I'm well aware of the shortcomings of most sources of power and I personally find long term high level waste and the risk of another Chernobyl alarming. Keeping the lights on with renewable power might be a challenge but it is a challenge we will face someday reguardless because all non-renewable sources INCLUDING NUCLEAR will be used up someday. Even if you converted me to being a nuke power fan (unlikely to impossible) nuke power (fission) is still only a stop gap measure on the way to renewable energy.

Keep in mind that I'm an educated person with a physics background and friends that work in nuke plants, one as a trainer. I've heard the stories of all the unreported near misses, sometimes it is better not to know.

Can you honestly tell me that the people running nuke plants don't make mistakes (Think Homer Simpson)? And that those mistakes could have dire consequences? Is there an endless supply of fissionable material? What if they didn't pay you a million dollars to store the waste? Should we just give up on renewable energy because it might be difficult?

[brick]

New nuke-industry worker and some-time nuke skeptic checking-in.

A Chernobyl-type event can only happen at a Chernobyl-type reactor, which only vaguely resembles plants that are currently operating in the US, Europe, Japan, Canada, Mexico, etc. Yes, even when you count those built in the 60s. I suppose you could find a way to overheat a core and fail fuel, a la Three Mile Island (TMI). But the radiation exposure resulting from that event was relatively small. If anything, TMI should be viewed from the perspective of what didn't happen due to careful plant design. And the new reactors are even better. I am familiar with at least one design (that may be built in the US) that goes into a fully passive mode of cooling in an extreme accident, requiring nothing more than natural circulation to keep the fuel intact while dissipating the decay heat immediately following a reactor SCRAM.

Wayne isn't changing the subject, he's stating fact. Last time I visited a nuclear facility, the dose I received from flying coast-to-coast was orders of magnitude higher than anything I might have picked up at the plant itself. It's not good for you, but radiation is literally everywhere. Nuke plants don't even weigh in when you start to tally up public exposure.

On the topic of Homer Simpson, human factors are the reason that the entire nuke industry is so heavily regulated and scrutinized. The reason that those near misses were only near misses is that we recognize how important safety is, and do our utmost to keep the drama to a minimum. Some of the stories may scare you, but that's the system working as it is designed. Humans make mistakes, the other humans keep them from turning in to an accident.

Of course it would be better to use clean, renewable ways to generate power without the radioactive waste. Some day I hope we will get there. But we won't if we can't support our own society while we develop that technology. Nuclear is the best option we have at this particular moment.