New Nuclear Reactor Plant design is simpler, using gravity and natural heat convection

NYTimes reports on Westinghouse has NRC approval for a new nuclear reactor design.

Approval of Reactor Design Clears Path for New Plants

Westinghouse

Westinghouse's AP1000 nuclear power plant will use a design that relies on forces like gravity and natural heat convection.

By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: December 22, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission unanimously approved a radical new reactor design on Thursday, clearing away a major obstacle for two utilities to begin construction on projects in South Carolina and Georgia.

The decision, a milestone in the much-delayed revival of plant construction sought by the nuclear industry, involves the Westinghouse AP1000, a 1,154-megawatt reactor with a so-called advanced passive design. It relies more heavily on forces like gravity and natural heat convection and less on pumps, valves and operator actions than other models do, in theory diminishing the probability of an accident.

Here are details on how much simpler the design is.

The AP1000 design saves money and time with an accelerated construction time period of approximately 36 months, from the pouring of first concrete to the loading of fuel. Also, the innovative AP1000 features:

50% fewer safety-related valves 80% less safety-related piping 85% less control cable 35% fewer pumps 45% less seismic building volume

Some of the design details sound like a modular data center construction.

Two of the drivers of plant construction costs are the cost of financing during the construction phase and the substantial amount of skilled-craft-labor hours needed on site during construction. TheAP1000^® technique of modularization of plant construction mitigates both of these drivers.

Overnight construction costs
The AP1000 was designed to reduce capital costs and to be economically competitive with contemporary fossil-fueled plants. The amount of safety-grade equipment required is greatly reduced by using the passive safety system design. Consequently, less Seismic Category I building volume is required to house the safety equipment (approximately 45 percent less than a typical reactor). Modular construction design further reduces cost and shortens the construction schedule. Using advanced computer modeling capabilities, Westinghouse is able to optimize, choreograph and simulate the construction plan. The result is very high confidence in the construction schedule.

Mobile makes an impressive online sales Xmas Day, 13.4% iOS

Forbes reports on an IBM study referencing the strength of Mobile on Christmas Day.

iOS Took 13.4% of Online Sales on Christmas Day

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IBM Benchmark’s initial online retail figures are in for Christmas Day, and even for mobile devotees they are a stunner.

The iPad accounted for 7% of all online sales on Christmas Day—meaning that 7% of all purchases made online December 25^th were made from an iPad. The iPhone accounted for 6.4% of all online sales.

In third place was a not-too-shabby Android at 5%.

The mobile sales reached 18.3% of online sales.

18.3 percent of all online sessions on a retailer’s site were initiated from a mobile device, up from 8.4 percent on Christmas Day 2010—an increase of 117.8 percent

One year later, words to remember our Dear Friend Olivier Sanche

In conversations with Olivier Sanche's wife, she had mentioned a simple request she had made to Apple to plant a tree in memory of Olivier. Her request was not answered, so I offered to contact eBay's VP of Technical Operations, Mazen Rawashdeh. Mazen supported the request and made the executive decision to plant a tree at the data center Olivier designed and built in Salt Lake City.

In addition to the tree eBay planted they created a plaque.

"The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky. - Antoine De Saint-Exupery, The Wisdom of the Sands"

"This tree is dedicated to the memory of Olivier Sanche who passed away on November 26, 2010. Olivier was a colleague, peer, mentor, and friend to many in the eBay family. At his memorial he was remembered as someone who lit up a room whenever he entered in through his big personality and solid foundation. The tree symbolizes that seed of friendship, wisdom, and inspiration that he planted with so many. May it, like his memory, continue to grow."

The above plaque was set  in Aug 2011, and KC Mares even posts in Sept 2011 about the plaque, tree, and conference room named after Olivier.  I have been waiting for eBay to post something official, but I must have missed the notices and I can't find it on the web. When I contacted Olivier's wife to ask what she thought of the plaque, she said no one from eBay had contacted her regarding the memorial efforts.  So, I decided to move on my own and ask a few friends to contribute their words to remember Olivier by.

First, Mike Manos's (AOL) words.

Olivier was a man of quiet action.  Benjamin Franklin said “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.”  There is not a month that goes by where I am reminded of my conversations with Olivier.  His influence is still felt throughout our industry and his passion has left an indelible mark that has changed our industry for the better.  True leadership comes from passion and heart.  Olivier had plenty of both.  It’s a rare thing especially when you compare it to many of the ‘pretenders and self-promoters’ who have come after.  His influence was soft but strong, not in-your-face but analytical and probing.  He led you down a path so you understood his position and hopefully adopted it as your own.   Oliver remains a strong voice amongst us and his legacy will be felt for years to come.   On a personal note I continue to miss and mourn a good friend taken far too early.

Nic Bustamente (Microsoft).

Christian [Belady] and I were just talking about him recently, it doesn't seem like a year's gone by. We sat in stunned silence thinking about Olivier . . . . it's still shocking.

Joe Kava (Google)

it's hard to believe that more than a year has gone by since Olivier's passing.  I think the fact that many industry notables still speak so fondly of him is a tribute to what a great person he was.  Genuinely one of the "good guys" who really cared and poured his heart into what he was passionate about... his family, his work, the environment, etc.

I continue to miss him.

Anonymous

Olivier was a friend and mentor in so many ways.  We would argue to the point of people entering the room to see if we were ok, then we would head of to a night of dinner and drinks together.  I really miss his smile and his way of looking at things.  I would like to make sure that his memory is maintained in a manner appropriate to the life and passion he brought to our industry.

Vim Kumar (ex-AT&T reporting to Olivier)

Olivier was a natural born leader and never afraid to roll his sleeves up and "get dirty" with the folks on the floor.  Talk about motivation!  To see your director actually doing something about a problem instead of talking about it really gets you going to get the job done.

Charles Kalko (Skype, ex-eBay)

Olivier is best remembered for his passion to for the environment and his belief that we all can make a difference.

Data Centers as the Heart and Brain of a company, an outage is like a stroke

Data Centers are becoming more and more important for a companies survival.  The Data Center is define in Wikipedia as.

Data center

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An operation engineer overseeing a Network Operations Control Room of a data center.

A data center (or data centre or datacentre or datacenter) is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression) and security devices.

In the past I have used the analogy of an information factory to explain how critical it is to operate data centers, but this definition is still too geeky for most.  As companies have learned during extended outages, they are paralyzed as if your brain and heart have stopped working.  Maybe a better analogy is to think of an outage as stroke where blood flow to the brain is cut off.

Definition

A stroke is the sudden death of brain cells in a localized area due to inadequate blood flow.

Description

A stroke occurs when blood flow is interrupted to part of the brain. Without blood to supply oxygen and nutrients and to remove waste products, brain cells quickly begin to die. Depending on the region of the brain affected, a stroke may cause paralysis, speech impairment, loss of memory and reasoning ability, coma, or death.

I recently talked to a CEO of a start-up and her company suffered 2 1/2 days of down service during AWS major outage on the East Coast.  AWS comp'd her $700 for the downtime, but that's like paying people for the cost of keeping the body running during 2 1/2 days.  The outage was a paralysis for her business.  Lack of response is like being in a coma.  After a day or two you start to think of death.

Sounds scary.  It should a major data center is like a stroke.

Going back to wikipedia's definition of a data center.

IT operations are a crucial aspect of most organizational operations. One of the main concerns is business continuity; companies rely on their information systems to run their operations. If a system becomes unavailable, company operations may be impaired or stopped completely. It is necessary to provide a reliable infrastructure for IT operations, in order to minimize any chance of disruption. Information security is also a concern, and for this reason a data center has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment. This is accomplished through redundancy of both fiber optic cables and power, which includes emergency backup power generation.

Does this sound more like a data center is heart and brain of a company?

When you discuss outages, it can change the minder by thinking of a stroke to the business.  You can be hyper paranoid and create SLAs that define high 9's of availability. Or recognize that outages are part of life.  How you cope with them and recover is key.  Early detection and fast response time limits the damage.

Thinking about Data Center business in China, consider the lessons of Soccer

There are a bunch of friends I have discussed the challenges of conducting data center business in China.  The Economist has a great article on Why China fails at Football (Soccer).

Why China fails at football

Little red card

The telling reasons why, at least in football, China is unlikely to rule the world in the near future

Dec 17th 2011 | from the print edition

• The Buddha tells the people he can fulfil only one of their wishes. Someone asks: “Could you lower the price of property in China so that people can afford it?” Seeing the Buddha frown in silence, the person makes another wish: “Could you make the Chinese football team qualify for a World Cup?” After a long sigh, the Buddha says: “Let’s talk about property prices.”

What is the challenge of doing business in China?  Understanding how money influences the system.

Qingdao’s owner Du Yunqi was irate—at his team’s utter incompetence. As he would later admit to investigators, he had just lost a bet that there would be a total of four goals scored in the game. His humiliated assistant coach said on national television, “Afterward the boss was angry and scolded me, saying I bungled things and couldn’t even fix a match.”

If you think data centers are private business, you can't see the connections to the government.

All this hints at something rather unique and powerful about the place of football in Chinese society. It is, like all organised sport in China, ultimately the domain of the government;

What outsiders call corruption is simply the way the Chinese system works.

A recent crackdown on football corruption offers little solace; it simply mirrors the pyrrhic campaigns against official corruption elsewhere in China. A mid-level functionary in China’s state security apparatus puts it candidly: “You know all those problems with society that you like to blame on China’s political system? Well it really is like that with football.”

Data Centers are a priority for the Chinese government.  Soccer is as well.

So whatever ails Chinese football, it is not a lack of passion from the country’s leaders. If anything, the opposite may be the problem. China’s Party-controlled, top-down approach to sport has yielded some magnificent results in individual sports, helping China win more Olympic gold medals in Beijing in 2008 than any other country. But this “Soviet model” has proven catastrophically unsuitable for assembling a team of 11 football players, much less a nation of them.

It would be interesting to survey the additional budget required to support keeping "favors."

Investors would contrive to fix games as favours to the local officials who nominally controlled the clubs (these types of matches are called “favour”, “relationship” or “tacit” matches, and are not viewed negatively by many within the game). Gambling syndicates, including the triads, began exerting influence over investors, referees, coaches and players. A spoils system evolved, and everyone took their cuts.

WSJ blogs about the soccer corruption trials.

Bribery:

China’s long-awaited trial into alleged bribery by the former head referee of the country’s soccer association has begun. The body pledged to fight corruption. More here and here. (China Daily, Xinhua, Xinhua, AFP)

A FIFA anti-bribery panel may be further expanded, its head said. Ted Howard isreported to be the new general secretary of the Caribbean, North American and Central American soccer confederation after Chuck Blazer left. More on a meeting by the FIFA Executive Committee in Tokyo is available here,here, here, here, here, here and here. (Bloomberg, Inside World Football, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, AP, BBC, MidEast Soccer, Reuters, NZ News)