North Korea and Nukes

Whenever I talk to new people about nuclear engineering, whether scientists or lay people, one of the first questions is either "does it make you glow in the dark?" or "do you know how to make bombs?" The first is clearly prompted by The Simpsons, but the latter is much more interesting. Nuclear bombs are in the news right now, by way of North Korea's testing and movement on the NPT.

A few weeks ago, I was interested to see that they started reprocessing their spent fuel. Back in June of 2008, they tore down the cooling tower for their nuclear reactor; though it was definitely a good gesture, it was little more than that. Yes, reactors need cooling, but the cooling tower is not strictly necessary, as cooling can be accomplished by other means. Around when the North Korea started reprocessing fuel, they launched a satellite; this was widely regarded as a missile launch test, but at least there was some attempt to keep the nuclear program clandestine.

In the past couple weeks, North Korea has tested two nuclear weapons underground. They have launched multiple missiles. They are warning people to stay away from their coast because they are going to do more testing. Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be much world response. Maybe it is because we knew that they had nukes.

When we talk about who has nukes, we talk about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT doesn't need to be extended, as it was decided in 1995 to extend the treaty indefinitely. However, the treaty is periodically reviewed. For the past few years, the agenda has not been set. One of the provisions of the NPT calls for complete nuclear disarmament of the participating nations. None of the countries is actually interested in complete disarmament, least of all the US and Russia. When the agenda for treaty review is set, numerous non-nuclear states want disarmament on the agenda, resulting in deadlock before the meeting starts.

However, this year the primary topic of discussion is the side issue of production of "highly enriched uranium and plutonium". It looks probable that the treaty review meeting will take place this year. What troubles me is that statement in quotes. Does "highly enriched" apply to both uranium and plutonium? Does it really count as highly enriched if it contains poisons such as americium? Americium would make the plutonium useless for bombs, but would not impair its usefulness in breeder reactors. Would we be allowed to make breeder reactors? Breeder reactors require higher enriched fuel than light water reactors--15-30%. Fuel is classified as "highly enriched" above 20%. Are we going to limit ourselves to non-breeding reactors because countries that aren't current signatories (North Korea initially ratified the NPT, but withdrew in 2003.) make bombs out of material that could be used to make energy?

Ignorant fear of nuclear power has already hurt the industry so much. Political justifications have already driven us to exclusively use one of the most wasteful reactor designs. I do not see calling for limits on people who aren't under any obligation to follow them as useful. I do not see limiting future reactors to LWR's or, at best, burner reactors as any legacy we should leave.

Charter vs. AT&T

Recently I switched internet service providers. I've used Charter for about a year and was very unhappy. Granted, I haven't used AT&T for long enough to decide whether the service is actually better, but I was so happy when I first switched.

Charter:
Disconnected at the telephone pole while doing operations for other customers
Cut the cable at the telephone pole while doing operations for other customers and wasn't able to fix it for three days
Steady stream of junk mail for services I already have (or other services)
Setup for online accounts is not easy--I had an account, then it stopped allowing me to log on and the only way to fix it was to call a customer service number
Intercepts DNS requests
Doesn’t respect my privacy
Has scary looking ads on the sides of buses
It is the evil that is Charter

AT&T:
Quick response to online chat
Tried hard to answer my technical questions and eventually succeeded
Employs Americans or foreigners that really sound like Americans at call centers
Claims to respect my privacy, but actually works with the government to deny civil liberties
Hasn't sent any appreciable amount of junk mail
Their website is reasonably pretty and quite useful
Installation of the modem was somewhat tricky, but highly amusing

Wireless Internet - Aesthetic and Security

As a stepping stone for my inaugural post, I would like to direct your attention to this Friday's (August 22, 2008) xkcd comic:
Yes, it is amusing and somewhat true. However, the rollover text is the key to my discussion. If you have not done so, please position your mouse over the image and read the text that pops up.

First, the aesthetic rant:
For those who are setting up a wireless network/internet access point (for the first time or not), please change the default network name. Where I live now, there are actually three 'linksys' points in range and most assuredly more beyond. This is equivalent to getting a puppy and naming it 'doggy.' Please, be nice to your wireless and give it a unique identity. Naming your network also lowers your n00b rating for the nerds (myself included) checking out the area.

Second, the security rant:
In addition to the three 'linksys' access points, there are nine others (named uniquely, yay!). Among all of these points, three are unsecured, seven are using WEP, and two are using WPA. First of all, some protection is better than none. Having an unsecured network is a big no-no — unless you enjoy broadcasting your unencrypted, browsing information in every direction for 100 meters (or maybe every web page you visit has an SSL connection available). So, if you've logged into your router to name your wireless network, please also select some form of encryption.

Secondly, if your router was purchased in the past four or so years, use WPA (yes, no 'please' in that command). WEP is a broken and deprecated standard that will fade away faster if people stay away from it (similar to Microsoft actually writing a rendering engine that doesn't suck and works to abide by standards due to people using Firefox/Opera). Also, in appreciation of a friend's point concerning passwords, if you're unsure of how to make a good password/passkey, you can use GRC's Perfect Passwords. It's free, fast, uniquely generating, and (as assured by the site's owner) generates passwords with the maximum Information entropy possible. Take as many bits as you want for your password, enter it on the router, and then type it once to login (assuming you save the password on the computer, which is okay).

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Ignoring wireless internet, I highly recommend you read the xkcd webcomic used in this post. It is hilarious.

END PERSONAL-UNSOLICITED-PLUG