Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[Switchgear]

7 hours ago, DCSaints_fan said:

 

I think ZPP had been taken offline (to avoid the possibility of a meltdown)  I am not not an EE,  but I believe it has to do with when the plant goes idle.  Those turbines/pumps are huge and require alot of energy to "start up".  The thing with a nuclear power plant is once the reaction starts, you can't take it totally offline until its decomissioned, because you have to keep pumping coolant through the fueling rods.

 

Its like the same reason an internal combustion engine needs an external power source in order to start it up.  For a small engine like a lawnmower, pulling a cord rapidly is enough, but for a car, they need a battery.

Right, the plant needs power to keep pumps moving coolant, to remove the waste heat that the fuel rods generate, which happens even when the plant is offline. The fuel continues to decay, even with the control rods fully inserted. The neutrons and other particles that the fuel continually emits will interact with nearby matter to create heat. That decay heat will eventually melt the reactor down if it isn't removed, but it isn't enough to generate steam, turn the turbines, make electricity.

 

I was a power plant electrician on the Enterprise in the 90s, I worked in the switchgear spaces, controlling the steam driven turbines that supplied power to the ship. The Enterprise had 8 2500KW steam driven turbine generators that usually provided power to the ship. It also had 4 1000KW diesel generators, which were an emergency backup. As long as one plant was still online, they weren't needed. When we were in port, the ship would hook to shore power to keep the lights on, and keep the reactors cooled while they were shut down.

 

Nuclear plants need power to get to the point where they can make power, but they also need power when shut down to keep the waste heat from destroying the reactor.

[Renegade7]

 

[EmirOfShmo]

 

[LD0506]

For decades foreign weapons sales have been a huge source of income for the Russians. Going to be hard to find customers after this fustercluck. 

[TheGreatBuzz]

6 hours ago, LD0506 said:

For decades foreign weapons sales have been a huge source of income for the Russians. Going to be hard to find customers after this fustercluck. 

 

I wonder how many of his customers are scared now.  They are probably being told their stuff is fine but so was Putin.

[MrSilverMaC]

52 minutes ago, The Almighty Buzz said:

 

I wonder how many of his customers are scared now.  They are probably being told their stuff is fine but so was Putin.

I mentioned that a couple of months ago.

 

I think that’s why china stopped their saber rattling.

 

They got loud after pelosi’s visit to Taiwan then all of a sudden calmed down as Ukraine started to prevail.

 

Apparently North Korea hasn’t figured it out yet, though.

 

This is grim to say but I guess if you’re just a warlord in Asia, Africa, or South America and all you’re doing is slaughtering unarmed civilians, russian stuff is good enough, so there is a market for their weapons.

 

Any country seriously thinking about protecting itself from another military power would have to look elsewhere.

[China]

Only 4 countries side with Russia as U.N. rejects annexations in Ukraine

 

The U.N. General Assembly roundly rejected Russia's move to illegally annex four regions of Ukraine, with only four countries voting alongside President Vladimir Putin's regime.

 

"The world had its say," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as he expressed his gratitude — a message he issued in seven languages. He called Russia's push for annexation "worthless," saying free nations will never recognize it.

 

There were 35 abstentions, but 143 countries voted in favor of Ukraine's resolution, which cited not only the need to protect the sovereignty of a country that has now withstood a Russian invasion for more than seven months, but also to defend the U.N. charter itself.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

So Belarus, N. Korea, Nicaragua and Syria.

 

And what's with all the abstentions?  

[China]

'Everything Has Collapsed': Mobilization Tanks Small Businesses

 

In his brand new co-working space in Chelyabinsk, a city in central Russia, entrepreneur Maxim Novikov is counting the empty seats.

 

The space is usually overflowing with designers, programmers and young Russians working on their start-ups.

 

But since President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization of hundreds of thousands of young Russian men last month, the 33-year-old has lost much of his clientele.

 

"Many have stopped coming," he told AFP by phone.

 

Instead, they are filling the depleted ranks of Russia's army or they are among the tens of thousands of others who have fled south for neighboring Kazakhstan.

 

The Kremlin's mobilization has brought uncertainty and chaos to businesses already hard-hit by sanctions and still recovering from the fallout of the pandemic. In the last three weeks, a little more than half of the 77 spots in Novikov's co-working place were occupied.

 

He has "no idea" if the people who fled or were drafted will keep paying subscription fees, which cost between $70 and $130.

 

And now Novikov is worried about his loans.

 

"Turnover has already dropped by more than 40% this year," Novikov, an architecture graduate, said. "I wanted to buy a third space but for the moment it is not possible to take the risk." 

 

But he is far from the only business owner in Russia who is growing more nervous over the workforce vacuum.

 

"It means projects are being put on hold and private companies will be afraid to invest," said Natalia Zubarevich, an economist at Moscow State University.

 

Russia's economy has already been battered this year by unprecedented Western sanctions in response to Putin's decision to send troops to Ukraine on Feb. 24.

 

But Zubarevich said mobilization was an "additional aggravating factor."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Gurgeh]

The Ukrainian forces have apparently turned the flank of the Russian paratroopers holding the line to the north of the city, although they're still some 40 miles away from Kherson. 

 

[Riggo-toni]

 

[DogofWar1]

 

That's an extremely specific number, I wonder how it was sourced, but I wouldn't expect Reznikov to just make **** up.

[China]

26 minutes ago, DogofWar1 said:

 

That's an extremely specific number, I wonder how it was sourced, but I wouldn't expect Reznikov to just make **** up.

 

To me the interesting point is that if they continue using them at the same rate, they'll all be gone in 4 months, and they apparently aren't able to replace them.

[Switchgear]

38 minutes ago, China said:

 

To me the interesting point is that if they continue using them at the same rate, they'll all be gone in 4 months, and they apparently aren't able to replace them.

They relied on western electronics. The sanctions are working, Russia can't rearm itself. Other than buying Iranian drones.

[China]

 

[China]

 

Russian businessmen keep dying. No one knows why.

 

It’s a rough year to be a high-profile Russian: After nearly eight months of war in Ukraine, the Russian military is reeling and on its back foot; sanctions continue to squeeze the country’s economy and elite — and at least 15 Russian businessmen and executives have died in apparent accidents or by suicide, including a number of Putin allies.

 

The victims range from an executive with Gazprom, a major state-owned oil company, to the managing director of a state-run development corporation. The causes of death range from unremarkable — a stroke, for example — to lurid, such as death by toad poison in a shaman’s basement.

 

Combined, the sheer number of deaths, as well as the prominence of the dead and a long history of suspicious demises in Putin’s Russia, have raised questions about whether something other than ordinary bad luck is at fault.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Exclusive: Musk’s SpaceX says it can no longer pay for critical satellite services in Ukraine, asks Pentagon to pick up the tab

 

Since they first started arriving in Ukraine last spring, the Starlink satellite internet terminals made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been a vital source of communication for Ukraine’s military, allowing it to fight and stay connected even as cellular phone and internet networks have been destroyed in its war with Russia.

 

So far roughly 20,000 Starlink satellite units have been donated to Ukraine, with Musk tweeting on Friday the “operation has cost SpaceX $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of the year.”

 

But those charitable contributions could be coming to an end, as SpaceX has warned the Pentagon that it may stop funding the service in Ukraine unless the US military kicks in tens of millions of dollars per month.

 

Documents obtained by CNN show that last month Musk’s SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon saying it can no longer continue to fund the Starlink service as it has. The letter also requested that the Pentagon take over funding for Ukraine’s government and military use of Starlink, which SpaceX claims would cost more than $120 million for the rest of the year and could cost close to $400 million for the next 12 months.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[dfitzo53]

57 minutes ago, China said:

 

Russian businessmen keep dying. No one knows why.

 

It’s a rough year to be a high-profile Russian: After nearly eight months of war in Ukraine, the Russian military is reeling and on its back foot; sanctions continue to squeeze the country’s economy and elite — and at least 15 Russian businessmen and executives have died in apparent accidents or by suicide, including a number of Putin allies.

 

The victims range from an executive with Gazprom, a major state-owned oil company, to the managing director of a state-run development corporation. The causes of death range from unremarkable — a stroke, for example — to lurid, such as death by toad poison in a shaman’s basement.

 

Combined, the sheer number of deaths, as well as the prominence of the dead and a long history of suspicious demises in Putin’s Russia, have raised questions about whether something other than ordinary bad luck is at fault.

 

Click on the link for the full article

"No one knows why"

 

surejan.gif

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Russia’s Kamikaze drone ‘like Nazi V1 used to batter Brits in the Blitz – but better'

 

A military and weapons expert has warned that Putin’s newly-deployed Iranian suicide drones are like the weapons Hitler used to batter Britain in the Second World War.

 

Russia is believed to have been increasing its use of the Shahed-136 drone – unmanned flying bombs thought to be supplied by Iran – on targets across Ukraine.

 

Dr Matthew Powell, an expert in power and strategic studies at the Royal Air Force College and the University of Portsmouth, gave the chilling explanation exclusively to the Daily Star.

 

“What we really see is that this is a development from the V1 or V2 rockets used in the Second World War. But with more sophisticated technology, better propulsion,” he said.

 

“They're able to loiter for a certain amount of time [as long as three hours] before they are sent on to their targets,” said Dr Powell.

 

Far cheaper than other airborne alternatives, Putin is making use of them in his war in Ukraine.

 

Dr Powell said they would be most effective against “attack formations in the field,” meaning they could be used to hit groups of troops or civilians.

 

“You don't have any controls from the ground with this apart from the GPS signal and the targeting that you have,” he added, “but it can stay in the air for a prolonged period of time causing confusion amongst air defence. You're not sure what he's going to target until potentially the last minute.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[DCSaints_fan]

So I was listening to that jackball Douglas MacGregor (which I won't repost here), and he was claiming there was no chance Russia would use a nuclear weapon.

 

This is concerning because everything he says has been basically wrong and what his FSB handlers want him to parrot to the West, in some vain hope he can somehow undermine decision making in the West ...

Edited October 14, 2022 by DCSaints_fan

[Larry]

1 hour ago, China said:

 

Exclusive: Musk’s SpaceX says it can no longer pay for critical satellite services in Ukraine, asks Pentagon to pick up the tab

 

"Free was the introductory rate."

[China]

Apparently Russia is running out of missiles:

 

No more massive strikes on Ukraine, for now - Putin

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there is no need for more massive strikes on Ukraine, days after the heaviest bombardment of the country since the war began.

 

He said most designated targets of the strikes had been hit, adding that it was not his aim to destroy Ukraine.

 

Moscow's goal of mobilising 300,000 men would be met within two weeks, he said.

 

Mr Putin's words come as Russian forces seem stalled and Ukraine advances, almost eight months since the invasion.

 

Speaking to journalists after a summit with regional leaders in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, the Russian leader said that the recent strikes had destroyed 22 out of the 29 targets in Ukraine set by the military and that "they are getting" the remaining seven.

 

 

"There's no need for massive strikes. We now have other tasks," he said.

 

He said it was not Russia's intention to destroy Ukraine, but he did not regret the invasion.

 

"What is happening today is not pleasant, to put things mildly," he said. "But all the same, [if Russia hadn't attacked] we would have been in the same situation, only the conditions would have been worse for us. So we're doing everything correctly and at the right time."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

Paraphrasing a line from National Lampoon's Bored of the Rings:

 

He would have leveled Ukraine then and there, but pity stayed his hand. 
 

"Pity I've run out of missiles" he thought, as he walked back into his assassination-resistant bunker. 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

2 hours ago, Larry said:

"Free was the introductory rate."

Should have never gave them anything for free. Be more like Boeing and Raytheon. You want our weapon systems to defend yourself against tyrants?! Pay up buttercup…

 

no bad press that way…

[The Sisko]

5 hours ago, China said:

Exclusive: Musk’s SpaceX says it can no longer pay for critical satellite services in Ukraine, asks Pentagon to pick up the tab

 

Since they first started arriving in Ukraine last spring, the Starlink satellite internet terminals made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been a vital source of communication for Ukraine’s military, allowing it to fight and stay connected even as cellular phone and internet networks have been destroyed in its war with Russia.

 

So far roughly 20,000 Starlink satellite units have been donated to Ukraine, with Musk tweeting on Friday the “operation has cost SpaceX $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of the year.”

 

But those charitable contributions could be coming to an end, as SpaceX has warned the Pentagon that it may stop funding the service in Ukraine unless the US military kicks in tens of millions of dollars per month.

 

Documents obtained by CNN show that last month Musk’s SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon saying it can no longer continue to fund the Starlink service as it has. The letter also requested that the Pentagon take over funding for Ukraine’s government and military use of Starlink, which SpaceX claims would cost more than $120 million for the rest of the year and could cost close to $400 million for the next 12 months.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Here you go kid. First dose is on the house.