NationStates Jolt Archive

I, Mattieu Gregor seeing the conflicts that seem inevitably to spark over that most precious of all drugs, oil, hereby officially announce my intention to 'Go Green' as it were, with our economy.

Our economy, being as it is, still relatively small, we feel this is still possible. I therefore am announcing a contract to provide Psalara with the technology to manufacture biofuel or other alternative fuel supplies.

Let the bidding begin.

Greetings, sir Gregor.


The Symmetriad Corporation congratulates Psalara on the choice to move to ecologically clean fuels. We have been supplying the Vault lands with power and advanced fuels for tens of years, since the very construction of the Vaults and continuing now.

The key principles of Symmetriad solutions are:
* Ecological safety
* Economical feasibility
* Long-term sustainability


Mass production of substitute fuels requires substantial modernization of energy industry, which will always bring a lot of beneficial side effects. Which way to go? Fossil fuel power plants are out of question. Windmills are excellent for small scale generation, but massive wind farms can cover a lot of lands in expensive, noisy, maintenance-intensive due to numbers and not always reliable windmills, and, moreover, require burning billions tons of coal to make all the steel for them. Solar power takes more effort to get than it brings, and solar updraft towers can turn miles of fields into wastelands. And all of that can hardly satisfy growing demands of modern heavy industry and clean fuel production.

The real XXI century choice for mass-scale energy production is safe nuclear and thermonuclear power, and Symmetriad stands ready to provide countries with ready reactors, fuel enrichment plants, recycling systems or all technological assistance required, as well as supply fuel or take spent fuel for recycling. With breeder reactors, burning U-238, and deep reprocessing, no fuel goes to waste. New passively safe designs eliminate the hazards of early nuclear age, compact and integrated facilities can form technological centers, and cost of nuclear power is steadily decreasing, promising to become the best choice for the economy.


We offer a complex solution to the problem of fossil fuels, based on three-step approach:
* Integrated primary energy production
* Countrywide unified electric grid, supported by smaller stations
* Distributed energy conversion into fuel
Our approach eliminates the need for heavy logistics lines carrying fuel across the country, and everything is provided by inexpensive, low-loss electric lines.


For energy production, we offer integrated complexes, self-contained fuel enrichment, conventional and breeding power plants, and fuel recycling inside a single large facility. This eliminated potential hazards of nuclear fuel supplies or recycled fuel stealing, as only natural uranium enters the facility, and nothing radioactive leaves it. All of our complexes in the Vault lands are built underground to survive even nuclear bombardment, and zero the risk of spread of any pollution in case of accident, although other solutions are available. The heat exits them using an updraft tower, adding to the power produced, although the systems can work without it.
Our power production systems combine nuclear power with solar and wind, and integrated solar/wind stations are used as the auxiliary systems for the main stations, as well as for more distant parts not feasible to reach by the central power grid.


For the transmission of power, we choose radial grid, consisting of a ring of superconducting lines connecting all the stations, and superconducting lines leading to all the regions of the country and major cities. Starting there, the power is transferred by conventional lines to consumers, be it houses or industries. Each city may have several lines leading to it, ensuring power even if the lines are damaged, and any overload is distributed immediately between all plants, eliminating blackout risk. The power production is highly synchronized by the accompanying network, eliminating centralizing losses.

For conversion of power to transportable fuel for road vehicles, we have selected methanol at the first stage and hydrogen at the second, as completely clean, sustainable and efficient fuel. Some hydrogen can be extracted at natural gas processing, but, as oil and gas consumption is reduced, the hydrogen has to be produced at electrolysis plants. It can be converted to methanol for higher-performance applications or existing vehicles, or hydrogen for less performance but more safety. Connected to the power grid and water supply, the stations produce clean and safe fuel which can later be burnt in fuel cells. The high-performance or compact applications, can use zinc-air fuel cells, which are more complicated to recharge, but more compact and efficient.

Finally, our engine solution is based on fuel cells, batteries and electric motors. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PMEFC) we suggest to use are easily fed, compact and produce good amount of energy. High torque and very high efficiency are the distinctive features of electric motors, and power today can be stored in considerable quantities, up to the point that we provide fuel cell based aircraft engines. Most conventional vehicles, however, need only batteries, if our highly developed power grid is in place.


The implementation will consist of:
* Stage I - Nuclear plants and power grid construction; methanol applied to existing cars, and new cars are built with fuel cells
* Stage II - New power grid and power plants partially enter service. New cars using fuel cells replace aged gasoline-fueled; trucks use batteries, sport cars and new aircraft use zinc-air cells.
* Stage III - Highly distributed power grid fully enters service. No fossil fuels are used. All vehicles use fuel cells, batteries or their combination.

We can implement the solution in time determined only by the scale of investment, first stage taking only a year, and provide full support for all the life cycle of the systems. Please respond with specifics so that we can determine the required operations, costs involved, length of the program, and specific terms.


Respectfully yours,
Hiro Ishikawa,
The Symmetriad Board of Directors Representative.

To Mattieu Gregor of Psalara,

We here in the Principality of Wilhelmsborough are happy to see that your nation that is willing to shake off the political and environmental shackles that are tied to the trade and consumption of oil. We here in the Principality ended our dependence on petrolium long ago, replacing it with hempseed oil. We have benefitted greatly from this conversion. And now we would like to see these benefits spread out around the world.

Hempseed Oil comes from the Industrial Hemp plant (Cannibus Savita), which unfortunately, is closely related to the marijuana plant. Before you object, I wish to reassure you that the THC levels in Industrial Hemp are very low, and with genetic selections, can be made even lower.

Hemp is extremely durable and can be grown virtually anywhere, from arid regions, to places with short growing seasons. A single acre of hemp can yield 300 gallons of hempseed oil, but with improved strains from genetic engineering, that amount could be increased. And because it's a biomass, it draws its carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Therefore, when the oil is burned, there is no significant increase of CO2 in the atmosphere.

As I can recall from your letter, you are also attempting to expand your nation's economy. Outside of oil production, the hemp crop itself is an extremely versitile plant, and can be used in many different field. The hemp fiber can be used in the production of paper, cloth, dent-resistant car panels, paints, plastics, and building construction. The best part about it is that it can be grown fast and cheap, without the need of ANY pesticides, because hemp has no natural enemies in nature.

Sir Gregor, I STRONGLY recommend that the nation of Psalara explore the benefits of hemp and hempseed oil. Not only will your country benefit politically and environmentally, but economically as well. There are literally tens of thousands of things that the hemp plant can be used for. It's a virtually untapped market! Think of the money you could make!

I trust that you will make the decision that will benefit your country best. Good day to you, sir.

Signed,
Prince William Kennedy, Sovereign
Principality of Wilhelmsborough
Crimean Peninsula

Message to Wilhelmsborough and the Symmetriad Corporation

Both of these look promising. However, given the level of concern among our population of the possibility for terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities, we will, at this team, have to go with the Wilhelmsborough proposal. We would like to inquire into the costs of switching over to hemp-seed oil, as well as look into purchasing assistance in your repeatedly mentioned genetic engineering of the crop.

We can assure you that our facilities are up to the highest safety levels possible.

First of all, we, in association with Vault-Tec, have been building facilities for the Vaults for many years, and all of them are always built well underground. In the nuclear war the Vault 10 survived, they have proven to be among the few industries withstanding nuclear bombardment. Extreme protection also means that even if a plant is attacked, no spread of nuclear material is possible. It would take a concentrated, successive, high-yield nuclear bombardment to spread the fissile material outside the facility, not just a terrorist attack. Moreover, our self-contained complexes are assumed to be serviced by closed cities, needing very little interaction with the outside world. Checking the tiny amounts of inbound and outbound cargo is not a problem, and infiltration is impossible for a terrorist organization. The system is in fact fully self-sufficient: once it's built, started and populated by a relatively small personnel, it receives small shipments of uranium, in bulk form, where it's impossible to hide anything, and gives power. Moreover, fully breeder-based system doesn't even need uranium supply, working on plutonium it produces from the initial charge. Since ventilation shafts tend to fail in the war, all Vault-Tec facilities have air renovation, in a manner similar to nuclear submarines, and the food is grown in hydroponic farms.

Second, the designs used are passively safe, which means that the reaction is supported by the systems rather than suppressed, and in case of malfunction the reaction stops rather than escalate. Even if a facility is all-terrorist, the worst they can do is destroying the facility, burying themselves. Our facilities in Vault 10 have survived a nuclear war, post-war bandit raids, surgical strikes by our rivals, terrorism and diversions, corporate conflicts, economic shocks, changes of laws, and what survived this without destruction can become the most reliable and safe thing in a less perilous nation.



While growing hemp is a workable method, we should warn you that agriculture itself requires massive amounts of fuel, as well as processing harvested crops into fuel. This decreases the efficiency, and, while feasible for appropriately designed low-consuming lightweight vehicles, hemp oil would simply be impractical to use for large-scale energy production required by the modern industry. We would suggest to seriously consider move to nuclear power for energy production, even if staying with hemp oil for vehicles. Moreover, electric-powered agricultural equipment can seriously improve the efficiency of hemp growing, harvesting and processing, using cheap power for that instead of expensive plant oil.


Respectfully yours,
Hiro Ishikawa,
The Symmetriad Board of Directors Representative.

TO Mattieu Gregor OF PSALARA

I would like to personally invite you to A "Going Green" conference that is to be held in Duckquackmuse. The aim of the conference is to enlighten countries around about how to tackle climate change, we shall discuss transport, energy, industry etc. It shall not be purely for environmentalists but for all nations, so a practical solution can be arranged.

I feel you have put foward an imprtant issue and think you would contribute greatly to the event (which is to be held in the Venoire Centre). Would you be interested in attending?

Regards, President of Duckquackmuse.