Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/807744
Community Lights, camera, action… Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? So trilled the late Freddie Mercury back in the 1970s. The Queen front man was posing a philosophical question at the time, but 40 years later it seems eerily pres- cient. Rarely has real life felt so like a badly scripted movie. As Donald Trump – implau- sibly cast as the president of the United States – faces off against cartoon villain Kim Jong-un, the rest of us can only look on wondering whether this is really happening. Trump is clearly confident that he's got the measure of Kim. He is, aer all, a man who famously knows how to host a success- ful TV show. Kim, meanwhile, demonstrates that he loves showbiz just as much as the prez by executing sundry relatives in the most theatri- cal ways he can imagine. If he catches them overseas, it's exotic nerve agent delivered by beautiful female assassins. On home soil, it's a firing range and an anti-aircra gun. Meanwhile, stage le, a bare-chested Vladimir Putin sidles around on a horse, wait- ing for a lull in the action so he can make an entrance. On second thoughts, it's not so much a badly scripted movie as a really terrible sequel to a movie that wasn't very good the first time around. Tall storey Of course, really terrible mov- ies need really terrible sets, so how about setting this one in a skyscraper hanging off an asteroid? Because that's what's proposed by New York design firm Clouds Architecture Office. Yup. They've mocked up photos and everything. Named Analemma, the proposed skyscraper would be the tallest building ever created, and would travel thousands of miles each day between the northern and southern hemi- spheres in a figure-of-eight loop. Of course, first you'd have to capture an asteroid and steer it into the right orbit (and to be honest, they kind of skirt that one), but aer that it would just be a matter of hoisting prefabricated modules from earth and plugging them into the building's extendable core, which would be tethered by cables to the asteroid. "Harnessing the power of planetary design thinking, it taps into the desire for extreme height, seclusion and constant mobility," burble the architects. Hmm. Apart from the obvious drawbacks of being totally insane and technologically impossible at every turn, Dis- connector would question how many people would sign up to live in a skyscraper suspended from an asteroid flying around the planet. On the plus side, at least it would give Kim Jong-un something to aim his ordnance at while he's waiting for his henchmen to develop a work- able intercontinental ballistic missile. Die, robot! Disconnector was intrigued to read last week of a failed mis- sion to reach the heart of the Fukushima reactor in Japan. Radiation levels at the former nuclear power plant are still beyond the limits of human survival, so engineers use purpose-built robots to assess the damage. These "scorpion" robots have cameras attached to do so, and have been encounter- ing problems with radiation, despite being purpose-built. The design tolerance of the latest robot was 73 sieverts of radiation but it encountered 530 sieverts, which fried its electronics. So, the good news is that a robot can be stopped if neces- sary with a sufficient dose of radiation. The bad news is that it's 500 times the amount required to stop a man. Disconnector Editor, Utility Week, and content director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellenbennett@fav-house.com; Deputy editor: Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: janegray@ fav-house.com; Insights editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathewbeech@fav-house. com; News editor: Lois Vallely, t: 01342 332080, e: loisvallely@fav-house.com; Deputy news editor: Jamie Hailstone, t: 01342 332050, e: jamiehailstone@fav-house.com; Senior reporter: Tom Grimwood, t: 01342 332061, e: tomgrimwood@fav-house.com; Policy correspondent: David Blackman, e: davidblackman@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Kevin Pearce, t: 01342 332116, e; kevinpearce@fav-house.com; Business development executive: Nigel Searle, t: 01342 332009, e: nigelsearle@fav-house.com; Conference sponsorship manager: Sophie Abbott, t: 01342 332062, e; sophieabbott@fav-house.com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amandabarnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership enquiries: Peter Bissell, t: 01342 332057, e: peterbissell@fav-house.com. ISSN: 1356-5532. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Printed by: Buxton Press, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Published by: Faversham House Ltd, Windsor Court, Wood Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 1UZ 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2015 Membership subscriptions: UK £669 per year. Overseas £781 per year. Contact Peter Bissell on: 01342 332057 Utility Week is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (which regulates the UK's magazine and newspaper industry). We abide by the Editors' Code of Practice and are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism. If you think that we have not met those standards and want to make a complaint please contact the editor, Ellen Bennett, at ellenbennett@fav-house.com. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you would like more information about IPSO or the Editors' Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit www.ipso.co.uk Open Water @OpenWaterOrg #England has the largest #water retail market in the #world. This is no joke. #aprilfoolsday #notfoolingyou Lois Vallely @LoisVallely EXCITING NEWS! On the first working day of the #openwatermarket, @AnglianWaterBus and @Corona_Energy team up to offer a tri-utility service BGB Innovation @BGB_Innovation An interesting couple of days @ScotRenew Great to see a country so renewable focused and investing so much in R&D for the industry #SRAC17 NewNuclearWatch @newnuclearwatch Blow to Moorside project. New investment for #NewBuild NPP is vital for UK energy security. NNWE have been calling for Gov. investment. Stephen Tindale @STindale Dear Kepco. Please step in and save Moorside. We need it, and you have good record in nuclear construction. Ann Robinson @AnnRobinson8 Offshore wind costs reducing and doubts over Moorside nuclear. Need a rethink but nuclear still needed for when elements let us down. Simon Moore @SMoore1984 Feel @beisgovuk would be better off doing things to lower cost of CfDs (cough onshore wind) rather than just moving around who pays for them William Marchant @richonlyinname Govt agrees with PAC that it should publish annual reports on energy policy costs, with the next one before April 2017. *Looks at calendar* Thomas Edwards @TomHenryEdwards Debating buying a ROC in memorandum for the last day of the RO Top Tweets UTILITY WEEK | 7TH - 13TH APRIL 2017 | 31