BBC_Science_Focus_-_08.2019

CONVERSATION

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BBC Science Focus, Eagle House, Colston

Avenue, Bristol, BS1 4ST

@sciencefocus

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@bbcsciencefocus

Power problems

With regard to your article on

Chernobyl ( July, p36), there is a

certain irony. I read a recent

article, inThe Telegraphbusiness

supplement, suggesting that the

Russian Nuclear Energy Agency

• Rosatom – was doing well,
  seing up reactors in a variety of
  Third World states. It is only in
  the West that the diiculties
  occur; as illustrated by the
  German decision to ban nuclear
  power following Fukushima,
  even though the chances of a
  Tsunami striking Germany seem
  decidedly low. In fact, there
  seems to be a considerable
  degree of irrationality and
  ignorance when it comes to

LETTER OF THE MONTH

CONVERSATION

nuclear power – you will

probably have seen the badge

featuring the Sun with a smiling

face and the words ‘Nuclear

Power – No Thanks!’

underneath. The wearers are

apparently unable to grasp that

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Sun. A conventional airliner

would need at least 44 hours to

circumnavigate the equator,

while the Sun takes just 24

hours. So the plane would need

at least a 20-hour headstart to

complete the trip before

darkness overtakes it. But at

the equator the biggest

headstart available – the time

between sunrise and sunset – is

just 12 hours. Concorde could

theoretically have done it, with

its record circumnavigation

time of around 31.5 hours in

1995 (not 33 hours as stated

originally). It thus needed just a

7.5-hour headstart, but sadly

for practical reasons the plane

never actuallyew around

the equator.

Robert Mahews,BBC Science

Focus science consultant

WORTH

£139.

We shouldn’t

be afraid of

nuclear power,

says Peter

Davey

Chasing sunlight

I regret that your answer to

the question onying round

the world in daylight is

incorrect (May, p83). Yes – if

you leat noon and arrived

at noon. However, if you took

oat dawn and arrived at

sunset then you have 36

hours to make the trip and

would only need to average

the speed of sound. Since you

say it has been completed in

33 hours, it is more than

theoretically possible.

David Glover

You’re right , it is theoretically

possible. The time needed to

make the circumnavigation

in daylight depends on both

the time of take-oand the

plane’s speed relative to the