Network around the Institute tonight is S-L-O-W.  I wonder what is going on.

Cement and concrete – yes, there is a difference and it is explained here.  Well worth learning about as it impact CO2 production.  I love things like this – sustainability opportunities are everywhere.

Golf – don’t, at least not in Rhode Island

Physics Department Events

• Wednesday, April 8, 4-5 pm – Office Hours for Graduate Students with Peter Fisher and Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing”, David Kaiser and Julie Shah
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Advisories of interest

• Online conduct – just be cool…
• Virtual career fair – April 8

No Academic Continuity Meetings this weekend. There is another reason to worry about concrete – Dry Cask Storage.  The idea with radioactive waste was that we should bury it deep underground and let it sit for 10,000 years or so.  Never happened.  When a US reactor gets refueled, the spent (but still very, very radioactive) fuel goes into fuel ponds inside the reactor building.  When those get full, or when the reactor gets decommissioned, the fuel goes into 30′ high, 10′ diameter steel-lined concrete cylinders, where they will stay until an underground repository gets built, i.e. forever… …or not.  Concrete lasts about 100 years, need to store the fuel for 10,000 years.  You can see some dry casks from Yankee Rowe here.  Maybe we should go visit them sometime.

P.S. I am posting these messages in my blog roll here.

Thanks to Physics Council, Cathy Modica, Vicky Metternich and Christina Andujar for input and comments on these messages.