Leslie Dewan, a young millennial graduate from MIT, started up a company called Transatomic in the 2010s, making the claim that her design could generate 75 times more energy from mined uranium than a light water reactor. It turns out that her claim was wrong. She did not have her calculations independently verified before issuing her claim. See Nuclear Energy Startup Transatomic Backtracks on Key Promises at MIT Technology Review. Now her company is closing business. See A nuclear startup will fold after failing to deliver reactors that run on spent fuel also at MIT Technology Review.
I was talking with a gentleman at work today who met Ms. Dewan at a conference some months ago. He was accompanied by a reactor engineer whom I know very well to be quite competent and diligent. Both Ms. Dewan and my reactor engineer friend had to give presentations. After her presentation, the gentleman (who knew little about reactor engineering) asked my reactor engineer friend if Ms. Dewan’s presentation made any sense or was just a lot of fluff and puff. My reactor engineer friend said what she presented was flawed and wrong – a lot of technobabble and no substance.
I was informed that during break between presentations my reactor engineer friend tried to discuss these matters directly with Ms. Dewan. She begged off with the excuse that she had meetings to attend. She went into the ladies room. At the beginning of the next presentation, she exited and scrupulously avoided him. Obviously she wasn’t ready for some tough questions from a real reactor engineer.
I was informed that during break between presentations my reactor engineer friend tried to discuss these matters directly with Ms. Dewan. She begged off with the excuse that she had meetings to attend. She went into the ladies room. At the beginning of the next presentation, she exited and scrupulously avoided him. Obviously she wasn’t ready for some tough questions from a real reactor engineer.
Now whether everything I just reported above is completely accurate or not I do not know. But what is the factual case remains: Ms. Dewan failed to have her calculations independently verified before making her bold claim that her reactor design was so much better than everyone else’s. Then when the calculations were checked, the error (however innocent it was initially) became readily apparent. Now her company is belly-up, but she has promised to open-source all her design work. My advice to one and all: leave that work sit where it is in the garbage heap. It isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on (or the electrons representing it inside a computer).
This is typical of feminism: ignore the advice and counsel of those with decades more experience than you simply because they are middle aged white men and you’re an enlightened, awakened millennial feminist genius who’s going to change the world! Really, folks, do you trust people like this controlling the power of the atom? Look at that face. Stare into it. Ecce Vultum Adrogantiae et Superbiae Feministriae!
This is typical of feminism: ignore the advice and counsel of those with decades more experience than you simply because they are middle aged white men and you’re an enlightened, awakened millennial feminist genius who’s going to change the world! Really, folks, do you trust people like this controlling the power of the atom? Look at that face. Stare into it. Ecce Vultum Adrogantiae et Superbiae Feministriae!
No comments:
Post a Comment