CHANNELING HEAT

I'm fascinated by this figure - Dungeness B is cooled by heating 100 million litres of sea water per hour by 12 degrees C. Is this why the sea is quite warm at Winkelsea beach? 100,000,000 litres is 100,000 cubic metres per hour (and tonnes) or nearly one cubic kilometre a year. The volume of the channel is probably about 9600 cubic kilometres. Ok - probably not.

But the sea has seemed cooler in the last couple of years. Last year was particularly unhot. Dungeness A is dead and B is mostly closed for repair until further notice. I see a connection.

My father used to tell a story about some part that his company had to reinstall a hundred times at Dungeness A. If that weren't bad enough, B has only been operating for half its life. Had we a decent level of phone hacking in the 60s this outrage would never have occurred!?

Both A and B now serve their most useful purpose in my view - protecting the coast from Pett level to Dungeness. They can't let it go while the Geiger counter is still buzzing.

Dungeness Power Station (in the distance)

More framing

Its raining hard and I need to put a lid on.

MOST RAFTERS UP

Most rafters are now up. There has been an offshore wind for most of this week making the sea appear quite dark. The rain has brought about a second spring and the grass in the field has turned mauve - that which han't been eaten by the Cumbrian sheep who are looking increasingly successful.

However, the biggest shock of the week was an evening stroll round our local pub garden. The renovation by the manager of the former Pet Shop Boys is nearly complete, and it is staggering. It is like a cross between a theme park and Chelsea Flower Show. I used to think that it had potential but this is amazing! And there is obviously alot of money in managing Pet Shop Boys.

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