Project Faultless

While our main reason for coming to Tonopah this weekend was to check out the Belvada and see what the town is like over the US Independence Day Weekend, yesterday we took the opportunity to do a bit of "atomic tourism" to a place we learned about when we visited Project Shoal a few months ago, and that we might not have had a chance to visit because while it is a day trip from Tonopah, it's a fairly long day.

( The Ironically Named Nuclear Test )

Project Faultless is around 150 km east of Tonopah, and is not a trivial excursion. We topped off the gas tank in Tonopah and packed a lunch before setting off east across US-6, a highway that could easily challenge US-50 for the title of "Loneliest Road in America." We had researched the route in advance and printed out the directions from Google Maps, as there's obviously no cell phone reception where we were going.

( The Trip to Faultless )

After taking pictures, we ate our lunch. The weather was good, and pleasant after the heat we'd had at home last week. Intermittent clouds cut the sun, which was fine by us.

( Turning for Tonopah )

We went straight back to the Belvada with no additional stops, as we were getting a little worn out by then. After a bit of a rest, we went to Raley's again and bought another pizza. We have a kitchen, after all, and it was more relaxing after bouncing over back roads to take off our shoes, sit back, and have a pizza than to go back out for dinner.

This was a very interesting trip, and I'm glad we made it. This was Lisa's fifth atomic bomb site, and my fourth.

A Visit to the Mad Scientist's Death Ray

We had time on our hands this morning, so after a long leisurely breakfast in our hotel room, we set off to have a look at the Mad Scientist's Death Ray Crescent Dunes solar thermal power plant, which as I mentioned a couple of days ago is once again generating power in spectacular fashion.

( O Blinding Light )

At this time, solar-thermal plants like this cost more up front and, as I mentioned, have technical challenges. But they can be built with domestic materials (steel and glass and concrete) and are not dominated by countries that have bottled up all of the rare earths. They're not a panacea for energy problems, but we think they have a promising future. I'm glad to see that this plant is working again. The solutions developed here can be used to build more and better such plants in the future.