OK Let's react to some stuff!
With the tiedown of French forces elsewhere national movements for self-determination and sovereignty have taken center stage across West Africa. In Cameroon, the CNU has consolidated power strongly, eliminating old-french regime elements and decisively moving to exit the franc with a total repudiation of French debts. The Chadian civil war has steadily moved into its decisive phase with forces of FROLINAT expanding to tens of thousands of soldiers on a stream of Soviet arms while the French collaboration authorities have only weakened through Algerian commitments. Unhinging the Diori position in Niger has achieved little as the collaborationist government has limited available liberation forces through more comprehensive ties to France and a mining central economy. Local forces in Benin and Togo have been moved to reverse their collaborationist stance and start internal consolidation but little Soviet control or influence is available. Both dictators are expected to be anti-French but little else is known on their position.
Surprised to see West Africa be this chaotic, I thought they rolled high on the stability roll which meant good French control?
Resumption and over-funding of integration work have necessitated the large-scale urban remodeling of several centers that were constructed in lieu of the originally planned program. Several central locations near major railway lines have been reformed into a more functional apparatus with escalator links provided into at least a single line of local railway networks to improve transferability and logistical interconnects. It is the current view of the Public Transportation Commission that further funding is still necessary for expanding and modernizing overland routes will be key for economic growth and logistical integration. -Report on the Development of the High-Speed Rail System from the Public Transportation Commission.
Drat. Seems our transportation integration has once again claimed many people's houses. The lesson here is that infrastructure projects must be done decisively, and that letting them grow stale means ripping the bandaid off later will be painful.
The planned detonation of five nuclear charges to assist in the development of the Pechora-Kama canal has proceeded according to plan with significant impediments of hard rock cleared. The actual tests have proven disappointing relative to the hopes, acting more as questionable soil softeners than effective digging implements with the cost of each shot practically non-economical. In remote areas, nuclear excavation is still cost-viable due to the challenges of bringing heavy equipment but otherwise, the civilian use of nuclear explosions has been relegated to alternative approaches. The near total diversion of the Pechora from Yaksha to the Northern Volga basin is expected to recharge the river and provide a considerable increase in total water outflow.
Radiation levels along the primary canal route have been elevated in response to the second explosive cascade, with increased portions of enriched cobalt present at the site of initiation. Nuclear earthmoving in soils with excessive non-ferrous contaminants must be reviewed by impact studies before further testing can be initiated. Excessive radiation of the soils renders much of the concept questionable as nuclear charges for mass excavation would then only be confined to a narrow band of rocky soils without enrichable mineral content.
-Classified Report on Peaceful Nuclear Explosions
I figured the practicality of nukes for digging long and thin holes would be limited. Not even sure softening the rock is an improvement, since the stuff you'd made soft includes
the foundations your canal walls will be built on. The elevated radiation from activation products is NOT something I expected though- assuming it's real and not cope for why there's more radiation than the plan called for. Either way, barring hair-brained schemes to link the Lena to the sea this is probably the last time we'll be doing nuclear earthmoving. It's cool while it lasts at least.
Consolidate the Program: (55) (+1 Rocketry Dice) (Cannot Use Free Dice)
+1 rocket dice is nice, but not being able to use free dice reduces flexibility. Probably won't be a net change in how many actions we take in practice, I hope it comes with behind-the-scenes benefits like better run programs!
Nuclear Drives: The promise of a viable high-thrust nuclear drive for the launch of a payload into the outer system is practically astronomical. A two-stage moon mission in the American scheme could be conducted with our current rockets assuming a hydrogen stage, additionally, the massive requirements for velocity for exploring the outer system can neatly be solved. Some in the ministry caution against the usage of significant quantities of nuclear material for effectively disposable engines, but given the cost of all of the other hardware the actual fissiles are expected to be relatively cheap. Work will focus on the construction of a low-thrust rocket for a theoretical RLA-3 nuclear stage as a unified bus for the transit of satellites to the outer planets and mercury. (-10 RpY Expected) (60) (Choose Two)
Reviving Glushko's technical project for a new nuclear engine has come with several challenges as an immediate comparison has been made to the failing American program. The question of who would authorize the launch of so much nuclear material and making the material reliable enough for the expected burn profiles are both major concerns. Current proposals have to an extent called for the retreading of the American program with a focus on a conventional linear nuclear core through which liquid hydrogen is pumped, heated, and then utilized as thrust with a conventional nozzle. More ambitious designs have been proposed but they are almost certain to require a greater commitment of funding along with a far longer and politically riskier testing regime.
[]Linear-Core: Retreading on similar ground as the American program, the simplest and lowest power core for the launch of probes is the simplest work that can be done. By keeping to a linear core several lessons from the reactor program can be directly carried over with few issues. Lower thermal and power requirements along with a fairly narrow core will allow for the easy protection of payloads from radiation with a smaller degree of shielding. Operating at an impulse of at best 850 seconds and an optimistic TWR of 1 for the engine the engine is the least ambitious proposal but one that can be made with a minimal degree of technical ambition. (No Price Changes)
[]Expanded Surface Area: Iterating on work that was done by the Americans, a higher surface area core can be developed through nonlinear fuel elements with proposals ranging from twisted rods to a ribbon surrounding hydrogen injection channels. The largest gains from such an approach are expected to be in comparative thrust through improved fuel element contact and are also expected to result in mild efficiency improvements. An impulse of up to 900 seconds is expected with an optimistic TWR of 5 if the program is a success. The program is going to be inherently more complicated as a cooled nozzle is almost certain to be necessary.
[]Pebble Bed: Recent material breakthroughs in the fabrication of coherent zirconium carbide coatings of consistent thickness have already been pioneered in the German nuclear industry. Bringing the developments into rocketry can allow for some of the issues inherent to core temperature zones to be fixed with an improvement in thermal properties brought in through the improved thermal characteristics of the pebbles. Ensuring a constant flow through an effective large hot fluidized pebble bed represents significant technical challenges but those can be overcome. Performance on the order of 950 seconds along with an above one TWR should be possible but the designs will inherently be more experimental and focused on the discrete fabrication of fuel elements. (Adds 5 RpY to Program)
[]Low Pressure Designs: Using discoveries in the field of high-temperature ceramics an operational temperature in the range of 3400-3600K. With this a conventional hydrogen drive can be shifted towards a new operating regime based on the local dissociation of hydrogen, significantly improving efficiency in almost any conceivable role for a nuclear engine. By dissociating the hydrogen an impulse up to 1300 seconds can be achieved with some technical limitations. Low operational pressures will mean the engine is sizable, but weight reductions from reduced thermal burdens can help to make the design lighter than more conventional proposals. The moderating influence of hafnium ceramics, neutron economy problems, and core design issues will have to be solved but there is little entirely infeasible about the design. (Adds 5 RpY to Program)
[]Liquid Core-Centrifugal: Keeping nuclear fuel in a liquid state solves the technical issues of the fragility of conventional uranium fuel elements. This can be conducted by keeping the fuel channels in a constant state of rotation, allowing centrifugal forces to keep the material contained. Pre-cooling with the fuel before seeding and injection will keep the fuel solid outside of the channel to protect the cladding material and rotation elements. The fuel will then be seeded out of the cooling loop and injected down the channels, being heated to a massive temperature and nearly doubling the efficiency of the system compared to solid core designs. An impulse in the order of 1600 seconds or higher may be achievable with a TWR dependent on the exact reactor design and impossible to accurately estimate. (Adds 5 RpY to Program)
FOR REFERENCE: After the base 10 RpT we have 10 room to spare in our budget. And we want to keep 5 available for the very useful []Inflatable Section Experiments. We have picks so we can't use both the +5 RpT options. Thus, one advanced option and one simple cheap one.
I am looking forwards to the experienced
@fasquardon for more input, but for now: I am convinced chasing thrust/weight is unecessary, we are not using nuclear drives as ascent stages. Thus []Expanded Surface Area is a fiendish increase in complexity for only a 5.8% increase in impulse, making []Linear-Core the clear choise. And for the +5 RpT I have little technical knowlege but am inclined to go for broke with []Liquid Core-Centrifugal. It has VERY high impulse and getting started on liquid-core NTR rather than only solid core is
very cool. So our nuclear rocket program gets split into a boring but reliable stream, and an experimental but very powerful stream.
A cheap drill that can last for a few hundred uses before wearing out is still a functional drill for light home improvement work. Two differing high-end enterprises have been made to make heavy use of tools for actual professionals and renovators willing to pay a premium but the majority focus is on the mass production aspect.
Great we're making soviet Harbor Freight. A much more social and less wasteful option would be to only make the good stuff and establish tool libraries that DIYers can go to, but I suppose our planners were too capitalism-brained today. That, or too siloed meaning they couldn't take the tool library approach even if they legit through it was less wasteful.
Establishing towns for the workers on the petroleum projects has however taken up the majority of the funding as the region has been practically uninhabited outside of a few old believers.
Imagine being an Old Believer that mooved to what you were 100% sure was buttfuck nowhere that the USSR didn't give a shit about and then armies of workers show up looking for some strange deep underground liquid. Must suck. At least the project's later stages should see higher rates of returns, now that fundemantal infrastructure exists.
Irrigation Technique Evaluation: (156/150) (Complete)
Broad-scale testing of new irrigation techniques for attempting to create systems to replace simple surface-level ones has been more of a manufacturing than a biological question. Trickle irrigation techniques have already been performed at a low scale but few easy methods exist for spreading them cheaply to larger plots. Sub-surface systems have a general tendency towards clogging and expensive personnel involvement along with several challenges in construction. Above surface systems have several limitations for high-yield harvesting and do not entirely solve the evaporation issues induced by surface water presence. Vertical drip irrigation represents some of the most viable available and its increase has already been used in several greenhouses for the production of vegetables in otherwise adverse environments. Current programs have called for the use of improved plastics for the production of simpler-to-use surface systems that can provide a simple linear path for water to flow off a central controller, allowing steady pressure low water use irrigation.
This sounds extremely unenthusiastic. I
really hope this is them listing out problems that they intend to solve in the future, and not Vasiliev outright giving up on subsurface irrigation as an excuse for why we totally need to do River Reversal.
Commission on the Criminal Code: The criminal code that was adopted in the 30s has been functional for decades but a new commission has been formed to evaluate perceived excesses. Several members of the Supreme Soviet have pushed for a more general re-evaluation than has been warranted with Romanov failing to fight it, instead letting it pass in the prevote. The current debate is less on replacing the laws if they were just and what should be fixed as at least that compromise has been forced by more conservative elements. Some changes are almost certainly expected but a full overturn is deeply unlikely. (48) (Supreme Soviet)
With the recent changes proving too disruptive for Soviet Society any normal commission would rightfully advocate caution. As even the Stalinist fossils have agitated strongly against it Romanov has been forced to take a conciliatory line for the wrong reasons. To keep the left wing aligned and consistent the commission has effectively been stacked with politicians willing to advocate for caution instead of judging the state of reforms on theoretical Western social agitation. The commission is expected to do some mild changes to modernize the social environment to keep the youths aligned but any significant legislative change is certain to be stopped.
MEDIOCRE. At least we're not pig-headed conservatives. Actually given Klimenko's social conservatism it's probably good we didn't roll higher, it may have meant he is more successful in obstructing it.
Reorganize a Department(Chemical Industry): (98)
With the separation of the Light and Chemical industries through the current plan into separate bureaucratic structures, little precedent exists for the movement of new ministers. Biryukov is currently the senior minister of the separation and removing him from the head of the ministry, while possible, can cause several disruptions. The proposal to move Balakirev in as deputy would break the hierarchy in several ways, leaving the only way to move him into a formal bureaucratic position being a technical demotion of Biryukov. Otherwise, several prominent candidates have been pushed forward as the petrochemical industry is reestablished and expanded outside the scope of more conservative past planning. Energy independence and a strong petrochemical industry are going to be key for the next decade as economic growth is only expected to accelerate.
[]Promote Balakirev: Moving Balakirev to the head of the Chemical Industrial Department will be politically disruptive and likely cause a poor precedent to be set in the apparatus but it will provide him with a degree of political support. Balkirev is qualified for the task and more importantly giving him an area to personally manage will ensure that he gains direct experience in the working of the economy. Further, getting him his post will ensure that time spent politically supporting him can be shifted away to more important tasks. (Recovers 2 Bureau Actions and Control of Balakirev's Action)
[]Kita Nikolaevich Shavishvili: Coming in from the Komsomol and rapidly going into a career in chemical engineering Shavishvili is conventional and one of the better academic candidates. With a comprehensive education and several developed projects for local petrochemical extraction and pioneered the development of seaborne resources in the Caspian. His further work is going to be essential for the development of less conventional oils in the Northern deposits and as one of the more senior members, his eventual promotion should cause few political issues.
[]Mikhail Shuevich Mamkhegov: Unconventional and coming from a mechanical engineering background rather than a chemical one, Mamkhegov has been instrumental in the development of equipment for the chemical industry by improving standards and complexity. His previous efforts have prioritized the development and incorporation of new plastics into a wide range of products with further efforts expected to bring the Union into the new era of plastic utilization. He is less experienced with direct petrochemical applications but is expected to significantly reinforce secondary and consumer industries.
[]Zuleikha Gabibovna Seidmamedova: Coming into the ministry after proving herself during the war through front-line aviation work, Seimamedova is a geological engineer who while unconventional, has worked to pioneer the extraction of several deposits. Writing several works on slant drilling and more comprehensive techniques she is a technical pioneer for new methods with more of an academic-enterprise background than a direct ministry one. Improved drilling and recovery is expected to be necessary for some of the newly found deposits and work is only expected to get harder as easier oil deposits are depleted.
This is who we have right now as head:
Head: Alexey Sergeevich Biryukov(1965): Head of chemical development that has come to prominence with the further expansion of the Saratov complex and the subsequent oil fields. He is conventional and focused on the struggle with increasing fuel and energy demands across several sectors with a graduate degree in chemical engineering. After working in the development of new oils he has a solid basis of experience for the position and has few issues in the further development of the consumer sector. Less experienced in primary development of high return manufacturing, but otherwise capable and experienced. He is expected to work to solve the current rise in petrochemical use along with stabilizing the general Union wide energy demand.
- Romanovite
- Petrochemical Focus
- Chemical Engineer
- Polymer Program Proponent
- Good Organizer
He is a good generalist, does oil and plastics well but not really ambitious in either.
Shavishvili and Seidmamedova are interchangable, both focus on expanding drilling. If we want that, go for the Azeri Girlboss. meanwhile Mamkhegov wants to expand plastics use and improve standards. I find it tempting, given this plan we're focused on developing our high-tech machinery. On the other hand the chemical sector seems to be doing OK with Balakirev poking it and I don't want to make microplastic hell even worse. Plus if some industries really do need more plastic I'm sure their managers can buy it themeselves. So I think Seidmamedova is fine as a
blatant diversity hire demonstration of solidarity between the diverse peoples of the Union. FAKE EDIT: Also new drilling tech is still technological development. Advanced drills was one area where we still had to import from the west and she'd likely work to solve that. Which given the likely cooling of the cold war is well timed.
