Microsoft Forms lacks the ability to ask questions about time, and one user has been on a fruitless 7-year quest to get it added

Microsoft Forms is a nice little tool for collecting answers and information from people, but it lacks a feature that should have shipped ages ago. One man, or rather one legend, is on a quest to get support for time added to Microsoft Teams.

Over seven years ago, William Mattison asked about adding a question for the time of day to Microsoft Forms. Microsoft said that it placed the feature in its backlog of things to add. It must have been way in the back, as the feature is still not available.

What else has been added to the Microsoft "backlog"

The Register recalled the harrowing tale of one brave man trying to get Microsoft to add a simple feature to Forms. Google Forms already has the ability to ask about time. Right now, Microsoft Forms only has the ability to ask people about a preferred date. While you'd think adding a similar option for time would be simple, it has apparently proven difficult.

"Had I known 6 and a half years ago that getting time added to a Microsoft Form would become a life-long odyssey I might have chosen to pursue something more ambitious. Thank you all for joining me on the pilgrimage," said Mattison in an update earlier this year.

"This blog post is becoming one of my greatest accomplishments in its absurdity. I've grown quite proud of it. It does make we wonder what else has been added to the Microsoft "backlog"...game system to replace the XBox One? Changing the color of the Blue Screen of Death? Still it's heartwarming to know I was such a visionary, so far ahead of my "time"."

Microsoft has gone through several leadership changes since the initial request in 2016. The senior project manager has since moved on to work on Microsoft Teams. A new senior project manager followed up on Mattison's request in 2021, but no action has been taken.

This situation is peculiar because Microsoft appears keen to add the feature but has not done so in seven years. If the company had simply said it was not interested in adding the feature, some may have been upset but no one would have been surprised that it was not added. Instead, Mattison must continue on his noble quest to figure out what time works for everyone through Microsoft Forms.

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If COP28 Keeps Its Word, It Leads To More Nuclear Energy

US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry speaks during the Tripling Nuclear Energy by ... [+] 2050 session at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai on December 2, 2023. The COP28 conference opened on December 1 with an early victory as nations agreed to launch a "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable countries devastated by natural disasters. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images)

Twenty-two countries vowed at COP28 to triple their use of nuclear energy by 2050, meaning it could provide a third of all global electricity. Moreover, about 175 more nations gave their tacit approval to nuclear by electing to triple their use of renewables by 2030 and phase down fossil fuels.

Indeed, nuclear power is carbon-free, runs 24/7, and can firm up intermittent wind and solar energy, replacing natural gas and co-locating where retiring coal plants are now. That has the practical effect of reducing overall costs — the primary impediment to a worldwide nuclear renaissance.

“Utilities know they need new nuclear and admit the numbers do not work without it,” says Julie Kozeracki, senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy, during the U.S. Energy Association press briefing in which I took part. “But they fear going to their boards or public service commissions and answering questions about cost overruns or a costly project abandonment. So, it’s crucial to reach a critical mass of orders with a single design. I think there’s a real path.”

But large-scale nuclear plants are too expensive — even though they can efficiently generate 1 gigawatt of power and serve 1 million homes. Just look at Southern Co.’s experience with its two new Vogtle units: They cost more than $30 billion, double the original estimates.

Now, the focus is on small modular reactors, which range from 50 megawatts to 300 megawatts. However, the modules can combine and form a 1,000-megawatt plant. And if one module trips, operators will repair it while the others still operate. Some reactors can instantly kick on, backing up wind and solar power and making them a clean alternative to natural gas.

Nuclear regulators approved NuScale’s design this year, and others will soon follow suit. However, the small modular reactor sector suffered a recent setback: NuScale and the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems terminated their deal to build a 462-megawatt small-scale reactor in 2025. Developers pulled the plug when utilities didn’t agree to buy at least 80% of the expected output.

NuScale has other projects, including one with Polish copper and silver producer KGHM Polska Mied. It inked the deal with the Polish company in 2022, which plans to complete the small modular reactor in 2029. Moreover, other builders have those pint-sized reactors teed up globally.

APPALACHIA, VIRGINIA - July 22: In remote mountain towns of southwestern Virginias coal country ... [+] prescription opioids flooded the area decimating communities like Appalachia, Virginia, on Monday July 22, 2019. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Price, of course, remains problematic. Small modular reactors are still climbing the cost curve, requiring operators to build diverse supply chains. On the surface, the right-sized reactors can’t compete with natural gas and renewables now, although the former has a problem with leaking methane while the latter needs a storage device or backup energy source.

“NuScale is one of the designs with the best prospects for commercialization because of its similarity to conventional light-water reactors, which allowed the company to learn from extensive operating experience and to leverage much of the existing nuclear power supply chain,” said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear safety for the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a release. “Thus, the failure of the NuScale project with the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems does not bode well for the dozens of other, more exotic reactor types in various stages of development.”

But don’t discount the possibilities. Consider that a quarter of the nation’s coal plants will likely retire by 2029.

Advanced nuclear reactors can replace coal units, reinvigorating devastated regions. It is a practical idea because those advanced reactors can operate at the same temperatures as a coal-fired boiler. Further, the replacement unit is carbon-free.

Moreover, a Bipartisan Policy Center's study shows that 80% of coal facilities have the necessary infrastructure to host small modular reactors. The center also reported that 77% of coal-related jobs are transferrable to the nuclear industry. Constructing nuclear power plants on those ready-made sites will reduce costs between 15% and 35% compared to a greenfield location.

Look to TerraPower, founded by Microsoft’s MSFT Bill Gates: It is building a project adjacent to a coal facility in Wyoming, enabling the nuclear company to have access to a qualified workforce and the existing infrastructure and its interconnections.

“That creates a huge savings,” says Kozeracki, with the U.S. Energy Department. “The more we can reuse our existing infrastructure, the better.”

CHANGJIANG, CHINA - AUGUST 10: Aerial view of the core module of China's Linglong One, the world's ... [+] first commercial small modular reactor (SMR), installed on August 10, 2023 in Changjiang Li Autonomous County, Hainan Province of China. Linglong One, which is self-developed by the China National Nuclear Corporation, was installed successfully in Hainan on August 10. (Photo by Luo Yunfei/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Small modular reactors can use the most advanced nuclear technologies, operating at 800 degrees Celsius. The superior thermal efficiency allows industrial operators to use next-generation applications to make steel and produce hydrogen.

While those reactors can use different fuels, they may require High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium, known as HALEU. That is mainly produced in Russia, although available in Australia and Canada.

The nuclear reactors operating today in the United States require a fuel enrichment level of 3%-5%, known as low-enriched uranium fuels. However, some advanced reactors must have higher fuel enrichment levels, up to 20%. Higher enrichment levels provide more nuclear fission and thus create more energy.

Will the demand for HALEU affect the growth of small modular reactors?

Notably, Centrus Energy has begun enrichment operations at its HALEU facility in Piketon, Ohio. It is the only Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed HALEU facility in the United States and the first new American-owned uranium enrichment plant to begin production since 1954.

“I think the HALEU facility is critical” to the success of small modular reactors in the United States, says Tom Marcille, chief nuclear officer at Holtec International, in response to my questions. “It's necessary, but it doesn't accelerate the acceptance or implementation of advanced reactors that utilize that material.”

To that end, he says that the global community must first see the commercial application of next-generation nuclear reactors before they win widespread approval. However, the Centro Energy plant “makes it practicable for those reactors to come to the marketplace eventually.”

Carbon-free electricity is driving the interest in small modular nuclear reactors — a move facilitated by the actions taken at COP28 in Dubai. The quest to ramp down natural gas and coal use makes nuclear an imperative. So does the pursuit of considerably more renewables, which requires energy storage or backup generation. If the global community keeps its word, it leads to more nuclear energy.

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