Brucey
Solar Wizard
From what I recall some terrorists were trying to make a dirty bomb using the isotopes from smoke detectors. Maybe that was a book.
S3: Small, Mobile Nuclear Reactors
- Thread starter Will Prowse
- Start date
I still have an old mercury based furnace thermostat sitting on a shelf because of the nuisance trying to get it to someplace to properly dispose of it. We still don't have a great solution for disposing of any nuclear waste.
Hedges
I See Electromagnetic Fields!
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2020
- Messages
- 21,968
More effective to use those for enriching uranium, then you'll have something really dirty.
Read "The Radioactive Boy Scout"
robbob2112
Doing more research, mosty harmless
To bad your need a lead jock-strap and your children will glow in the dark
Nobodybusiness
Solar Sponge.
I wish them luck.
Only issue they will have to overcome is human nature.
Once they get the design to work that when the real work begins.
Free or cheap energy doesn’t allow for control.
They will end up in highly paid jobs in think tanks or dead.
The Elites will never allow this to become a possibility.
fmeili1
Solar Addict
I'll wait until a small Mr Fusion, based on a stellarator will be available 
DPC
Solar Enthusiast
In the late 60s AECL developed a series of small reactors for research, isotope production, districting heating, and submarines.
They worked, they were extremely safe and reliable.
And there was no market for them
I’m concerned about nuclear waste and security around reactors that are designed to be left unattended
en.m.wikipedia.org
They worked, they were extremely safe and reliable.
And there was no market for them
I’m concerned about nuclear waste and security around reactors that are designed to be left unattended
SLOWPOKE reactor - Wikipedia
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WorldwideDave
New Member
I would be happy to arrange a call with my uncle for you @Will Prowse - he worked at NASA JPL on all of the mars rovers. He retired about 3 years ago. He's in his 70s and still lives in Pasadena. In retirement, he is helping a friend with a solar concentrator. We talked about solar power, my electric golf cart, electric bike, and the rooftop solar pool heater I put together today. When discussing ground mount solar tracking system, he told me that the azmuth tracking devices used for solar panels track within 1 degree. He said the sun is about 1 degree in size from Earth, so it's okay for most people. However, he stated that the work he does tracks within 1/10 of a degree. He and his friends hold patents on a lot of technology...I think you'd enjoy talking with Uncle Ed. He was here in Los Angeles today visiting his sister (my mom). Anyhow, hit me up if interested. Will see what I can do.
Give few scrap dealers on the Cola peninsula a ring. They may have a couple. Here is one disassembled for scrap (no news of the person doing the disassembly) . Remember radiation increases with square of distance 2m away may be perfectly safe while approaching may be very unhealthy. I think it'd have to be put in a pretty large box for transport.
Any HVAC supply house will have a bin for mercury thermostat disposal… give one a call.
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2022
- Messages
- 20,290
As a child, I used to love playing with mercury.
But hey, I probably licked a lot of lead paint too. lol
But hey, I probably licked a lot of lead paint too. lol
OffgridMatty
I know enough to be dangerous!
Kodak had one for 30 years in Rochester, NY. It contained 3.5 pounds of highly enriched uranium.
Holy shit. Who says Natural Selection isn't still occurring amongst humans? Stupid people aren't getting killed by Sabre-Tooth tigers any more, just put a scary-looking device clearly labeled with the international symbol for radiation within reach of the clever monkeys...
Here ya go
DPC
Solar Enthusiast
In Russia they have along history if doing some pretty unconventional stuff
Leaving an unsecured RTG in a lighthouse or mountain top where anyone can get at it however is very scary
From the same people that brought us steam powered trucks....
And giant missile carrying Ekronoplanes. " flying ships "
Considering how well some of these ideas worked.
NUTS to a soviet RTG in my basement!!!!!
Well OK the steam truck idea did work in some places but that was an earlier era....
Leaving an unsecured RTG in a lighthouse or mountain top where anyone can get at it however is very scary
From the same people that brought us steam powered trucks....
And giant missile carrying Ekronoplanes. " flying ships "
Considering how well some of these ideas worked.
NUTS to a soviet RTG in my basement!!!!!
Well OK the steam truck idea did work in some places but that was an earlier era....
MySolarAddiction
Energy Farming Is Habit Forming
I like how it comes in a flight case. its portable. LOL
RTGs are simple. Nuclear reactors are most emphatically NOT simple. The reason they can operate with any safety at all is that we have decades of experience with them, we have triply redundant automated safety systems, and we have a crew of trained people to operate each one.
The early history of nuclear reactors is pretty horrific, with deadly/crippling accidents happening with depressing regularity. Fortunately we learned from our mistakes, and today such accidents are few and far between. But that's not because nuclear power is so safe - it's because we have learned how to tame it.
Well, to be fair, nuclear reactors _are_ very simple. Just put a supercritical mass of fissile material together.
Making it controlled enough to generate power, and safe enough not to kill everyone around and poison the surrouding land for centuries - THAT's complicated
There are 4th gen reactor designs that are fail safe (instead of running away and melting down the fuel core, they just shut down by default if there is a failure), and don't breed nasty elements, that are much more suitable for distributed civilian generation. U235 reactors are never going to be civilian-friendly - there is just too much danger of abuse. One good truck bomb and there is plutoniom spread around the area. Not good. Thorium is a safer/cleaner fuel choice. Though I definitely wish that start-up the best of luck, I think its market will be limited to .mil and .gov, and _maybe_ things like big data centers that have very strictly controlled access.
We currently use U235 for power generation _because_ the gov (military) _wanted_ to create the heavier elements as a by-product, for military use.
Making it controlled enough to generate power, and safe enough not to kill everyone around and poison the surrouding land for centuries - THAT's complicated
There are 4th gen reactor designs that are fail safe (instead of running away and melting down the fuel core, they just shut down by default if there is a failure), and don't breed nasty elements, that are much more suitable for distributed civilian generation. U235 reactors are never going to be civilian-friendly - there is just too much danger of abuse. One good truck bomb and there is plutoniom spread around the area. Not good. Thorium is a safer/cleaner fuel choice. Though I definitely wish that start-up the best of luck, I think its market will be limited to .mil and .gov, and _maybe_ things like big data centers that have very strictly controlled access.
We currently use U235 for power generation _because_ the gov (military) _wanted_ to create the heavier elements as a by-product, for military use.
Just saw Will's video about his opinions on EVs. I am wondering if we will be able to create our own DIY nuclear reactor without any licensing or any governmental interventions just as how we are creating and building our own lithium iron phosphate batteries?
McKravitts
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2022
- Messages
- 582
I can't wait to see a video of you doing a tear down of a nuclear reactor on the diynuclearforum.
And I thought the video where he drilled a hole in a lithium battery and it caught fire was good.
DIYrich
Solar Wizard
I'm sure you can build one without licensing or permits. Fueling it may have some red tape.
DPC
Solar Enthusiast
That was the point of alloy tubes the zeep, the nrx and nru reactors were so large because we needed them
America could not be relied upon.
We had no treaties and no NATO
Windscale was not ready
To make bombs we needed plutonium
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ShirBlackspots
New Member
Oh no... Every house with a nuclear reactor? Back to the Future lore was that every house had a Mr Fusion, and something happened that caused a major disaster. A giant explosion, IIRC. Though, the authors really didn't know how fusion works.
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