I’ve recently discovered these forums and I’ve been devouring their content ever since.
I would just like to say that there is some serious “brain power per square footage” on these forums and I’m excited to participate. Thanks in advance to all.
Ok, here’s my question(s):
What would be the first technical barrier encountered in an attempt to dramatically scale down the size of nuclear reactors to, say, something that would fit on your kitchen counter? In your pocket?
What’s the smallest nuclear reactor around?
For simplicity sake let’s ignore cost and safety issues.
Until someone who knows what they’re talking about comes along, here’s what I found on the net. (Not really kosher to google up answers for General Questions, I know, but the question interested me and I just thought I’d share this nugget of info.)
It’s a summary from the American Nuclear Society site and the full article is available only by subscription, but this is the nitty-gritty:
I like your first question - although you’ve set a high standard for yourself in future. :eek:
Sadly I’m not a nuclear physicist.
However I can see some difficulty in placing nuclear reactors in the hands of the general public.
Remember these are the sort of people who:
microwave cats
An investigation is under way after the body of a cat was found in a microwave oven.
More people die in the home every week than in road accidents, according to a government report.
In the UK, 76 people are killed in domestic accidents each week.
Whats the power output? I am guessing it is pure thermal decay, thus the power output is low and basically constant.
Assuming you are talking about something that generates power by fission, the lower limit is pretty large (at least 50kg fissile material to get a critical mass (probably more - 400kg of 20% uranium), more mass than that for moderating the neutrons, tonnes of radiation shielding and cooling) - the powerplants used by nuclear subs are probably the optimal limit - they have an excess of power generation and are fitted into a restricted space, so if they could be made smaller, they would be. I can’t find details of size.
The Radioactive Boy Scout had a breeder reactor - he was not generating power, he was using fission to convert one element into another. No mean feat, and potentially lethal, but no huge power output.
So - no fission nuclear powered cars. Certainly not on a kitchen bench.
Yes, that would seem to be true, wouldn’t it: the reactors in US Navy submarines would approach minimal size limits with respect to their given output…
If you don’t require fission, there’s practically no lower limit. A pacemaker battery converts nuclear energy to useful work. So does an arbitrarily small dot of radioactive paint on a watch dial. Neither is what most people would call a nuclear reactor, though. Just what are Y. Ronen, E. Fridman, and E. Shwageraus talking about in their article, anyway? :smack: Where’s a nuclear engineer when you need one?
“Get ready for the coming apocalypse! Grow weed for all your friends, without those embarrassing questions about your electric bill!”
::Silhouettes of dancing hippies and survivalists::
This is why I love the SMDB…where else am I going to hear the story of the Radioactive Boy Scout? Although, I’ve gotta say, I found the following to be the most horrifying detail in that article:
:eek: It really makes me wonder how many people today, right now, going about their seemingly innocuous lives are really canaries in the coal mine of our modern age…
On that note, there was a segment on one of the network news broadcasts about the asbestos problem in the U.S. Capitol Building, in the subterranean areas at least. It’s a real problem for the janitors, maintenance workers, etc.
And yellow glass used to be made with uranium as the tinting agent. (One such manufacturer: the storied Sandwich Glass factory in Massachusetts.) In theory, if you carried a Geiger counter with you to garage sales and flea markets, you’d occasionally find a yellow glass ashtray or candlestick holder or whatnot that’d raise a bit of a buzz… :eek:
