http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/ Know_Nukes Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:12:55 GMT mauk_mcamuk http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23724 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23724 Hullo, Karl! ... I should read that some day.... Ehn, it'd probably only make me depressed. ... Pffft! In your opinion, maybe. The idiotic Test Ban Treaty Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:24:25 GMT csceadraham http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23723 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23723 ... We had an organically cooled reactor at the Whiteshell research station in Manitoba once. "Terphenyl" comes to mind as one of the components of the Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:31:59 GMT Karl Johanson http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23722 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23722 I've always found the Orion concept quite interesting. I even did a panel on the topic in Vancouver with George Dyson a few years ago (I recommend his book Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:17:29 GMT Mike Harris http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23721 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23721 I seem to recall Ted Taylor hinting at such in McPhee's "Curve of Binding Energy" and George Dyson's "Project Orion." The details were not included, being Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:59:22 GMT mauk_mcamuk http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23720 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23720 ... Eureka! :) I was gnawing on this notion, and finally stumbled across this paper: http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/lib-www/la-pubs/00215722.pdf I Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:06:51 GMT schedule80 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23719 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23719 Yes, gasoline is highly chemically reactive, but so is liquid sodium, and that is usually the coolant of choice for fast reactors. I'm as pro-nuclear as they Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:37:22 GMT mauk_mcamuk http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23718 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23718 ... Oh, yeah. I went and looked a bit, and found that polyethylene, mainly CH2, has a moderating ration of around 120, or twice as good as light water! Well Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:40:49 GMT whatdoesthatmakeus http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23717 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23717 Hi Graham, At the risk of exposing my ignorance of all things nuclear, I was reading that rocketry forum and noticed that a poster dismissed the PWR due to Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:13:33 GMT csceadraham http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23716 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23716 ... They probably would work. If perdeuterated, they certainly would. I am now persuaded that natural uranium and magnesium fluoride will not go, and that it's Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:25:46 GMT mauk_mcamuk http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23715 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23715 Here's a bit of moderator info for fluoride salts, sadly, no MgF2 in the bunch: http://www.ornl.gov/~webworks/cppr/y2006/rpt/124584.pdf As a thought: Plastic! Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:01:21 GMT csceadraham http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23714 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23714 ... You might be interested in the discussion at http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=33011&p=3&topicID=16231100 ... http://www.eagle.ca/~gcowan/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:59:51 GMT csceadraham http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23713 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23713 ... High melting point for a fluoride. High transparency that extends far into the UV (http://www.crystran.co.uk/magnesium-fluoride-mgf2.htm ). High number Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:12:01 GMT whatdoesthatmakeus http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23712 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23712 A typical 1GW coal plant releases the following pollutants INTO THE AIR every DAY: - 10,136.986 metric TONS of CO2 (per day, per plant) - 27.397 metric TONS of Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:54:15 GMT mauk_mcamuk http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23711 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23711 Hello, Graham! ... Uh.... Ok! :D ... Yeah, I went and looked this up and it seems that the shake interval increased due to slower neutron speeds, thus fewer Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:59:03 GMT csceadraham http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23710 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Know_Nukes/message/23710 ... You must have kudzu, and be a renter rather than an owner. As I recall, those bombs were, by nuclear bomb standards, duds. In the time it took for H nuclei