These can be home-built, there was even a cool little TV show on Channel 4 ( UK ) about it not too long ago - a young chap made one out of those radioactive paint products and a few other DIY store bits and pieces.
Don't worry - I am very much ecological - I suspect there is some foul play going on as to the true uses of such reactors, as in the usual propaganda about them and what most of us think we know about nuclear reactor energy.
A very small one on a submarine can keep the sub going forever, can also generate oxygen (ie - it can easily power the systems needed to create oxygen, which the crew must have to be able to breathe of course) -
the radiation doesn't leak out if the core is built properly,
if or when it ceased to run - used up it's half-life and so forth - there is no real actual reasons that it should ever be able to leak out into any environment. True it is better to not have anything that feasibly could be destroyed in a way that causes pollution, but frankly I find this whole thing about toxic waste storage going wrong to be unbelievable at best - what is so difficult about putting something into a container or series of containers, and storing it indefinitely. This happens in bank vaults and saftey deposits every day.
CKM,
Check out this Google search on Galen Winsor... http://www.tinyurl.com/5njhf :o
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? -Bruce P.
A nuclear reactor like a submarine is bigger than your car. Thats just the reactor vessel. They must be pressurized to keep the water coolant from boiling and causing turbulence and steam bubbles on the fuel rods. This would cause warping and possible release of the encased fuel into the coolant. About a ton of pressure would do. Then you would have to have a way to use all that heat safely. You can't use the coolant going through the reactor vessel directly as this collects metallic sludges and high radiation from those products which we wouldn't want accidently released into the atmosphere. A secondary system would have to carry the heat from the primary system to produce steam to run a turbine to run a generator. Thats alot of equipment. Not cheap.
The running of the reactor requires special startup and shutdown procedures. You MUST calculate the reactivity in the reactor in order to allow a startup that is slow enough to not overheat and cause a steam explosion inside the core. The reactivity inside a reactor is very high in the center and lower toward the edges, which means you'll have to know how far to pull the rods in the center and around the outer edges to keep the reactivity even throughout the reactor. Control of a nuke system is not automated and requires constant attention even when running at steady state conditions.
Materials involved with all the pressure and piping and containment of any nuclear core is going to require expensive stainless steel. Why? SS is strong enough and doesn't corrode so easily which helps keep the sludge content down, reducing hot spots of radiation in the system. The whole system must be contained to keep people from getting close enough to be exposed to radiation. ANY reactor with power enough to use for your home or more will produce that kind of radiation hazard. Subs have a unique advantage- the entire reactor room is surrounded by water from the ocean which acts as a shield.
Once you get past all of this stuff... I guess it would be feasible.
Kenbo
It must be feasilbe or the nuke-powered submarines wouldn't exist.
Is sea water that good a shield? If it is, then by all means have a reactor that is surrounded in sea water same as in the sub.
ckm,
The saltwater cools the core it is not a shield.
? ? ? ? ? ? -Bruce P.
Actually the seawater does help with cooling. It is used in the secondary system. The shielding I referred to is correct as well. H2O, having 2 Hydrogens, is perfect for shielding neutrons. They tend to bounce back, like billiard balls react when they hit. It is also the reason you can reach a 'steady state' in a reactor. As the temp. goes up the Hydrogen atoms are spread out farther, thus less reflection back into the core. Then temp goes down a little causing more reflection until the fluctuations level out. When the rods are pulled farther, a new 'steady state' condition will hunt and level out. The Russian liquid metal reactors don't have this nice little assistant.
kenbo0422,
True, water is a shield but it is a poor shield as compared
to using uranium. So... why don't sub occupants find
their hair falling out?? :D
? ? ? ? ? ? ? -Bruce P.
Well, the reactor and the entire primary system is enclosed in a separate compartment shielded by lead and plastic(another hydrogen rich material). Believe it or not, the exposure in a sub is less than the radiation you get standing out in the bright sunlight... either that or my dosimeter was broke :o
It can't be that difficult to design a nuclear power plant. Did you guys know that in 1960 they had nuclear pacemakers. They stopped it because "terrorrists" could use it to build a bomb. It had a titanium shield or something similar. Planted them into newborn babies. Perfectly safe....go figure...
wtf is safe toxic radiation storage? to me there is no such thing...if it radiates it can kill
dont believe it? try heating 1 part copper or silver or gold or platinum with 3 parts sodium at 600 degrees and i`ll be at your gravesite in a month GUARANTEED
lol, in the 1950-60's they had xray machines at shoe stores and radioactive golf balls, and guess what? Those things were NOT safe at ALL. To have a personal nuclear reactor for each home wouldn't be cost effective or safe by any means, the small reactors that go into satellites cost millions of dollars each. Water is a very VERY good shield for radiation. So is plastic and of course lead. Water walls (doesn't have to be sea water, pure water is better) were used extensively at the Rocky Flats plant where I spent 10 years.