5 ms·
if there's any water left in that water heater after a couple hours and it didnt explode from vapor overpressure, you'll painfully die of acute radiation sickne
by leeoniya 10y ago
if there's any water left in that water heater after a couple hours and it didnt explode from vapor overpressure, you'll painfully die of acute radiation sickness.
that's the best case scenario.
- icantdrive55 10y agoBy law, all water heaters need a regulator pressure valve. (Before this federal requirement; some people had rocket in their garage. Middle of the night a water heater would go through the roof, if the homeowner was lucky.). In this case, I would want four regulators, on my nuclear hydronic heater.
- leeoniya 10y agolaws have to ruin all the fun. hopefully there aren't any pesky laws preventing spent nuclear fuel from being used for DIY residential heating.
- conjectures 10y agoYeah, we should definitely let the free market determine the natural safety appetite of citizens ;)
- fencepost 10y agoHmm, I wonder if you could use one of those in place of a pahr splah.
- fencepost 10y agoBah, Philistines. Don't you people ever google unrecognized terms?
- bbcbasic 10y agoI like the idea of having to type 6 numbers (yes those numbers!) into a computer to release the pressure.
- bglusman 10y agoer... which numbers? can someone expand on this?
- handojin 10y agoLost. Old TV show. Netflix maybe?
- Warp__ 10y agoI think he means the 000000 that the USAF set the password to for launching the LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM. For expediency, apparently.
- croon 10y agoWow, that hit me right in the feeling-old-shin. I gave up on it between season 2 and 3, thinking I'd get back to it sometime. Didn't realize it's become an "old TV show", but I suppose you're right.
- paublyrne 10y agoYou really consider a TV programme that ran from 2004 to 2010 old?
- shostack 10y agoThis sounds like something out of "Chemicals I won't work with."
- leeoniya 10y agoyeah, also fun: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core
- serg_chernata 10y agoInteresting read. Can someone explain why they were performing these experiments in blue jeans and shirts?
- bb611 10y agoIt was the 1940's and nuclear material safety wasn't as critical an issue as it is now.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoYou over estimate the decay heat in a kg of spent fuel. According to here [1], a 1GW (1000MW) plant uses 100 Metric tons of fuel, so 1 kg is responsible for 1G/100K or 10Kwatts and the decay heat of spent fuel is .1% of its nominal power level so 10K * .001 or 10 watts. If you dump 10 watts into your water heater it will get hotter and depending on the heat insulation of the tank it might even get to boiling. Although typically I would expect a tank to lose close to 10W into the ambient air once the water was at temperature. [1] http://www.nucleartourist.com/basics/hlwaste.htm http://www.nucleartourist.com/basics/hlwaste.htm
- leeoniya 10y agoNo argument, though it's hard to envision a scenario where [1] is not a predetermined eventuality for any setup that would be laughably inadequate or economically impractical. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_units_4,_5_and_6#Spent_fuel_pool https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_units_4,_5...
- ChuckMcM 10y agoIt doesn't follow, fuel (whether spent or not), is density and dissipation question. Each kg of fuel is generating heat, so more fuel in a smaller space means more heat in a smaller space. Fukishima's spent fuel ponds had both spent and fresh fuel in them (reactor 4 was undergoing maintenance) and there was a lot of it. Spread that fuel out across say a hectare pool of water that is 5 meters deep and it stays out of trouble. One disposal plan called for mixing the fuel with silica to create glass bricks. By spreading the fuel mixture to a density that was low enough to allow the ambient air to cool it, the bricks are shelf stable for thousands of years and not a radiation hazard (less of a risk than even natural uranium deposits you might come across). Many disposal plans were like this, encapsulate the spent fuel into a container that withstands (and blocks) the radiation while conducting enough heat to avoid changing the properties of the material over the lifetime of its storage. Glass and austenitic stainless are both good candidates for that material.
- leeoniya 10y ago
- marcosdumay 10y agoI'd hope there would be only alpha and betta emitters on the ball. Who would ever transport neutron and gamma radiation out of confinement? I would also hope it would be dimensioned for radiation cooling when over 100°C. Still wouldn't want people to have those at home anywhere near me. But it's mostly because of misuse, not because of operational dangers.
- aminorex 10y agoSlow neutrons aren't so bad. May as well get used to them, as they will be around for a while.