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The lithium may not be that much of a problem if existing aged batteries can have the lithium in them recycled.
by skookumchuck 9y ago
The lithium may not be that much of a problem if existing aged batteries can have the lithium in them recycled.
- leereeves 9y agoOnce the whole world has converted to electric cars, perhaps, but in the near future vast quantities of lithium will be needed to increase the number of electric cars.
- delbel 9y agoIts not the Lithium that is a problem. Its the Colbolt-59 that's next to it. A typical Tesla has about 15 pounds of Colbolt-59. If a small tactical weapon would be used near the location of a single parked Tesla, the Colbolt-59 will transmute to Colbolt-60, the deadlist substance known to earth. 15 pounds of Colbolt-60 is enough to kill 24 million people. Imagine a parking lot of them. 4 tons of it is enough to annihilate all life on earth. These Tesla cars are the biggest extensional threat to human kind. Anyway, have a nice day!
- spiznnx 9y ago>If a small tactical weapon would be used near the location of a single parked Tesla, the Colbolt-59 will transmute to Colbolt-60. Source?
- fabian2k 9y agoThis is probably based on the idea of Cobalt bombs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt_bomb) intended to make areas uninhabitable due to radiation. But in that case the Cobalt 59 is placed directly around the nuclear bomb, and spread across the area by the explosion. It doesn't seem plausible to me that this would be a real danger. If I'm close enough to a nuclear explosion that can affect the Cobalt-59 in my car, I'm probably vaporized anyway.
- varjag 9y agoIt's cobalt. Also, my physics is rusty but transmuting an isotope should involve a nuclear reaction.
- delbel 9y agoSorry, honest typo. Yes nuclear
- cletus 9y agoSorry but polonium 210 trumps any cobalt isotope.
- cjslep 9y agoThe entire cross section of a Cobalt 59 atom is only about a barn. Since a nuclear weapons dispersion of neutrons is in three dimensions and therefore the concentration of neutrons drops quite quickly as a measure of distance the car will have to be uncomfortably close to transmute a meaningful amount of Cobalt 60. Since this phenomena is very much geographically constrained by the properties and physics of the blast, using over the top comparison of "15 pounds could kill 24 million people" should instead read "15 pounds generated from 240,000 micronuclear explosions generating this material near 100 people each could kill 24 million people if they decide to linger near the Cobalt 60 on the order of years due to its long half life". Edit: It is important to understand the underlying physics to make an accurate characterization of the risks involved. Cobalt 60 is not the most deadly substance to humans; I would argue alcohol is higher than Cobalt 60.
- Symmetry 9y agoNuclear wars would mostly involve thermonuclear weapons detonating high enough up that their neutron flux will essentially dissipate before reaching the ground where all the cars are. That will maximize the area destroyed by the shock wave. It's true that a neutron bomb used tactically against ground targets could transmute car batteries. But those would tend to be used in the countryside against armor formation rolling through rather than against cities where all the cars are. And they have a fairly small radius of effect anyways. EDIT: And in any event, I'm sure that the transmuted cobalt will be the least of our problems if it ever becomes relevant.
- ecpottinger 9y agoAnd how many mega-tons of that deadly heavy metal known as Lead is out there in cars now. So you claim is we should worry about a possible future nuclear bomb going off while not bothering the dangerous metal already out there.
- Tade0 9y agoIt was never a problem in the first place. There's more than enough lithium in seawater.
- pasta 9y agoIt is a problem for now because at 0.1ppm we are still years away from getting enough lithium out of the seawater/ocean. Most lithium is 'mined' from salt (water) lakes by evaporation. Which is for now much easier and cheaper.
- adrianN 9y agoHow difficult is it to extract that Lithium? There are huge quantities of Gold and Uranium in sea water too, but it's too expensive to filter them out.
- bigbugbag 9y agoEnergy was never a problem in the first place, there's more than enough energy in a supermassive black hole. If you have a practical and affordable to mass produce lithium batteries from seawater please share with us.
- pretendscholar 9y agoWhat percentage of the lithium in the battery can be recycled?