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Why have something that needs to be turned on and off? simply bury a miniature radiothermal source under your driveway and keep it toasty warm 24/7. It might b

Why have something that needs to be turned on and off? simply bury a miniature radiothermal source under your driveway and keep it toasty warm 24/7. It might be a profoundly awful idea, but in terms of laziness it's completely passive, no needing to toggle a switch or similar to activate it. Not my area of expertise but I'd imagine if you design the system just right you could have a solid-state heat distribution system so no worries about water pumps breaking down.

csours 4y ago
Or a chicken. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock#Chicken-powered_nuclear_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock#Chicken-powered_n...
- fbdab103 4y ago
  I have no doubt these engineers were smarter than myself, but I am struggling to understand how that was the best solution at hand. For something that weighs 7300 kgs, how was there not sufficient space to include a heater and battery? Now your military base needs to maintain both the nukes + a chicken coop. For a crappy back of the envelope calculation: a human outputs 100 watts and is 70kg. A chicken is 2kg, so by rough ratios, you would expect a chicken to to be a 3 watt equivalent. A quick search is indicating a (modern) car battery is 600 watt hours, meaning we could fuel our chicken-equivalent-heater for eight days.
  - waste_monk 4y ago
    It was 1950's era tech... perhaps they were concerned about the acid leaking and damaging the mines, or hydrogen sulfide gas building up inside the casing.
selcuka 4y ago
I would love to have some plutonium under my driveway.
- ashwagary 4y ago
  Easiest foolproof method is to move the driveway to a tropical island.
klvino 4y ago
why bury it? Add it to the mix before you pour your driveway, then remember to not play, lie down, or park your vehicle on it.
- waste_monk 4y ago
  Just make sure to put up a little sign that says "This driveway is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed vehicle is commemorated here..." and so on.

csours 4y ago

Or a chicken. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock#Chicken-powered_nuclear_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock#Chicken-powered_n...

fbdab103 4y ago
I have no doubt these engineers were smarter than myself, but I am struggling to understand how that was the best solution at hand. For something that weighs 7300 kgs, how was there not sufficient space to include a heater and battery? Now your military base needs to maintain both the nukes + a chicken coop. For a crappy back of the envelope calculation: a human outputs 100 watts and is 70kg. A chicken is 2kg, so by rough ratios, you would expect a chicken to to be a 3 watt equivalent. A quick search is indicating a (modern) car battery is 600 watt hours, meaning we could fuel our chicken-equivalent-heater for eight days.
- waste_monk 4y ago
  It was 1950's era tech... perhaps they were concerned about the acid leaking and damaging the mines, or hydrogen sulfide gas building up inside the casing.

selcuka 4y ago

I would love to have some plutonium under my driveway.

ashwagary 4y ago
Easiest foolproof method is to move the driveway to a tropical island.

klvino 4y ago

why bury it? Add it to the mix before you pour your driveway, then remember to not play, lie down, or park your vehicle on it.

waste_monk 4y ago
Just make sure to put up a little sign that says "This driveway is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed vehicle is commemorated here..." and so on.