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No, I mean using atomic bombs to manufacture these alloys at scale. In the 50s a-bombs were proposed for all sorts of workaday uses. Imagine using a small a-b
by tastyfreeze 2mo ago
No, I mean using atomic bombs to manufacture these alloys at scale. In the 50s a-bombs were proposed for all sorts of workaday uses. Imagine using a small a-bomb for mining just as we use ANFO today.
I am sure that somebody will take up the task of reproducing these alloys using intense heat from a non-atomic source. New alloys can be quite lucrative but developing them requires just as much experimentation as making new drugs. I'd imagine that getting to an alloy of 7 metals through progressive experimentation would take awhile. Now we know it's possible and have a possible production path. That is enough to spur some experiments down that road.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- cucumber3732842 2mo ago>Imagine using a small a-bomb for mining just as we use ANFO today. Nuclear cement kiln Nuclear pile jetter Nuclear tunnel boring machine.
- fxtentacle 2mo agoNuclear Toothpaste https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doramad_Radioactive_Toothpaste https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doramad_Radioactive_Toothpaste
- vidarh 2mo ago> Nuclear tunnel boring machine. Don't give Elon ideas.
- tomatocracy 2mo agoBoth the US and the Soviet Union actually experimented with "nuclear fracking" in oil/gas fields. The Soviet Union also used atomic bombs to put out fires in gas fields as late as 1981.
- mauvehaus 2mo agoThey what?! Can we please get a link to this to read more?! And yes, I have the same Google as you, but I'd love a link to your preferred telling of the tale of how the Soviets nuked a gas well fire just a couple years before I was born.
- paulgerhardt 2mo agoI recall we were seriously talking about using one during the early days of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. For a variety of reasons it wouldn’t have worked in that instance. [1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-soviets-nuked-gas-well-fires/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-soviets-nuked-gas-well-f...
- 3eb7988a1663 2mo agoWikipedia has an article about it[0]. Gas had been leaking for three years before they were able to use a nuke to seal the well. Estimated that it was burning 12 million m3 of gas daily. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtabulak_gas_field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtabulak_gas_field
- gilleain 2mo agoInteresting, however that was 1966: > the explosive was detonated at a depth of 1,500 m (1,640 yd) on 30 September 1966. The hole that the explosive was lowered into had also been sealed with cement so as to prevent atmospheric radioactive contamination. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Explosions_for_the_National_Economy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Explosions_for_the_Nat... > The last nuclear explosion by the Program 7, codenamed Rubin-1, was performed in Arkhangelsk Oblast on September 6, 1988. Although there is no separate page for that.
- jojobas 2mo agoSoviets also blew up a 140kt bomb to make a lake. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shagan_(lake,_Abai_Region) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shagan_(lake,_Abai_Region)
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- 27183 2mo agoThere was some truly crazy shit happening in the late '50s-early '60s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missil...
- prox 2mo agoLooks like every time a new “big thing” gets invented, the big thing becomes like a hammer and everything else turns into the proverbial nail. Then it was atomic everything, not its AI everything. Same pattern repeating.
- stevenwoo 2mo agoIIRC in “Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman” he recalls being asked during Manhattan Project (?) for ideas to commercialize atomic energy and they patented whatever the scientists brainstormed up.