[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

[PSUBS-MAILIST] Radiation Battery issue

Warning: this reply will only be half coherant seeint it's 2:09 am, but I shall try.

The whole Idea of using a radioactive source to create electricity for the boat is pretty interesting.  It's a battery with a 50,000 year halflife, given the solar cells, and other energy collection devices hold up.

The battery would be fairly effective, except for the fact that the amount of energy produced would be small.  At least if you considder the amount of highly radioactive material one could get their hands on.  Then having a company assemble this battery for you.  

I couldn't imagine a device such as this putting out more than an amp or two.  At no more than 12 volts.  Even if it were a thermopile driven it wouldnt' put out a huge dose of energy, and in that case the cooling loop would be difficult to manage.  on the order of that involving a nuclear reactor.  

Now, if this were a comercially availalbe battery, the idea would be more practical.  Sadly we can't just goto the local radioactive shack and pick up one for ourselves.  Another note is that if a leak developed, you'd be stuck in the same tin can as this radiation source for however long it takes you to get to the surface and into clear air.  Then you'd still be responcabalbe for the cleanup of such a mess.  Not pretty on all counts.

A slightly less crazy idea, would be to take seriously, that thermite engine that is mentioned on the psubs website.  Given we have a good pile of aluminum and iorn oxide to draw from, and a small thermite proof vessel, you could use that as a substitute nuke for power indepentant of the surface.  As a bonus, the fuel is cheap, and worst case scenario, is that the fire goes out and you need to surface.  (this is given that there is a redundant system to contain the thermite that's burning)  Thermite is a lot less volitile than the H2O2 that the goverments of the world were playing with before the end of the seccond world war.  

You'd still have to run a steam engine off of that power plant, but I can see the device being built quite compactly.  What I'm imageing is a small crucable to burn the thermite in, and having this inside a larger crucable (for containmanet)  And to have the space between the two crubables filled with water.  I can't see this water staying water for long, and this steam would be piped to the motor's to provide the boat with power.  Again i'm getting ahead of myself.  

Any ideas are welcome.

Greg