[PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: Radiation Battery issue

["Michael B. Holt" <mholt@richmond.edu>]

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

LOL!

> 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.

Back in the early 60s there was a series of isotope-decay power
plants, the SNAP series.  No, I don't remember what SNAP stands for.
SNAP-7 was used in Antarctica for a while, until someone recalled
that even the U.S. had signed a treaty keeping radioactive materials
out of that part of the world.

But it produced, as I recall, several KW for a long time, with
no maintenance.  I think it used a group of thermocouples to get
electricity.  

> 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.

Hmmm .....  this reminds me of an idea I had a few years ago, to
run an airplane engine off the decomposition of a chemical.  I was
hoping to let the gasses from the breakdown run an airmotor or
a turbine to spin a propellor.  I decided to get married instead 
of developing that (don't ask).

I used to make what we called thermite out of aluminum powder and
ammonium permanganate (I think).  In a certain back yard in a 
certain subdivision in western Henrico County, Virginia, there 
remains to this day a place where nothing grows because that was 
my test site.  I did that experimenting in the 60s (am I that 
old?).  

The thermite idea has two immediately-visible drawbacks: (1) the
flame is very hot (3000F, I think) and (2) it produces a *lot* of
gas.  The gas along might be enough to spin a turbine.  The 
heat is going to be problem.  The idea "feels" like the caustic
soda boilers used on the RESURGAM, which does not mean that it
would not work.   
 
> You'd still have to run a steam engine off of that power plant,
> but I can see the device being built quite compactly.  

So can I.  I wonder if we can do a useful patent search on line?
Does anyone know?

> 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.

What you have described is a lot like the average nuclear power
station.  The technology is all around us, and it would not
require radiation protection in addition to the usual precautions
when dealing with superheated steam.  

Let me think about this some more.  I like this.

 



Mike