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Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] nuclear psub?

Hey, now.... wouldn't that be cool.  The reactors on board some of those old space probes launched in the sixties are still producing current from their thermocouples in atomic piles... tiny ones at that...after all these years. 

Here's the problem... such little reactors generally use weapons grade reaction mass... and even when they don't they are still carefully controlled by various government agencies. There is radiation shielding and all the danger from not containing the reaction properly.

Then there is the problem with people like Saddam wanting to grab your sub for a source of fissionable material... oh, and did I mention this?  I am a US Army Reserve NCO, and bound to report such things to my commander... though I suspect he'd get a good laugh out of this one.

I find it interesting though that in the 40 odd years since the Nautilus, that there are still military submersibles being made with diesel/electric propulsion.  Economies of scale, I'd guess.

On Sun, 2003-01-05 at 14:59, Nero Wolfe wrote:
I was at the University of Chicago today and i saw the monument to enrico firmi's CP-1.  Chicago Pile 1 was a big pile of graphite and unenriched uranium...  Litterally a pile.  This got me thinking...   A reactor is disturbingly simple.  I think you know where I'm going on this....  The technology is simpler than cartsens boat... 

Dale A. Raby
Editor/Publisher
The Green Bay Web
http://www.thegreenbayweb.com

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