We all know about the dangers of using nuclear technology, but what if they can be safe with the right approach? Let's take a look at such examples.
Richard Handle collected radioactive parts, old clock hands, smoke detectors, uranium and thorium for his home reactor.
He wrote about all the experiments for about six months on his blog, but the police only noticed him when he wrote a letter to the radiation safety service to ask the authorities if his experiment was legal. Handle was arrested and found guilty of violating the radiation safety and environmental laws. After the trial, he was sentenced to a small fine of one and a half thousand euros and was released.
It would seem like another story about an uneducated eccentric, like everyone else on my channel, but what can you say about a world-famous company that has been hiding a small reactor in its basement for 30 years in a row?
The well-known company Kodak, which is a manufacturer of photographic equipment, admitted that since 1974 it owned a small nuclear reactor. Only a few people knew about him. This reactor was located in the basement of the headquarters in the city of Rodchester. The company itself claims that for more than 30 years the nuclear installation did not pose the slightest danger to others. The reactor operated on more than 1 kg of uranium enriched to 93%. This is the level that is sufficient for use in an atomic bomb.
The refrigerator-sized nuclear reactor was located in a basement with concrete walls 60 cm thick, and it was controlled remotely. The city authorities did not know about its existence, not to mention the state authorities. However, private companies generally have no right to have such reactors and work with active radio material. But it turned out that in the 70s, the US government approved the release of such reactors for large companies, and two reactors were produced under this program.
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One of them was sent to the US Department of Energy, and the other was bought by the Kodak company. It turns out that a real home-sized nuclear reactor was created a very long time ago and worked steadily for 30 years. But such stations do not want to be called portable, but they can be called mobile.
Miniature units the size of a standard sea container can deliver from 10 megawatts for 10 years without refueling. The reactors are completely autonomous and safe, do not require maintenance and, at the end of their service life, are recharged for another 10 years. Such a station can power an entire village or a small town.
The closest in principle of operation are the most common reactors that were installed at Russian nuclear power plants. Uranium nitrite is used as fuel, which has a higher thermal conductivity. The higher the temperature of the reactor, the higher the temperature of the steam, and as a consequence, the higher the productivity of the steam turbine that generates energy. The unit with fuel has a mass of 20 tons and is designed for 10 years of operation without refueling.
The entire system can be transported by trucks. Upon arrival at the site, the barrel with the reactor is simply buried, access to it and any maintenance is not expected at all. After the expiration of the warranty period, the barrel is excavated and sent to the manufacturer's plant for refueling. According to the designers, the design features make these reactors safe. Overheating and explosion are impossible, since the pressure does not increase with increasing temperature.
The authors of the technology argue that this reactor will never go into supercritical mode. And if damage occurs, the active material will quickly cool down. The reactor itself will turn into an iron bar insulated with a thick layer of lead.
And how great it would be to have such a safe reactor in every city, perhaps it is worth building such developments in order to replace oil, rumors about the exhaustion of which are still ongoing. What do you think?
