В одном из прошлых выпусков - https://youtu.be/aRKlEG0K7Ys мы рассказывали о «Радиоактивном бойскауте », который в 17-летнем возрасте собрал самодельный ядерный реактор-размножитель в сарае рядом со своим домом на окраине Детройта.
Но сейчас вы увидите ещё более крамольные разработки.
Как знать, может у одного из наших подписчиков в подвале уже стоит портативный ядерный реактор для выработки энергии. Кажется фантастикой? Давайте посмотрим. Начнём с довольно известных случаев и закончим самыми удивительными примерами. Поехали.
Ричард Хэндл для своего домашнего реактора собирал радиоактивные запчасти, стрелки старых часов, детекторы дыма и даже уран и торий.
Он писал обо всех экспериментах примерно полгода на своем блоге, но полиция его заметила только, когда он сам написал письмо в службу радиационной безопасности, чтобы узнать у властей, легален ли его эксперимент. Хэндла арестовали и признали виновным в нарушении закона о радиационной безопасности и законе об окружающей среде. После суда его приговорили к небольшому штрафу в полторы тысячи евро и отпустили.
Казалось бы, очередная история о необразованном чудаке, но что вы скажете о всемирно-известной компании, которая 30 лет подряд прятала в своем подвале маленький реактор.
Всем известная компания Кодак производитель фототехники признала, что с 1974 года владела небольшим ядерным реактором. Об установке знали всего несколько человек. Размещался реактор в подвале штаб-квартиры Кодак в городе Родчестере, штат Нью-Йорк. В самой компании утверждают, что более 30 лет ядерная установка не представляла ни малейшей опасности для окружающих тем не менее реактор работал почти на полтора килограммах урана, обогащенного до 93 процентов. Это уже тот уровень, которого вполне достаточно для применения в атомной бомбе. Ядерный реактор размером с обычный холодильник находился в подвале с бетонными стенами толщиной 60 сантиметров и управлялся дистанционно. О его существовании не знали ни власти города не власти штата. Прикол в том, что частные компании вообще не имеет права иметь такие реакторы и работать с активным радиоматериалом. Однако оказалось, что в 70-х годах правительство США одобрило выпуск подобных реакторов для крупных компаний, и по этой программе было выпущено два реактора.
Один из них был отправлен в Министерство энергетики США, а другой как раз и купила компания Кодак. Получается, что ядерный реактор реально домашних размеров уже был создан, причем довольно давно и, судя по всему, работал стабильно все тридцать лет.
А вот подобные станции не тянут на название портативных, но мобильными их вполне можно назвать.
Миниатюрные установки размерами со стандартный морской контейнер могут поставлять от 10 мегаватт в течение 10 лет без дозаправки. Реакторы полностью автономны и безопасны, не требуют обслуживания и по истечению срока службы просто перезаряжаются еще на десять лет.
Реакторы могут использоваться, как для генерации электроэнергии, так и для отопления.
Такая станция может питать целый поселок или небольшой городок.
Наиболее близкими по принципу действия являются самые распространенные реакторы, которые ставились на российских атомных станциях. В качестве топлива используются нитрит урана, который имеет более высокую теплопроводность. Здесь все просто – чем выше, температура реактора, тем выше температура пара. А как следствие выше производительность паровой турбины, которая вырабатывает энергию. Установка с топливом и системой охлаждения имеет массу в 20 тонн и рассчитана на 10 лет без работы дозаправки.
Вся система может перевозиться на грузовиках. По приезду на место, бочка с реактором просто закапывается, доступ к ней и какое-либо обслуживание не предполагается вообще. По истечению гарантийного срока бочка выкапывается и отправляется на завод производителя для перезаправки. Как утверждают конструкторы, особенности конструкции делают эти реакторы безопасными. Невозможен перегрев и взрыв, так как давление с ростом температуры не растет. Авторы технологий уверяют, что этот реактор никогда не выйдет на сверхкритичный режим. А если кто-то намеренно повредит оболочку, активный материал быстро остынет. А сам реактор превратиться в изолированную толстым слоем свинца железную болванку.
In one of the previous episodes, we talked about the radioactive Boy Scout,
who, at the age of 17, assembled a homemade nuclear reactor-multiplier in a shed
next to his house on the outskirts of Detroit.
But now you will see even more crumbly developments.
As you know, one of our subscribers may already have a portable nuclear reactor in the basement for energy generation.
Does it seem like a fantasy? Let's see.
Let's start with quite well-known cases and finish with the most amazing examples.
Let's go.
Richard Handel, for his home reactor, assembled radioactive parts,
old clock hands, smoke detectors, and even uranium and thorium.
He wrote about all the experiments for about half a year on his blog,
but the police noticed him only when he himself wrote a letter to the Radiation Safety Service
to find out from the authorities whether his experiment was legal.
Handel was arrested and found guilty of violating the law on radiation safety
and the law on the environment.
After the trial, he was sentenced to a small fine of 1,500 euros and released.
It would seem like another story about an uneducated weirdo,
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 Kodak company, a manufacturer of photo equipment,
has admitted that since 1974 it has owned a small nuclear reactor.
Only a few people knew about the installation.
The reactor was located in the basement of the Kodak headquarters in Rochester, New York.
The company itself claims that for more than 30 years
the nuclear installation was not the slightest danger to the environment.
Nevertheless, the reactor worked on almost 1.5 kilograms of uranium,
enriched up to 93%.
This is already the level that is quite enough to be used in a nuclear bomb.
The nuclear reactor, the size of an ordinary refrigerator,
was located in a basement with concrete walls 60 centimeters thick
and operated remotely.
Neither the city nor the state knew about its existence.
The thing is that private companies do not have the right
to have such reactors and work with active radio material.
However, it turned out that in the 70s the US government
approved the production of such reactors for large companies,
and two reactors were produced according to this program.
One of them was sent to the US Ministry of Energy,
and the other was bought by Kodak.
It turns out that the nuclear reactor of real home size
has already been created, and quite a long time ago,
and, apparently, it worked steadily for all 30 years.
But such stations are not called portable,
but mobile, they can be called.
Miniature installations with the size of a standard sea container
can supply from 10 megawatts for 10 years without refueling.
The reactors are completely autonomous and safe,
do not require maintenance,
and can be recharged for another 10 years.
Reactors can be used both for generating electricity
and for heating.
Such a station can feed an entire village or a small town.
The most common reactors,
which were installed on Russian nuclear power plants,
are the closest in principle.
Uranium nitrate is used as fuel,
which has a higher thermal conductivity.
As a result, the performance of the steam turbine,
which generates energy, is higher.
The installation with a fuel system and a cooling system
has a mass of 20 tons and is designed for 10 years without refueling.
The entire system can be transported by trucks.
Upon arrival, the barrel with the reactor is simply buried.
Access to it and any maintenance is not required at all.
After a guaranteed period of time,
the barrel is dug out and sent to the manufacturer's plant
As the designers claim,
the features of the design make these reactors safe.
It is impossible to overheat and explode,
since the pressure with the rise of the temperature does not rise.
The authors of the technology assure
that this reactor will never go into a supercritical mode.
And if someone intentionally damages the barrel,
the active material will quickly cool down,
and the reactor itself will turn into an iron blank
How about putting a nuclear reactor in a car?
In 1957, Ford presented the Ford Nucleon concept car,
which was the most famous nuclear car.
It was the first such development,
as well as one of the two such cars,
created at least in the form of a model and shown at the auto show.
The car was designed from the first to the last screw.
They took into account the need for maintenance
on public roads and the danger factor of passenger radiation.
The only thing left to do was to create the nuclear engine itself.
The nuclear installation,
which occupied two-thirds of the volume and mass of the car,
was a reduced copy of a standard reactor
from an American nuclear submarine.
However, it was very difficult to reduce a 35-ton machine
6 meters high to the size of a car.
In a limited volume,
it was necessary to place the reactor itself,
which was the main advantage.
Of course, it was problematic to refuel the new rods
in the old reactor,
so the car was refueled only by changing the reactor.
But one refueling should have been enough for 30,000 km.
It was planned to refuel the used reactors
in the factory conditions.
This is how today, for example,
charging and gas exchange stations work.
But in the end,
the compact reactor did not appear.
And Ford itself did not have enough power
to develop its own nuclear engine.
The leading American reactor manufacturer
for submarines was also in no hurry
to change the shape of its structures,
and the ambitious project was turned around
without giving it a start.
It was necessary to stop the research
for the use of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons.
Accordingly, a huge number of laboratories
working in this area had to stop the research.
Efforts were urgently required
to be directed in a peaceful direction.
Ford marketers noticed a certain signal in this
and immediately sent a task to the engineers
to continue the topic of nucleons.
In the end,
the engineers decided to use
the same technology as in the previous models.
In particular, they preserved
the traditional car layout.
The engine, then the interior,
then the trunk of normal size.
Of course, the car turned out to be huge,
but it was in the spirit of the Americans
and it was simply impossible.
These ideas attracted the attention of Ford itself,
because the know-how that the engineers presented
was ahead of time for half a century.
For example, the steering wheel of this concept car
was not as such.
It was proposed to control the car
by touching a special panel with your fingers.
This is a prototype of a modern touchscreen.
It was designed to look like Windows.
This was in the 60s,
when Windows did not exist yet,
and Bill Gates was only 7 years old at that time.
The main purpose of the computer
was to lay out the route.
This became the prototype of the GPS navigator.
The sensors installed throughout the body
took into account the road situation,
as well as the road conditions.
The windows of the Ford Seattle 21
had a variable degree of darkening
depending on the light stream outside.
The car turned out to be very cool
and in a number of car shows
it made just a furore.
But the development of this car
did not go further than the concept car
which was designed to be used
as a transport power plant.
This project was called TS-3
and was described as a transport power plant.
The power plant itself
was a small two-circuit reactor.
As a working body, there was water.
The turbine of the generator was driven by steam.
The equipment was placed on the chassis
of the power plant.
The power plant included four power plants.
The first was the reactor itself
with protection and an air radiator.
The second was a pair of generators
and circular pumps.
The third was a turbo generator.
The fourth was a control panel
and backup equipment.
The reactor itself was under serious
lack of repairs.
The reactor was built on a single engine.
It was placed in a closed lead-acid tank.
During work,
the operators were not approaching
this engine.
The power plant was ready to operate
and on October 13, 1961,
There was one problem. Neither the industrialists nor the scientists were able to find any normal application of this installation.
Initially, it was designed to work in the conditions of the Far North, but the traditional liquid fuel installations turned out to be simpler and cheaper.
The economic inefficiency forced the project to be closed, and in 1969, the test-3, which was not used anywhere, was preserved.
At the same time, the second mobile nuclear power plant, PAMIR-630D, was also being developed.
A heavy-duty MASS equipment was used as a chassis.
According to many parameters, this plant was more successful than the test-3, but its first experimental launch took place, unfortunately, in 1985, shortly before the Chernobyl tragedy.
Therefore, after the accident on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, most of the work on the nuclear sector was closed.
Well, let's talk about modern developments, such as the floating nuclear power plant of the Lomonosov Academy, some other time.
Set up a notification so as not to miss it. Or maybe it's better to take another topic, for example, to talk about the uranium deal,
that is, the deal WOW-NO-GOR-CHERNOMYRDIN of 1993.
At that time, a huge amount of 500 tons of enriched uranium was sold to the United States.
Instead of 8-12 trillion dollars, according to various estimates, only 20 billion dollars were received.
It's like selling a new Mercedes, which costs 5 million for 12,500 rubles.
This colonial deal, in fact, simply saved the energy of the United States, in which 98 nuclear power plants produce 20% of the country's electricity.
And to this day, the United States is enriched by natural uranium by Russia.
That is why Rosatom has a share of ownership in foreign enterprises for the extraction of natural uranium.
Let us know in the comments if this topic requires a separate issue.
Thank you for a fair assessment of this video and see you on our channel.
