A simple homemade Atomic Reactor

[budullewraagh]

btw, what IS a thermos vacuum flask?

[Dave]

It's a flask that is silver-lined and surrounded by vacuum to help prevent temperature change of the liquid inside the flask.

 

Try looking at http://home.howstuffworks.com/thermos.htm

[budullewraagh]

and where could one obtain one?

[Dave]

Try more or less any outdoors shop. My supermarket does them as well.

[budullewraagh]

ok, now if i only could obtain some drawings of the entire device...

[Guest wroe12]

One other fule source is Amerecium241. Most smoke dtectors contain a small amount inside a steel button. Since the amerecium only gives off beta and Alpha adiation you limit the shielding needed to make it safer. NOTE keep aluminum or any material prone to losing neutrons when exposed to beta or alpa particles. The amount needed will increase also.

[DeoxyriboNucleicAcid]

hmmm, I have tried to, but have not been successful in building a small electric generator.

I have heard somewhere that if an electric motor is turned backwards, it will produce electricity??? Is this correct, and can someone explain it?

If the above method is not correct, in generating electricity, then how does one build a generator, say, that can be activated by wind, or whatever.

[swansont]

hmmm' date=' I have tried to, but have not been successful in building a small electric generator.

I have heard somewhere that if an electric motor is turned backwards, it will produce electricity??? Is this correct, and can someone explain it?

If the above method is not correct, in generating electricity, then how does one build a generator, say, that can be activated by wind, or whatever.[/quote']

 

In general, yes. A motor and generator are basically the same. But there may be additional components (e.g. a rectifier) that would make it not run in reverse.

[DeoxyriboNucleicAcid]

so, in other words spinning a small electric motor backwards, say extracted from a remote control toy, would produce electricity from the motor, and I could attach wires to the spinning motor, and light a bulb?

[swansont]

so, in other words spinning a small electric motor backwards, say extracted from a remote control toy, would produce electricity from the motor, and I could attach wires to the spinning motor, and light a bulb?

 

If it's from a battery-powered toy you might have to worry about whether there is any DC-AC conversion going on before the motor that's built-in to the box. And you don't have to spin it backwards, per se. It's just whether you are providing a voltage to get motion, or motion to gat a voltage.

[Guest wroe12]

One other system to get power from the heat source is a thermopile. You can buy those electric coolers pretty cheap now and with a little modification use the heating/cooling cell to extract power from the heat.

 

They work on the principle of a dislike metals or semiconductors genterating electric power if one is heated and the other cooled.

[arivero]

It is horrible that one thinks before on going shopping for old clocks to get a bit of radioactive substance instead of going to the open country for the minerals. The only science people learns modernly is "consumer science".

[budullewraagh]

bah. you dont see am241 often in nature

[arivero]

Hmm but I can imagine someone accumulating pitchblende for years in the cellar of his house at the mountain, the stones sitting there just next to the grand-father whyskey alambic...

[YT2095]

well considering the concept was proposed more for its value as an interesting idea and that actualy building one without the correct apparatus would be just plain crazy. storing pitchblende or "hot rocks" in your basement would be Insane! (think Radon gas).

 

the original post would infact work, but it would be equaly as crazy to try, not to mention the legal aspects.

 

I seriously didn`t think I`de have to type this but... DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

there, I`ve said it now

[Martin]

Hmm but I can imagine someone accumulating pitchblende for years in the cellar of his house at the mountain, the stones sitting there just next to the grand-father whyskey alambic...

 

the image blurs distinctions between a hillbilly moonshiner and an alchemist,

the moonshiner's "still" for distilling whiskey being indeed an alembic

so there is a circle of associations

 

philosopher's stone -> pitchblende rock -> illegal nuclear alchemy -> illegal whiskey still -> alembic -> alchemist -> back to the beginning

 

Marquez (100 years of solitude) could have written a story on this image

but perhaps he had too great a sense of responsibility to allow it, if the thought crossed his mind

[YT2095]

glow in the dark Hooch! now why didn`t I think of that? LOL )

[arivero]

Mostly the still is used to process heavy water, so grand'pa should not worry about it... well, perhaps some residues of uranium hexafluoride... but, anyway, if he can cope with the methanol, this will not kill him

 

And yep, in the XIXth century "glow in the dark" glasses were sold. Nice bohemians, finally finding some use for the hot stones.

[Martin]

 

And yep' date=' in the XIXth century "glow in the dark" glasses were sold. Nice bohemians, finally finding some use for the hot stones.[/quote']

 

when you run out of candles you can still keep on drinking

[YT2095]

and rather them than me! )

[MulderMan]

thats where people get the idea that plutonium/uranium is glowing neon green. i think they get it off the idea of 'vaseline glass and marbles', and probably the hulk and simpsons but thats another story. i dont think you can get pitchblende in england right? only america. ive heard you can get uramium minerals and rock ore in england from the old uramium mines in cornwall? anyway before id like to try anything like this id like to get a gieger counter first, anyone know where to get a cheap one? the school has one but they will only let me lend it every so often.

[YT2095]

actualy "Glow in the dark" is often used as a comical term, that`s how I use it anyway, fact is it doesn`t unless mixed with certain metal salts, and if it glows without metal salts you`ll be dead before you could tell anyone about it anyway!

 

I bought my Geiger counter from Maplins in a kit form, cost about 60 quid, I`ve had it tested at Birmingham Uni with various emiters and it proves to work quite well but a bit low on the Alpha particles, non the less, it`s a great peice of kit for the money and well worth the effort to build

[MulderMan]

ive got a maplins in town anyway so ill have a look in the catalog, are they like the little electric kits that you make and solder? arnet alpha particles supposed to work better with a geiger counter because they are more ionising?

[budullewraagh]

even with americium 241? that's hardly dangerous to use, no?

[MulderMan]

its alpha so it isnt that harmfull outside the body, in smoke alarms you cant extract alot as the peice of metal in the ionisation chamber is only 1/5000 americium 241 - supposedly. when we use it in school we have to do things like use tweezers and dont point the source at your eyes, things like that. maybe things found in university labs like cesium 137 and colbalt 60 might work.