tycon69 Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com/pages/nuclearfission.htm This site tells you how to make a homemade nuclear reactor from an apple, a few graphite pencils, and 6 luminous watches. Is this truely possible? Would it work? I came here because i can not find anything else about this anywhere on the internet. I would have dismissed this as a joke, but everything else on the site seems credible. If it is real, is it safe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 I doubt you could form critical mass with the radium on an old watch face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kanzure Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 At first glance, it looks like a simple reaction that will make children happy, something like an explosion, not a serious nuclear reactor. The real deals are intense pieces of technology and engineering, you'd know one if you saw one. - Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com/pages/nuclearfission.htm This site tells you how to make a homemade nuclear reactor from an apple, a few graphite pencils, and 6 luminous watches. Is this truely possible? Would it work? I came here because i can not find anything else about this anywhere on the internet. I would have dismissed this as a joke, but everything else on the site seems credible. If it is real, is it safe? They don't specify which watch faces to use, but all the modern radioactive watch faces that I have seen use tritium and are alpha emitters. You aren't going to get a pop and a mushroom cloud from that. So, no, I have no idea what they were smoking when they made that page. For a read on some children who got a little farther along, you might refer to Radioactive Boy Scout or Teenager achieves nuclear fusion at home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YT2095 Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 it`ll only work if you have the eaten apple inside though! I think any idiot knows that a reactor need a Core Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedarkshade Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com/pages/nuclearfission.htm This site tells you how to make a homemade nuclear reactor from an apple, a few graphite pencils, and 6 luminous watches. Is this truely possible? Would it work? I came here because i can not find anything else about this anywhere on the internet. I would have dismissed this as a joke, but everything else on the site seems credible. If it is real, is it safe? Take a look at this ! It's not that easy man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ydoaPs Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com/pages/nuclearfission.htm This site tells you how to make a homemade nuclear reactor from an apple, a few graphite pencils, and 6 luminous watches. Is this truely possible? Would it work? I came here because i can not find anything else about this anywhere on the internet. I would have dismissed this as a joke, but everything else on the site seems credible. If it is real, is it safe? This, IMO, is intellectual dishonesty. It is NOT fission as the url states. It isn't even the "Nuclear Boyscout" reactor. As far as I can tell, it won't even do anything. And I laugh at the "control rods" for more than one reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 They don't specify which watch faces to use, but all the modern radioactive watch faces that I have seen use tritium and are alpha emitters. Tritium is a source of betas, not alphas. I don't think there are any naturally occurring alpha emitters lighter than lead. As far as the link in the OP goes, it says it was published on April 1st, and elsewhere they admit that one of their experiments is a joke. Care to guess which one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ydoaPs Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 Tritium is a source of betas, not alphas. I don't think there are any naturally occurring alpha emitters lighter than lead. An alpha decay of tritium produces a negatively charged tachyon! 31H->-1-1?+42He Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedarkshade Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 Tritium is very very very rare, it's located in the highest layers of the atmosphere and is created as a result of cosmic rays. It can otherwise be produced from the reaction of two deuteriums, and as a result we get one random H and one tritium. It has a use in nuclear physics, as a fuel for hydrogen bombs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 Tritium is very very very rare, it's located in the highest layers of the atmosphere and is created as a result of cosmic rays. It can otherwise be produced from the reaction of two deuteriums, and as a result we get one random H and one tritium. It has a use in nuclear physics, as a fuel for hydrogen bombs! It also has a use in exit signs, watches and gun sights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozone Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 Fact or Bullcrap? 1. graphite is used as a moderating material, serving to slow down the neutrons that would exist *if* the isotope were capable of spontaneous fission (e.g. large nuclei). The slowing of these neutrons, a process referred to a "thermalization" involves bouncing them off of light weight nuclei, like C or H (water) or D (deuterium in D2O, see CANDU reactors). "Control" involves the absorption of the neutrons to create an actived isotope. The likelyhood of this occuring is referred to as the absorption cross-section and it is measured in Barnes; elements which are quite good at this include B and Cd (heavier isotopes tend to yield fissionable nuclei). 2. There needs to be a large nucleus present to absorb the neutron (if it is moving at just the right energy, eg. thermal neutrons are absorbed by 235U. If the energy is correct, the nucleus becomes unstable and will split to yield two new nuclei (e.g. 92Kr and 144Ba) and a few neutrons. These neutrons, if the material is dense enough (and isotopically pure) will propagate the rxn (critical). If the density is higher still, this may occur at a rate analogous to an explosion (supercritical). 3. The mass of a reflected weapons grade (239Pu) core is ~1kg (reflected implosion) and has an isotopic purity >93%. A reactor at static criticality contains *tons* of lightly enriched material (maybe 8%) or tons more w/D moderation if at natural abundance (~0.75% 235U). The given device takes into account non of this and contains (even with Ra watches, which are very nice a sources) no fissionable material:doh: . I must call bullcrap! O3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YT2095 Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 Naaah! Really? that can`t be right, I mean it`s got a Real Core and everything! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozone Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 And rods! Oh my! The humanity! The treatise was for fun (and to jog my decrepit memory on a subject that was canned at my university in the mid '90s). Cheers, O3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 Tritium is a source of betas, not alphas.Right you are. Sorry for the mis-information. I don't think there are any naturally occurring alpha emitters lighter than lead.Depends on the isotope of lead (how's that for grasping at straws?), but yeah, generally, you are correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrDNA Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 I think it will work.....if you happen to have a half dozen weapons grade plutonium watches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ydoaPs Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 I think it will work.....if you happen to have a half dozen weapons grade plutonium watches. Still won't work. Graphite reflects scatters neutrons far more often than it absorbs them. That is why graphite is used as a moderator instead of a poison. Even if you had, say, boron pencils, it still wouldn't work as the watches wouldn't be at critical mass(and you'd need some source neutrons). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foursixand2 Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 this has actually been done in my home state. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,510054502,00.html other products of utah? Television and Methamphetamine. Technically it was only the Electronic Television (not the original idea), and it was made in California by a former Utahn. And it was one of those darwin/wallace type events. A dude working independently in germany finished basically the same thing a few months later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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