completed breeder reactor based off of radioactive boy scout

[dibinvaderzim]

Hello peoples of the internet, I am dibinvaderzim. I had an idea about the radioactive boy scout thingy.

See, the officials say that the reactor was unfinished and never fuctioned, but he was really close to creating an operational breeder reactor. He got a plethora of ionizing smoke detectors, then extracted the americium-241 then got aluminium and a lead block and mode a neutron gun. His project could have easily been completed by submerging parts of the reactor with the irradiated fuel in water, so when the fissle material came out of the process, it would boil the water , which would travel into a turbine, thus creating power. Correct? I am not to sure. Please correct me if I am wrong and go easy on me , I am only 11yrs old!!!!!

[John Cuthber]

It would never have worked.

The neutron gun relied on alpha particles knocking neutrons out of beryllium or aluminium (the stories vary).

But only about 1 alpha in 100,000 does that- the rest are "wasted".

You can't really build a reactor based on that design.

However what he did was very dangerous.

Don't try it.

[dibinvaderzim]

True, but if he gained more smoke dectors and beryllium, he could have gotten through. And I am aware that he nearly put 40,000 at risk and irradiated his mother's property

I meant 40,000 people

[Moontanman]

I read an article recently that said he was still up to his tricks but radiation poisoning had him close to death, his picture looked like the walking dead...

[John Cuthber]

You can't really get a reactor to produce useful power that way.

It wouldn't really matter much how many smoke detectors he got.

(strictly it would because you can get a reactor with 60 Kg of 241 Am: but each detector contains something like a ten millionth of a gram ).

You would need roughly 50 smoke detectors for every person on the planet to supply the Americium.

 

Producing that would require rather a lot of conventional reactors so, what would be the point?

 

All you could hope to achieve was a nasty radioactive mess.

[Moontanman]

I'm pretty sure that is what he has, his picture was quite frightening, I've seen advanced tweekers that looked like prince charming in comparison. If I can remember where the article came from I'll post it but he has essentially irradiated himself by pursuing this endeavor over the years... If I remember correctly americium can be used to make a nuclear bomb but it takes quite a bit more than anyone could accumulate in a reasonable amount of time... but still less than the plutonium or U235 required.

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/87734

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission-fragment_rocket

[John Cuthber]

A fairly typical picture of him can be found here

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html

 

I'm not sure how much of that is radiation damage.

[dibinvaderzim]

Sorry I havent been posting recently, I was at school. Anyway, he could get the reactor to worlk bycreating heavy isotopes with combined alpha particle sources and could avoid some of the radiation with tons of tungsten and lead.

[Moontanman]

Sorry I havent been posting recently, I was at school. Anyway, he could get the reactor to worlk bycreating heavy isotopes with combined alpha particle sources and could avoid some of the radiation with tons of tungsten and lead.

 

 

That's kinda beyond the whole "boyscout" project isn't it?

[John Cuthber]

he could get the reactor to worlk bycreating heavy isotopes with combined alpha particle sources .

No, not really.

[Enthalpy]

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/87734

The linked description of a reactor for rocket propulsion avoids to tell a few things (which I was too lazy to search elsewhere), like:

• - How is americium plasma confined, but not hydrogen despite being a plasma as well
• - What hydrogen pressure is compatible with the reactor, and whether this pressure fits gas flow in a rocket engine

  (this is a basic limit in any thermal rocket engine, I found lucky to have one operation domain for my Solar one)

• What happens to beryllium oxide, how quickly. How to test on Earth and clean the mess.

[Moontanman]

 

The linked description of a reactor for rocket propulsion avoids to tell a few things (which I was too lazy to search elsewhere), like:

• - How is americium plasma confined, but not hydrogen despite being a plasma as well
• - What hydrogen pressure is compatible with the reactor, and whether this pressure fits gas flow in a rocket engine

  (this is a basic limit in any thermal rocket engine, I found lucky to have one operation domain for my Solar one)

• What happens to beryllium oxide, how quickly. How to test on Earth and clean the mess.

 

 

 

I can't read the paper but if it is similar to the Nuclear light bulb rocket the wall is quartz cooled by liquid hydrogen and the americium plasma would stay confined in the "light bulb" ... there are of course problems to be solved...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb

 

IMHO the real key to this would be the ability to create a magnetic field sufficiently strong enough to contain the plasma...

Edited December 12, 2013 by Moontanman

[dibinvaderzim]

ThSorr y I havent been posting recently. I have come up with an idea in his film, they say he used thorium lantern mantles to get thorium- 232, an alpha particle emitter. Combine this with cheap isotopes from tritium keychains, smoke detectors and some sheilding equippment, and voila! A neutron gun!!

 

P.S boy scouts will do anything to get things done beleive me, my friend ( a boy scout) spent over $800 just to make a garden fence at my school for his eagle scout project

[hypervalent_iodine]

ThSorr y I havent been posting recently. I have come up with an idea in his film, they say he used thorium lantern mantles to get thorium- 232, an alpha particle emitter. Combine this with cheap isotopes from tritium keychains, smoke detectors and some sheilding equippment, and voila! A neutron gun!!

 

P.S boy scouts will do anything to get things done beleive me, my friend ( a boy scout) spent over $800 just to make a garden fence at my school for his eagle scout project

 

 

This isn't something you're actually considering trying, is it? Please don't.

[Moontanman]

 

 

This isn't something you're actually considering trying, is it? Please don't.

 

 

hey, could be the next Darwin's day award winner, lol

[John Cuthber]

 

 

hey, could be the next Darwin's day award winner, lol

I think he's too young to qualify.

[Endy0816]

It goes against that whole trustworthy part of the scout law. Namely people should be able to trust you won't turn your home into a Superfund site.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Endy0816

[dibinvaderzim]

Well,at a certajn age the gormones in a teen's body make their thought process almkst nonfunctional

I meant hormones

[Moontanman]

Well,at a certajn age the gormones in a teen's body make their thought process almkst nonfunctional

I meant hormones

 

 

None the less, please don't do that...

[dibinvaderzim]

and why would I? This is strictly for informational purposes. I have better things to do