Jump to content

Safe nuclear reactor designed by a teenager.


Recommended Posts

I watched a show on that kid. I work at nuclear plants, so I have an understanding of the dangers. His ideas are good and I do like them. Time will tell if someone buys his idea and builds.

Side note on fuel..... Reagan laid the ground work Bush to complete the first Strategic Arms Reduc­tion Treaty with Russia. Part of that deal was the US buys a percentage of their down graded weapons fuel for our nuclear reactors.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It's not pie-in-the-sky at all.

It's brilliant.

We've been using pretty much the same reactor tech in the country since the 1950's - and we haven't commissioned a new reactor in decades. Using tech that is more than half a century old is moronic. We use gigantic installations that process fuel inefficiently. We refuse to recycle our spent fuel (which contains plenty of fissionable U-235 and Pu-239), which even France does, creating mixed oxide fuel. These massive installations result in tons upon tons of low-level radioactive waste that has to be specially stored. A relatively small, manufactured device, as opposed to a massive facility, would not have these problems.

I am curious how he can be so certain that the design is free from worries of proliferation - I don't understand why a clever organization couldn't figure out how to harvest the fuel from a captured reactor.

The idea of using these in space is brilliant - except that his failsafe design clearly relies on gravity. For a moon installation or future orbiting station with centrifugal artificial gravity, sure. A modern orbiting ship or station - doesn't seem like the best idea, unless a new failsafe - say, eject the fucker - is developed.

People fear radiation and reactors for their dangers - and in their idiocy, stifle development of safer designs.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

It's a bit pie-in-the-sky, but I like the concept.

It would be pie-in-the-sky if somebody else said it. But this kid operates in a different reality than we do. Don't let the simplicity of the presentation fool you. He's dumbed it down for us to understand. He's already one of the most brilliant physicists in the world and he's only just graduated high school (from the #1 genius school in the country).

 

He built a working fusion test reactor before he graduated high school.

 

Us watching him is like a dog watching television. I know we all like to think we're smart. Our egos don't accept that somebody could be that much smarter. But he is.

 

I've been checking out videos about him and he's the one that comes along only once in a generation. He was offered a full physics scholorship when he was 8 years old.

 

From the moment he learned to read (which was before most of us could walk) he began teaching himself. He never used that scholorship because he already had a post-graduate level physics knowledge when he was 12.

 

The only point to him going to college would be to teach.

 

He already has his own nuclear research company. He invented a new way to detect nuclear materials in shipping containers and the government is testing his system now. Obama offered him a job but he turned it down. He said he doesn't want to work for the government. He want's to sell to the government.

 

So he's also an entrepreneur.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Lazlo! I actually met a Lazlo in college. Took a while to befriend the dude, but when he finally came around, he turned out to be lots of fun. The best part was I got the guy talking to the rest of the dorm. Smartest son of a bitch I ever met. Genius was too little a word. He had been in school something like 16 years and had spent several of them doing R&D. I'm sure he's working on something big these days like anti-matter or some other crazy bat shit like that.

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

I read a while ago that they re ran the girl's math and it didn't work. Still a brilliant kid.

 

Do you mean "boy", or are you talking about somebody else?

 

I was thinking of the chinese teenage girl that was a big deal a month or two ago. Sorry.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Id read of molten salt reactors before but it was during the period of nuclear being in high disfavor so never heard of it again.

 

Until now.

 

Absofuckinlutly brilliant. The ramifications are incredible, now watch GE and Westinghouse try to squash it.

Edited by Rhodes1968
Link to post
Share on other sites

I've built the same fusion reactor, and yes it does work! Yeah, you can fuse deuterium, but you can't get much power out of them. You could use them for irradiation of depleted uranium to produce plutonium with all the fast neutrons that they can create. With those reactors you want about 12" of UHMW PE and about 2" of lead to block the radiation created during operation. High voltage and hard vacuum can produce a hell of a lot of X-rays.

Link to post
Share on other sites

A small safe fission reactor that uses commonly available fuels (deactivated weapon warheads) and runs for 30 years without refueling is exactly what is needed to fill the gap until fusion becomes viable.

 

Provided civilization lasts that long.

 

But we do have to proceed on the assumption that it will. Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Chatbox

    Load More
    You don't have permission to chat.
×
×
  • Create New...