Huh. Maybe having an aggressive, conquest-driven corrupt and highly irrational nation moving a number of nuclear-capable hypersonic ballistic missiles to your border might make someone think that defending themselves is a good idea…
Iskander missiles heading towards the Finnish border. pic.twitter.com/GjOMLF7y5r
— Sentletse 🇷🇺🇿🇦 (@Sentletse) May 16, 2022
YouTube has for several months kept suggesting videos on “nuclear diamond batteries.” Most of the videos I’ve glanced at looked like clickbaity rubbish about fraudulent pseudoscience… and ever now and then I briefly watch one of the videos, and they kinda don’t disappoint.
The Nuclear Diamond Battery itself seems a reasonable enough idea. Small quantities of some radioactive substance such as Carbon 14 or Nickel 63 are formed into thin films and sandwiched between thin films of diamond semiconductors. The radioactive element emits beta radiation – high energy electrons. The electrons are captured and converted to electricity by something akin to a photoelectic cell. The radiation is captured and prevented from escaping, and in the process converted to electricity… sounds like a winner, right? And apparently prototypes have been built that work. And thus we get videos like this:
The video promises batteries that are safe and last for thousands of years. And while this seems to be true, there is one problem that these sort of videos tend to not mention. From the Wikipedia article on the subject:
In 2018, researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the Technological Institute for Superhard and Novel Carbon Materials (TISNCM), and the National University of Science and Technology (MISIS) announced a prototype using 2-micron thick layers of 63Ni foil sandwiched between 200 10-micron diamond converters. It produced a power output of about 1 μW at for power density of 10 μW/cm3.
That’s ten *micro* Watts per cubic centimeter. A battery one meter on a side (which, using the density of diamond of 3.5 g/cm3, would mass 3,500 kilograms) would produce a power output of… ten Watts. Granted, it would do so for thousands of years but… ten fricken Watts. The Tesla Model S has a total motor output of 615,000 Watts. Such a car would require a Nuclear Diamond Battery with a volume of 61,500 cubic meters, massing somewhere in the vicinity of two hundred thousand *tons.* The Seawise Giant, the largest supertanker in history, could carry two of these batteries.
Ummm.
Next.
Exact dug in spot here: 👇https://t.co/vOl5LiPHo9
— redintelpanda (@RedIntelPanda) April 6, 2022
These trenches dug by Russian forces during their invasion of the region were dug in the most irradiated areas of the Chernobyl Radiation Area, see this map of soil Caesium radiation around the disaster area, with the location of the trenches marked. No wonder some got sick. https://t.co/hbvVuatJS1 pic.twitter.com/kbBhfKR070
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) April 6, 2022
I can’t *imagine* why this topic might be on my mind these days…
There’s a lot stupid about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The fact that it happened in the first place, of course. The fact that there are so many people in the west who think Putin is anything but a cheap villain. The use of inadequate weapons. The lack of preparation. The lack of logistics. The failure to dominate the skies first. And on and on and on. But this… this is on a whole new level of mind-boggling stupidity.
And…
Is the Russian leadership *trying* to destroy the Russian military?
Forty years ago, when Soviet missiles were pointed almost directly at my head, I would have cheered on Soviet soldiers being abused and wasted in this fashion. Now it’s just freakin’ sad.
Because why not: someone has posted the 1979 disaster “epic” Meteor to YouTube. It is pretty awful on every level, but to me the worst of it is the incredibly half-assed miniature work on the spacecraft. That said, it’s entertaining in it’s awfulness. Just thing thing to MST3K.
When I was ten, this movie was awesome. Now… well, here ya go.
Here is a movie review from the period:
And here is a TV movie, “A Fire In The Sky,” from the year before “Meteor,” based on a similar concept.
A spokesman for Europe’s largest nuclear plant says the facility is on fire after Russia attacked the power station in the southern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar.
“We demand that they stop the heavy weapons fire,” Andriy Tuz, spokesperson for the plant in Enerhodar, said in a video posted on Telegram. “There is a real threat of nuclear danger in the biggest atomic energy station in Europe.” Tuz told Ukrainian television that it is urgent to stop the fighting to put out the flames.
BREAKING: Europe's largest nuclear power plant in southern #Ukraine is reportedly being shelled by Russian troops right now. Watch ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/HGklnjOuQL
— The News with Shepard Smith (@thenewsoncnbc) March 4, 2022
WATCH: The Associated Press reports there are elevated levels of radiation at the nuclear plant under attack in #Ukraine. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/rv4mZUhVWQ
— The News with Shepard Smith (@thenewsoncnbc) March 4, 2022
From the AP:
Firefighters cannot get near the fire because they are being shot at, Tuz said.
A government official told The Associated Press that elevated levels of radiation were detected near the site of the plant, which provides about 25% of Ukraine’s power generation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not yet been publicly released.
This map might prove useful:
https://www.windfinder.com/#5/47.0252/47.3730
Shows current wind directions. At the moment, the winds in the region of the reactor under attack are circling around a region in north-eastern Ukraine, then seemingly drifting south-east over Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran. If the reactor pops, the Caspian Sea is likely to get trashed. Tomorrow the wins is to be more generally easterly, but Saturday the wind will come down from the north and then hang a right straight over Greece. From then on it looks like the region of Greece and Turkey will get a constant flow from the area of the reactor.
The invasion of the Ukraine doesn’t seem to be the overnight success I suspect Putin figured it would be. So now I have to wonder if he’s thinking of turning the place to ash on his way out. The rest of Europe and the US may also be in the crosshairs. This would do Russia no good, of course. Nobody would benefit from Russia getting nutty with their nukes.
Except…
I wonder if the Chinese Communists would like to be the unopposed barbarian warlords sitting atop a radioactive pile of skulls? Somehow I suspect that they wouldn’t mind a crappy standard of living if *they* were in charge of the whole planet, trashed though it may be.
Fortunately, the United States Government is here to help:
https://www.ready.gov/nuclear-explosion
Get inside the nearest building to avoid radiation. Brick or concrete are best.
Remove contaminated clothing and wipe off or wash unprotected skin if you were outside after the fallout arrived. Hand sanitizer does not protect against fall out. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, if possible. Do not use disinfectant wipes on your skin.
Go to the basement or middle of the building. Stay away from the outer walls and roof. Try to maintain a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who are not part of your household. If possible, wear a mask if you’re sheltering with people who are not a part of your household. Children under two years old, people who have trouble breathing, and those who are unable to remove masks on their own should not wear them.
Ahem. In the event a nuclear ᚠᚪᛣᚳᛁᚾᚷ bomb goes off near you, what you really need to worry about is social distancing. Not getting flash-fried or marinated in fallout.
And in the event of a major disaster, there are a number of things you should have at hand. But it’s curious that this government website seems to have forgotten a few:
Curiously only two references to “firearm” on the whole site:
A Douglas concept from 1963 for a large space booster that was to use both chemical and nuclear engines. The first stage was to have chemical engines; when the booster reached sufficient altitude, it would stage off and a purely nuclear stage would deliver a one million pound payload to low Earth orbit (in this case, a million pounds of liquid hydrogen for a large interplanetary spacecraft). both stages would be recovered for re-use.
*Somewhere* I have a paper that describes this at least a little bit, with a minimal diagram…
For the most part, I’m satisfied to let people be who they want to be. Do whatever you like in the privacy of your own home, so long as you’re hurting nobody else. But the fact is, some things (and people) really are nuts. Mental illness is a reality. And being mentally ill in one area could well mean you are not likely to make good judgements in another.
Behold who the Biden administration is hiring to help plan for the future of nuclear waste.
Tolerance goes just so far. And then it gets pushed *too* far and it snaps back. Are we at that point? near that point? beyond that point? I dunno, but if I was *kinda* like this person, but nowhere near as nutty as this person, I’d be *real* worried about the inevitable pendulum swing in the other direction. I would post the photos that this person happily and willingly puts out onto the internet, but I at least *kinda* try to keep this as a safe for work, safe for family and safe for life blog. If I included the photos, parent groups across the land would try to get my blog yoinked from public school libraries… and they’d be right to do so.
Apparently he has the right degrees, the right education to technically work in the field of nuclear waste handling. But imagine being a standard, normal engineer tasked with working alongside this guy in his dresses and dog-play. Yeeeeesh. If nothing else, he is making everything in his life all about him. There are reasons why “professional attire” is what it is… and conformity is part of that. It is not strictly from an authoritarian desire to make everyone conform to some arbitrary standard, but to make everyone focus on their *job* not on their attire, or on what Bob’s wearing today. The physical sciences are hard enough without having to deal with loonies that you can’t respect. The job needs to be about *the* *job.* Intentionally dressing bizarrely as a way to garner irrelevant attention to yourself seems to denote massive narcissism, if nothing else.