Fusor Forums

Dennis, " there are zero applications for a nuclear reactor in space" Even if you add "at least in Mars orbit" , this is a very ...bold statement...one with which I strongly disagree. I'll assume you mean "right now", but quite honestly the status quo in space exploration, while absolutely astonishi...

U-235 has very low activity (very long half life), it's fairly harmless (apart from being a heavy metal, hence toxic). Pu-239 (high grade) is an alpha emitter, not particularly dangerous in that regard if handled correctly, but it's poisonous to the body, and if a Pu-239 contaminated dust particle s...

Hmm, somehow I went totally by this post back in the day. I used the same grid structure back in 2006, with the difference that I added a single "blob" of solder at the "north pole" to make it more robust. I didn't make a custom barrel, I simply used the hole in the connector of the spark plug that ...

Well, somehow it was kind of "lost" as I don't see it here (or it had errors in it, and I wasn't told), but way back in 2004 I did a moderator thickness calculation ( I actually named it FAQ - neutron moderators originally, I think it was renamed later by the admins). I see there is one above here a...

I'm sure I don't need to say this , but it can't be stressed enough...The voltages you put forward along with the potential power capability of your proposed power supply is an absolutely, instant kill combination, and a major fire hazard, not to mention the shine from the reactor (x-rays). Shieldin...

It will breed, but as said above, quite slowly. Your design is pretty much the same then, but with a spherical geometry. I chose cylindrical because it's simpler to do from an engineering standpoint. Note that typically the total number of neutrons you get from the reactor per unit time is given whe...

Not sure there is any point in using U-233 in a fission-fusion hybrid...why build a hybrid? If the fusion device has a high neutron flux you could use it to breed U-233 from thorium, and then use that U-233 in a reactor, preferably a molten salt reactor, or something. But the latter can actually the...

Richard, I was actually looking at buying a 30 kV feedthrough earlier (it costs around 200 dollars) , and I did notice that if you double the voltage rating you end up having to pay almost 6 times as much! I do wonder if this really is justified, but then again I don't design HV feedthroughs.

Thanks Richard! That makes perfect sense. Now I kind of recall reading about that, my memory failed me!

Indeed! I still find a lot of, relatively, cheap diffs on ebay though, but that will probably change eventually. Used turbos , in various "unknown but turns freely" states are still kind of expensive, and I rarely see one that is complete, exactly as you wrote. I was pondering about this by the way....