#nuclear engineering

[elektrostantsiya]

Arabelle - GE steam turbine for nuclear power plants ☢️🏭⚡

😻/😻/😻/😻

[theweepinangel]

Eating my lunch in the sun to celebrate the last lecture of the semester. Having dead wife flashbacks to who I was before this semester.

[worldwide-blackfolk]

👍🏾👍🏾

[stone-cold-groove]

Atoms for peace.

[quasarlasar]

Some old drawings I did between high school and college

-some bacteria trading DNA plasmids like emails

-a walking atom bomb (his thought cloud is just a mushroom cloud lol)

-early versions of the space characters, plus the moisture probe!

-all my periodic table characters in one drawing

-the star Rigel wielding Orion’s sword and shield (I’m glad I stopped giving stars buff arms and legs)

The moisture probe is the guy on the upper left of the space characters drawing. He was a minor character I had for a while who was a space probe designed to seek out planets with warm, liquid water oceans

He was of course a hurricane in a space helmet. He was definitely motivated to find those warm ocean worlds.

[scienceguy22]

All's well that ends without an explosion.

I'm talking about what I think is a very ambitious project by NASA which is to place a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030. And we're not the only ones who have such plans—now China & Russia also want to have a nuclear reactor on the Moon, but by 2030. NASA & the U.S. Dept. of Defense (DoD) have formally committed to deploying a fission surface power reactor on the Moon within 4 years. They signed an MOU (memorandum of understanding) to develop, fuel, authorize & prepare the system. Once established, it should provide continuous power for years without refueling. The nuclear generator will be truck-sized so that a lunar base doesn't freeze or go dark during the 14-day lunar night. The power for continuous fission (the splitting of atoms as opposed to fusion, the joining of atoms) will range from a 100 kW continuous fission system (enough power to run 30 homes) to 500 kW (enough power to run 150 homes). They plan to use their lunar base for mining, erect a launchpad & establish a habitat complex for the "Moonies," all of which will require 1-10 MW (megawatt) scale power, which is 1,000 times more than a kW.

Energy will be needed to extract oxygen from regolith (the layer of rocky material that covers the lunar surface). Inside regolith there are metal oxides (about 43% by weight), from which oxygen can be extracted. Energy will be needed to mine & process metals, to operate launchers & to run rovers, drills, life support, comms & cryocoolers. The problem is that unlike Earth, where reactors dump heat into air or water, on the Moon, there is no air or water. The solution? Large thermal radiators that radiate heat away as infrared light. They will have to coat the radiators with dust-resistant shields because lunar dust is razor-sharp. The dust clogs radiators, scratches surfaces, & jams moving parts. Rather than ship fuel back and forth from the Earth to the Moon, the plan is to send the reactor already loaded with highly enriched, long-life fuel, like a long-life battery.

Other challenges include the Moon's extreme temperatures (-410°F to +250°F / -246°C to +121°C). Moonies will have to endure constant tiny high-speed micrometeorite impacts that can puncture radiators, cables & shielding. Imagine living on the Moon & being sandblasted by BB gun pellets that travel faster than bullets. The Moon has regular shallow earthquakes that can last for hours. Humans will, of course, need shielding from radiation, & electronics & reactor components will need to be protected. Shielding for the reactor is heavy & will be costly to launch. High-voltage cables will need protection from the harsh lunar environment. NASA scientists & engineers will have to guarantee the nuclear core stays safe even if the rocket explodes, because a crash could scatter radioactive material.

They'll have to ensure there is a sufficient supply of spare parts—even if a $5.00 bolt breaks, you don't want to send a $2 billion rocket to deliver a new one. They will have to design a brand new class of lunar reactors. No reactor has ever run in lunar gravity, vacuum, dust, or extreme temperature cycles. It's not a "copy-paste" from Earth—it's inventing a whole new machine. The reactor must endure a roller coaster from hell before it reaches space. Robots will be needed to unfold radiators, connect cables & activate systems autonomously. Every challenge above adds a delay risk. My assessment is a 60-70% likelihood of a prototype reactor being delivered to the lunar surface by 2030-2032. It's more likely to slip somewhere in the mid-2030s.

As for the joint Russia-China goal of 2035, I give it a 50-60% likelihood of a lunar reactor by 2035-2037. They face the same challenges, & Russia's economy is suffering in large part because of the war in Ukraine. But sooner or later, from one nation or another, nuclear power on the Moon will happen. This is the new space race & whoever controls lunar energy will control the lunar industry.

[eretzyisrael]

Do You Have Experience In Nuclear Engineering? Check Out These Exciting New Job Openings In Iran

TEHRAN — Any qualified individuals or eager recent college graduates looking for work in the field of nuclear engineering will be happy to k

TEHRAN — Any qualified individuals or eager recent college graduates looking for work in the field of nuclear engineering will be happy to know that there are exciting opportunities that have just recently opened up in Iran.

Suddenly and without warning, multiple exciting positions in the field of nuclear energy research became available, creating opportunities for experienced engineers to step in and start working immediately.

"These vacancies just exploded onto the scene," said one job listing. "All experienced nuclear engineers are encouraged to apply."

Some of the job openings posted in the last 48 hours included:

Enriched Uranium Inspector: A fun, hands-on occupation with room for growth, 30,000,000 IRR monthly (to be paid from pallets of U.S. currency). Knowledge of goat-herding required.

Mostly Peaceful Nuclear Applications Project Lead: A versatile position that offers opportunities in both civilian and military uses — create and destroy! Retail management experience is a plus.

Project Disinformation Coordinator: A creative job that will allow individuals to conceal, deceive, deny, and develop cover stories to keep all project information secret. Minimum five years of experience at a mainstream American media outlet preferred.

Depending on outside circumstances, these positions — and the entire department — may not last long, so interested applicants are encouraged to get in touch as soon as possible.

As with other positions, hatred for Israel and the United States is required. Submit those applications today and start work as early as tomorrow!

[literallymechanical]

Beryllium? I hardly know 'em!

I think I mentioned this in passing a while back, but it's an interesting anecdote and deserves its own post.

So you know that story about how during WWII, John W. Campbell – editor of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine – figured out that something fishy was going on at Lost Alamos when all the nuclear physicist readers changed their delivery addresses to New Mexico at the same time? My dad did something similar the 1980's.

He's a doctor, and he was doing his residency at [HOSPITAL REDACTED]. Over the course of a few months, he started getting patient after patient in acute respiratory distress, lungs chock full of weird granulomas, all of whom worked at [DEFENSE CONTRACTOR REDACTED].

At first, the patients were reluctant to share info about any occupational exposures. But once you've been choking on your own lungs for a while, disclosing a tidbit of Secret information suddenly doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

They all regularly worked with large quantities of beryllium.

(All y'all nuclear engineers in the room just realized exactly where this is going lol)

A few facts:

Beryllium is HIGHLY toxic. Even small exposures can cause a condition called berylliosis – all the symptoms mentioned above.

The concept of "workplace safety" had yet to be invented in the 1980's.

Beryllium is used as a neutron reflector in nuclear research.

So. That's how my dad figured out that [DEFENSE CONTRACTOR REDACTED] was working with fissile material just outside town lmao