usually nuclear powered rock melters are used to drill cylindrical tunells. i was wondering if it might be possible to design a flat one to melt
existing conglomerate and rip rap to a flat smooth solid surface as an alternative to the purchase and transport of thousands or millions of tons of
asphalt or concrete. most rocks would melt between 1000F and 1600F. supposedly a single vehicle towing such a device could proceed at between one and
four miles per hour, possibly with some sort of follow up vehicle to provide additional surfacing.12AX7 - 18-5-2008 at 20:10
Usually?evil_lurker - 18-5-2008 at 21:18
halfbakery.com
'nuff said.MagicJigPipe - 18-5-2008 at 22:33
They'd still have to do maintenence to the road. Seems like a road made of hardened rock would be difficult to maintain without using tar and
asphault.
Actually, I despise asphault. I hate that the govt. is so cheap now that the are replacing all of the concrete interstates with asphault. Yes, it's
smoother but not for long. It wears out so quick and it gets all these potholes and "ripples". I just hate it on interstates, state highways and
county roads.
Holy shit, that site is rediculous! What the hell?!?!?!:!?! Some are good ideas but the rest reminds me of a bunch of potheads sitting together
saying "Dude, what about a car wash/time machine!" (I used to room with a guy like that and, although it was better than living with a drunk, it
annoyed the hell out of me, sometimes)
[Edited on 5-19-2008 by MagicJigPipe]tumadre - 19-5-2008 at 15:05
well, you still need a 2000F radiator
I don't believe most reactors can operate that hot, so you would need a heat pump12AX7 - 19-5-2008 at 20:06
Reminds me of one of Richard Feynman's "proposed" nuclear reactor uses: cold air goes in and blows through a frickin' hot reactor, comes out the back
end righteously heated up, expands through a nozzle. Now that's one nasty pollutin' rocket engine that puts NASA's SRBs to shame!
Proposed pebble bed reactors are to run about that hot, although I don't know if any have been built yet.
Timphlogiston - 24-5-2008 at 04:14
Quote:
nuclear reactor uses: cold air goes in and blows through a frickin' hot reactor, comes out the back end righteously heated up, expands through a
nozzle. Now that's one nasty pollutin' rocket engine that puts NASA's SRBs to shame!
In fact, real full-scale tests with such a nuclear ramjet were done in the 50's.
The plan was to build an unmanned bomber that would fly at mach 3 at tree-top height (300m), tossing out 1 Mt warheads.
Some people suggested it might not even need warheads, as the unshielded 0.5 Gigawatt reactor would be deadly enough all by itself. The project was
cancelled when the designers realized there would be no way to actually fly-test the plane without causing very serious contamination, as there was no
way to land the craft other than to just crash it into a remote area.
[Edited on 24-5-2008 by phlogiston]not_important - 24-5-2008 at 05:49
Ah, PLUTO, in A Colder War Charles Stross pitted it, ineffectively, against Cthulhu. Nothing to show you what the Cold War was like than by
mixing real events with Lovecraft and having the result not sound all that different than actuality.
