xxxxx
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nuclear powered rock melters for road surfacing
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.
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12AX7
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Usually?
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evil_lurker
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Mood: On the wagon again.
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halfbakery.com
'nuff said.
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in
beer.
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MagicJigPipe
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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]
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
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tumadre
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well, you still need a 2000F radiator
I don't believe most reactors can operate that hot, so you would need a heat pump
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12AX7
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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.
Tim
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phlogiston
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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!
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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.
Look up 'project pluto'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto
[Edited on 24-5-2008 by phlogiston]
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"If a rocket goes up, who cares where it comes down, that's not my concern said Wernher von Braun" - Tom Lehrer |
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not_important
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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.
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