[ RadSafe ] Spent reactor fuel

[JPreisig at aol.com]

Dear Franz,
 
     Well, I'm glad to hear that someone had this idea  many years ago.  
Yes, shielding and handling
are clearly issues in doing what I have suggested.  Efficiency may be  a 
concern.
 
     Technology innovations may allow today what could  not be done back 
then.  A place like 
Argonne National Lab or INEL could do a small-scale Spent Fuel/RTG  
experiment.  One could 
probably design some thermocouple quick-connect mechanism using magnets of  
whatever to connect
a thermocouple to spent fuel and/or the fuel cladding.  Maybe a robot  
could be designed to make
such a connection also (No dose to the humans involved in the  
experiment)????
 
    Thanks for your radsafe post, Franz.  Go have a  beer????
 
    Thanks to Sergio and Roy Herren for their recent radsafe  posts.  Gamma 
Knife technology
is so very interesting.  Read about it on Wikipedia or on the  internet.
 
    Regards,     Joe Preisig
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 10/7/2012 10:32:22 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
franz.schoenhofer at chello.at writes:

Joe,
As far as I rememer, this idea is not new - it was already  considerer when 
I was a teenager (now I am 68). There must have  been  some "problems" with 
shielding,  efficiency and handling - which are  interconnected...... 

You probably remembe the sad story, when  woodcutters discovered in Siberia 
a Sr-90 generator and they sat on it,  because it was warm?

Proliferation would be a small  problem!

Best regards,

Franz

--- JPreisig at aol.com  schrieb:
> Dear Radsafe,
>  
>       Howdy all.  I don't know how viable the  following idea is.  It  
> certainly would make
> anti-proliferation people  nervous.
>  
>      Take some of our (USA or  World???) spent nuclear  fuel, attach 
> thermocouples to the spent  fuel
> and produce localized DC electricity sources (like  RTG's???).   Wonder 
what 
> the total USA energy/power  
> generated this way would be???
>  
>     Put solar cells on the roof of such energy/power  sources and  
produce 
> even more electricity???
>  
>     Regards,    Joe Preisig
>  
>  
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--
Franz Schoenhofer, PhD,  MinRat
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
mobile: ++43 699 1706  1227

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