Nuclear Energy 101

Nuclear Energy 101

*update* The idea is to give a generally bad understanding of nuclear energy from sterilization of the mind, LOL, Spellcheck, to explain the reasons why a fusion core should/could be pretty easy to make, to overcome the desire to cheat by changing the fusion core an thus making the perk useless, instead promoting use of a cheap/easy way to make fusion cores by the lore theory I came up with, thus supporting the perks use an hopefully better balance of the game play Bethesda came up with for everyone on this. You know as well as attempting to provide a general understanding of atomic energy, that it’s not magic. Which post GECK launch an other tools can hopefully end up with more atomic energy lore/education in the game, yay XD.

SphereOfRa Posted/Said “Plutonium CAN be produced naturally, but it is rare. Hell, a full water+uranium reactor can be made naturally underground. This has happened a few
times in the Earths history (which is why we find natural plutonium).”

M0rtiferus Posted/Said “To fill some gaps:
Both Uranium and plutonium are naturally occurring elements.
Plutonium-239 is extremely rare on earth. Uranium on the other hand is quite common.
Theres more uranium on earth than gold or silver.
However, most of that Uranium (99%) is the non-fissionable isotope Uranium-238. It it can’t be used in power plants or bombs.
Only 0.7% is fissionable Uranium-235.
But U-238 is not useless. It is a so-called “fertile material”. It can
capture a free neutron, becoming the highly unstable Uranium-239, which
will immediately perform 2 successive beta-decays(2 protons are
transformed into neutrons), becoming Plutonium-239.
This is a natural occurring, but extremely rare process. It is responsible for the small quantities of Pu-239 found on earth.
This process can be accelerated in a nuclear reactor.
The Plutonium-239 we use in power plants is manufactured (“reactor-bred” ) from the common U-238.”

*update* Not sure about all of it, thus the appeal of studying it for fun. 4-5 times reading over a couple of years an various documentaries. From memory at least it’s a general understanding of atomic energy. It’s meant to dispel the idea that it’s some kind of illusive magic, to which I’d say “It’s just not magic dubes/dabes” XD

Atoms have an amount of energy both holding them together an apart from other atoms. Energy can never be destroyed, so energy is converted into various forms instead. Kinetic, thermal, chemical, inertia, ect. The idea with nuclear energy is to free that amount of energy with it multiplying across all or some of the surrounding atoms. Uranium 235 an the enriched version of that 238, similar with Plutonium. Is extracted from Uranium ore, rock, an came from the death of stars in the universe, only to land here on Earth. It’s seriously everywhere. Although I’m not sure with Plutonium, it just might be man made, don’t remember. That or Plutonium is just one of the many natural decay elements that uranium becomes. The theory is that in massive stars which burn up quickly can explode after fusing as many elements as it can until gravity wins an it collapses, but in that forming the more heavy elements such as Uranium. You know an blowing it out into space in every direction at the speed of light or whatever…

We use Uranium or Plutonium because the nucleus of the atom is made up of 235/238 protrons & neutrons. It’s an incredible amount. So much so that the nucleus is fighting itself to stay together, it’s highly unstable. If you were going to split one, it’s a good choice just because it will do that on it’s own. Uranium degrades an forms other elements as it ages in 10,000 of years. The instability though of the protrons an neutrons fighting for position or stability, constant movement, produces radio waves, like radar, microwaves, an radios we listen music on, the difference is the waves are higher in scale an dangerous to cellular life.

Just think if you cranked up the old microwave oven an cooked some plant or animal, it would be very destructive to the subject. The same principle in normal use, shoots enough radio waves thru our food in order to warm it up. You know or with radar bounces off objects an comes back, an we measure that. In nuclear power plants uranium is only enriched enough to create a delayed critical mass, or critical reaction. Yellow cake an later white powder pellets put into rods. There’s only enough for a safe amount of neutrons to get thrown at the speed of light away from the nucleus that hit other unstable nuclei.

Some of the atoms split by itself out of radioactive decay. How close the atoms are together can also cause this. It’s a delayed critical mass, so that by the time it’s turned to where nothing will stop it’s chain reaction we’ve long ago pulled the rods. Uranium rods glow a faint blue color, not green, LOL. Then when these glowing rods are pulled before becoming a critical reaction. It’s all put in a cooling pool, like a deep swiming pool for storage, just to cool off, an it takes forever to cool, because it’s still producing heat, even though it’s been mostly blocked an shut down due to neutron bombardment shielding. Which makes me think that nothing can stop this kind of thing. Really they’re just waiting for the reaction they started to stop an settle down, which takes a while. There’s a S***ton of these rods. The water the cases, all of it is now emitting radio waves at a amplitude an amount per second which causes cellular damage in life.

So gather enough rods full of white pellet uranium, put the rods close together an in water as a medium of travel for the neutrons that are released as the material decays naturally, brand new, the delayed critical reaction starts , an more & more neutrons are released, thus releasing energy, into the water in the form of heat. Thus makes steam, which powers generators, then a gigantic cooling tower to cool the water down again, hopefully near a large body of water (seperate an clean). The rods are covered with a neutron blocking material, an so as that is removed, more an more atoms split, more an more heat is created. Super expensive, but relatively safe ignoring the spent fuel, generator water, storage water, an all metal which is now nuclear waste. Though could be stored a few miles underground in places, because it’s radioactive down there anyway. It’s not really spent fuel, just closer to being a critical mass, that is if we were to allow it to continue, nothing would stop it.

Remove the water an the metal will melt, an become so hot, while no longer a delayed critical reaction, it will run wild, becoming so hot it will melt it’s way through anything, steel, concrete, the dirt, rock, all the way down baby, which is why I figure the core of the earth is uranium you know with iron around it, LOL, hypothetically (that is less than an idea that I have had) I’m not going down there to check. Then we would just argue that in the beginning of our solar system where there was uranium, gravity formed from having more mass, an it just grew. BAMF it’s not magic, though I was a mechanic, not a scientist.

Nuclear weapons on the other hand are more of a firecracker type thing. Traditionally it’s a baseball sized amount of uranium (hollow) surrounded by high explosives that are focused to implode a non-critical mass (squish it) until it’s critical an by pressure an natural decay, neutrons are thrown away from nuclei at the speed of light, which are all next to each other with no room, so a chain reaction begins where atoms split an throw off neutrons that hit other atoms which do the same. Each one that splits is an amount of energy that was released as the magnetic attraction/repulsion forces are overcome or released, just raw energy that manifests as heat an light. There’s a massive pressure wave as well, because there is a large amount of energy holding these atoms together an apart from one another, you know, all released in a instant across an amount of fuel.

Fallout is a term describing what happens when nuclear weapons are detonated near the ground, an amount of ground material gets vaporized an sucked up into the explosion an irradiated as well. A cloud of debris that goes into the upper atmosphere an can drift for miles an miles, days or weeks before it falls back to earth as burnt dust that is now emitting radio waves or contaminated with material that is radioactive an emitting radio waves, not sure what actually happens. This is why nuclear weapons are detonated way up in the air before it’s anywhere near ground level. What’s the point if the weapon creates a cloud that floats around until it falls on your country killing everybody. Not much of a weapon. As evil as war is, the blast radius is larger detonating it high up in the air as well. 5.56mm NATO won’t kill you, but it will injure you enough so that you require 2-3 other people to help you, whom can’t fight now because they are helping you instead. Hence 5.56mm NATO replacing 7.62mm NATO which will kill almost anything. Wartime is pretty evil.

Thermonuclear weapons are the same traditional implosion design, however it’s only used as a small primary nuclear bomb detonation in order to fire secondary fusion powered weapons via radiation pressure. The pressure from radioactivity is so high near the center of a nuclear weapon that it will cause secondary hydrogen isotopes to fuse together, that is the opposite of fission, which is what we have talked about up to this point. Hydrogen is the lightest element, an it fuses into helium for example. A hydrogen isotope just means one of the many types of hydrogen available molecularity, man made or in nature. Uranium is 235, but an isotope exists that is 238 of that.

So our hydrogen secondary is the same a prime example of it in a perhaps different isotope than just general hydrogen, you know, *cough* like U238, one that has more power in it or is more able to be fused, for example. The primary device goes critical an explodes, but before the explosion part began the radiation was so high that it squeezed the crap out of our hydrogen secondary, an this can go on as much as you like, primary, secondary, 3rd stage, 4th stage, ect as many as you like. When we force two atoms into one it creates a massive amount of energy, kind of like a snap, if you push two magnets N poles together eventually it snaps like a earthquake does, so at least when the repulsion energy (what’s keeping the atoms apart from one another) is overcome there’s an amount of energy that can’t be destroyed there an it again manifests as pure energy. They say there is a large amount of energy in spiting atoms but much more in forcing them together.

It really turned into dribble drabble at the end, LOL. So then I took the Fusion Core Crafting located an original credits to Xylozi for

Fusion Core Crafting

And edited Xylozi’s file to be more Nuclear Power friendly, since you know what that is now. Not a big deal to use a simple craft to make it an requires a perk to make anyway. It’s a small device so less lead an aluminum. Then an amount of nuclear material as the primary, an water as the secondary as it contains hydrogen, an would release oxygen which might not be a bad thing. In the theory that power armor an weapons using this fusion core would contain the rest of the power plant. That is that the core only contains a very small fusion reaction of joining hydrogen atoms an releasing oxygen with a small nuclear fission event to begin a self sustaining fusion event that would power the suits or weapons via heat. You know or for example setting it to meltdown an explode via fusion from the perk as a landmine.