Nuclear reactor - home from scratch

Some time ago I published an article about self-made microprocessors , but today we will touch on a more complex and delicate topic (especially in the light of the events at Foccime) - the creation of a nuclear reactor capable of generating energy at home. And before you start worrying, remembering about negative experiences in the past (see Radioactive scout - getting a decent amount of amercia-241 from smoke detectors), I’ll say in advance that everything described in this article is relatively safe (at least as safe as working with hydrofluoric acid at home), but it is highly not recommended to repeat. Before any action, consult with your lawyer - the laws are different in different countries. Many who are already sitting.

What we have ways to create a home nuclear reactor?

Thermonuclear reaction

Heavy hydrogen (deuterium) is relatively easy to obtain at home - all you need is a multistage electrolysis of ordinary water. But even with scientists, there are still problems with the reactor, and not for the first ten years (and this is not taking into account that deuterium is far from the easiest to use thermonuclear fuel)

Nuclear fission reaction

In the simplest case, simply natural uranium without enrichment and some water is needed (hehe, “Just add water”: water is both a moderator and a neutron reflector). The problem is that you need hundreds of tons of this good, and a doctor will follow you, even if you try to find / buy / carry 0.1 grams.
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Here, in despondency, it remains for us to turn our eyes to the sky, and look at what interplanetary ships fly - there is simply a piece of radioactive material that is heated by natural decay, and the peltier elements receive energy. (By the way, natural decay is actually the main physical cause of all ills on the Focus: after a nuclear reactor stops in the first minutes, 7% of the nominal power is released due to decay, ~ 1% in the first weeks, then drops to 0.1%. That is, from 700 MW In the first weeks of the reactor, 7 MW of heat must be removed, and this process cannot be stopped)

Let's try to think in this direction: There are 3 main types of radioactive decay:

Gamma decay

Sources of gamma radiation are widely used in medicine and industry, mainly based on Cobalt-60 / Cesium-137 (notorious for nuclear disasters). The problem is that their radiation is very hard, extremely dangerous, and it is impossible to protect oneself from it and a centimeter of lead (see the cheerful glow of Vavilov-Cherenkov to the right - electrons knocked out by gamma rays, moving in superlight speed in the water emit energy in the visible range). So bypass them as far as possible. And besides, for the illegal sale / purchase of gamma sources every year a lot of people sit down
Ps. In fairness, it is worth noting that the gamma quantum in these cases is not allocated directly, but as a result of the disintegration of one of the short-lived daughter elements.

Alpha decay

Sources of alpha radiation are actively used in smoke detectors, to facilitate the ignition of sparks, in some radio tubes. One of the most famous is that mentioned at the beginning of Americium-241. Even a sheet of paper is easy to protect against alpha radiation, but there is another danger with them: they are extremely dangerous if you inhale or swallow them. See the myth of the poisoning of the Bloody Gebney Litvinenko. In addition, picking up more micrograms is unrealistic, because thermoelectric generators will have to be forgotten. And it's a pity, because the most efficient energy generators work on the basis of alpha decay. The best - Plutonium-238 (Not to be confused with 239) - gives 0.5 watts of heat per 1 gram of mass, the half-life is 87 years (the price is 1 megabax per kilo).

Beta decay

Sources of soft beta radiation (in fact, electrons / positrons) are moderately well shielded, and have a hell of a useful quality: if an electron enters the phosphor, you can cause it to glow. Well, as a side effect - in most countries of the world “safe” beta emitters are fairly legal. What manufacturers of any glowing key chains use, as in the first photo. Perhaps, on the basis of beta decay, we will build our nuclear reactor.

The basis of our reactor is a tritium capsule, from the well-known site DealExtreme - www.dealextreme.com/p/mini-tritium-glowring-keychain-10-year-green-glow-6830 . $ 9.7. Formally, radioactive materials cannot simply be sent by mail, but DealExtreme apparently does not know about it.

About security

Soft beta radiation cannot escape beyond the capsule, helium is not radioactive. The problem can only be in case of damage to the capsule. If tritium is inhaled, the infection will be minimal, since Hydrogen is not directly absorbed by the body. But if it burns, then water can become part of the cells, and then you will receive all the radiation that this microscopic piece of tritium can squeeze out. So, do not break, do not burn and do not inhale what happened.

So, Tritium is super heavy hydrogen, the half-life is 12.32 years. At the output we have helium and very "soft" electrons - 6.5kEv (+ antineutrino, for connoisseurs). We will collect energy using a solar battery, supply the MCP1640 stabilizer to the Step-Up input - up to a tenth of a volt will work at the input, and the output will be an ionistor for 1 Farad and 5V. In our case, the load will be a red LED.

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In order to collect as much light as possible, we place our capsule with tritium in a reflector made of foil.

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For focusing we use 2 lenses of 10 diopters each , the solar battery is visible before gluing, the capsule is not installed.

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Connect, turn off the light, wait a minute for the initial charge of the ionistor, and here is the result:

The first electricity produced by a nuclear reactor, created at home :-)

Freebie?

Oh no :-) On average, the reactor produces about 7 milliwatts of power (and after 12.32 years it will be 3.5 ), and even for the LED it is enough, the laptop cannot be charged from it) But on the other hand, a dozen of such modules will be able to keep a cell phone in standby mode for a couple of decades :-) True, the price ... Capsule costs $ 9.7, solar battery $ 5, $ 13.8 lenses * 2 - already $ 42 per module. And for a dozen you will have to pay $ 420 ... On the other hand - there are more capsules on the site - but for 35.

Comments / questions / opinions - in the studio.

UPDATE: Comrades, we raise the translation into English on Reddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/ggg43/guys_ive_just_built_tiny_nuclear_reactor_at_home/