home Accounting Hyperion portable nuclear power plant goes on sale. A peaceful atom in every home - miniature nuclear reactors for everyone How to make a miniature nuclear reactor

Hyperion portable nuclear power plant goes on sale. A peaceful atom in every home - miniature nuclear reactors for everyone How to make a miniature nuclear reactor

1. A free-piston Stirling engine is powered by heating with “atomic steam” 2. An induction generator provides about 2 W of electricity to power an incandescent lamp 3. The characteristic blue glow is the Cherenkov radiation of electrons knocked out of atoms by gamma rays. Can serve as a great night light!

For children over 14 years old, a young researcher will be able to independently assemble a small but real nuclear reactor, learn what prompt and delayed neutrons are, and see the dynamics of acceleration and deceleration of a nuclear chain reaction. A few simple experiments with a gamma spectrometer will allow you to understand the production of various fission products and experiment with the reproduction of fuel from the now fashionable thorium (a piece of thorium-232 sulfide is attached). The included book “Fundamentals of Nuclear Physics for Little Ones” contains descriptions of more than 300 experiments with the assembled reactor, so there is enormous scope for creativity

Historical prototype The Atomic Energy Lab set (1951) gave schoolchildren the opportunity to join the most advanced fields of science and technology. The electroscope, Wilson chamber and Geiger-Muller counter made it possible to conduct many interesting experiments. But, of course, not as interesting as assembling a working reactor from the Russian “Tabletop Nuclear Power Plant” set!

In the 1950s, with the advent of nuclear reactors, it seemed that brilliant prospects for solving all energy problems loomed before humanity. Energy engineers designed nuclear power plants, shipbuilders designed nuclear electric ships, and even car designers decided to join the celebration and use the “peaceful atom.” A “nuclear boom” arose in society, and industry began to lack qualified specialists. An influx of new personnel was required, and a serious educational campaign was launched not only among university students, but also among schoolchildren. For example, A.C. The Gilbert Company released the Atomic Energy Lab children's kit in 1951, containing several small radioactive sources, the necessary instruments, and samples of uranium ore. This “state-of-the-art science kit,” as the box said, allowed “young researchers to conduct over 150 exciting science experiments.”

Personnel decides everything

Over the past half century, scientists have learned several bitter lessons and learned to build reliable and safe reactors. Although the industry is currently in a downturn due to the recent Fukushima accident, it will soon be on the upswing again and nuclear power plants will continue to be seen as an extremely promising way to produce clean, reliable and safe energy. But now in Russia there is a shortage of personnel, just like in the 1950s. To attract schoolchildren and increase interest in nuclear energy, the Research and Production Enterprise (SPE) “Ekoatomconversion”, following the example of A.S. Gilbert Company has released an educational set for children over 14 years old. Of course, science has not stood still over these half-century, therefore, unlike its historical prototype, the modern set allows you to get a much more interesting result, namely, to assemble a real model of a nuclear power plant on the table. Of course, it is active.

Literacy from the cradle

“Our company comes from Obninsk, a city where nuclear energy is familiar and familiar to people almost from kindergarten,” Andrey Vykhadanko, scientific director of the Ecoatomconversion Research and Production Enterprise, explains to PM. “And everyone understands that there is absolutely no need to be afraid of her.” After all, only the unknown danger is truly scary. That's why we decided to release this set for schoolchildren, which will allow them to experiment and study the principles of operation of nuclear reactors without exposing themselves and others to serious risk. As you know, knowledge acquired in childhood is the most durable, so with the release of this set we hope to significantly reduce the likelihood of a repeat of Chernobyl or

Fukushima in the future."

Waste plutonium

Over the years of operation of many nuclear power plants, tons of so-called reactor plutonium have accumulated. It consists mainly of weapons-grade Pu-239, containing about 20% admixture of other isotopes, primarily Pu-240. This makes reactor-grade plutonium completely unsuitable for creating nuclear bombs. Separation of impurities turns out to be very difficult, since the mass difference between the 239th and 240th isotopes is only 0.4%. The production of nuclear fuel with the addition of reactor plutonium turned out to be technologically complex and economically unprofitable, so this material remained out of use. It is the “waste” plutonium that is used in the “Young Nuclear Scientist Kit” developed by the Ecoatomconversion Research and Production Enterprise.

As is known, for a fission chain reaction to begin, nuclear fuel must have a certain critical mass. For a ball made of weapons-grade uranium-235 it is 50 kg, for one made of plutonium-239 - only 10. A shell made of a neutron reflector, for example beryllium, can reduce the critical mass several times. And the use of a moderator, as in thermal neutron reactors, will reduce the critical mass by more than ten times, to several kilograms of highly enriched U-235. The critical mass of Pu-239 will be hundreds of grams, and it is precisely this ultra-compact reactor that fits on a table that was developed at Ecoatomconversion.

What's in the chest

The packaging of the set is modestly designed in black and white, and only the dim three-segment radioactivity icons stand out somewhat from the general background. “There’s really no danger,” says Andrey, pointing to the words “Completely safe!” written on the box. “But these are the requirements of official authorities.” The box is heavy, which is not surprising: it contains a sealed lead shipping container with a fuel assembly (FA) of six plutonium rods with a zirconium shell. In addition, the set includes an outer reactor vessel made of heat-resistant glass with chemical hardening, a housing cover with a glass window and sealed leads, a stainless steel core housing, a stand for the reactor, and a control absorber rod made of boron carbide. The electrical part of the reactor is represented by a free-piston Stirling engine with connecting polymer tubes, a small incandescent lamp and wires. The kit also includes a one-kilogram bag of boric acid powder, a pair of protective suits with respirators, and a gamma spectrometer with a built-in helium neutron detector.

Construction of a nuclear power plant

Assembling a working model of a nuclear power plant according to the accompanying manual in pictures is very simple and takes less than half an hour. Having put on a stylish protective suit (it is only needed during assembly), we open the sealed packaging with the fuel assembly. Then we insert the assembly inside the reactor vessel and cover it with the core body. Finally, we snap the lid with the sealed leads on top. You need to insert the absorber rod all the way into the central one, and through any of the other two, fill the active zone with distilled water to the line on the body. After filling, tubes for steam and condensate passing through the heat exchanger of the Stirling engine are connected to the pressure inlets. The nuclear power plant itself is now complete and ready for launch; all that remains is to place it on a special stand in an aquarium filled with a solution of boric acid, which perfectly absorbs neutrons and protects the young researcher from neutron radiation.

Three, two, one - start!

We bring a gamma spectrometer with a neutron sensor close to the wall of the aquarium: a small part of the neutrons, which do not pose a threat to health, still come out. Slowly raise the control rod until the neutron flux begins to rapidly increase, indicating the start of a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. All that remains is to wait until the required power is reached and push the rod back 1 cm along the marks so that the reaction speed stabilizes. As soon as boiling begins, a layer of steam will appear in the upper part of the core body (perforations in the body prevent this layer from exposing the plutonium rods, which could lead to their overheating). The steam goes up the tube to the Stirling engine, where it condenses and flows down the outlet tube into the reactor. The temperature difference between the two ends of the engine (one heated by steam, the other cooled by room air) is converted into oscillations of the piston-magnet, which, in turn, induces an alternating current in the winding surrounding the engine, igniting atomic light in the hands of the young researcher and, it is hoped, developers, atomic interest is at its heart.

Editor's note: This article was published in the April issue of the magazine and is an April Fool's joke.

Is it possible to assemble a reactor in the kitchen? Many asked this question in August 2011, when Handle's story made headlines. The answer depends on the experimenter's goals. It is difficult to create a full-fledged electricity-generating “stove” these days. While information about technology has become more accessible over the years, obtaining the necessary materials has become more and more difficult. But if an enthusiast simply wants to satisfy his curiosity by carrying out at least some kind of nuclear reaction, all paths are open to him.

The most famous owner of a home reactor is probably the "Radioactive Boy Scout" American David Hahn. In 1994, at the age of 17, he assembled the unit in a barn. There were seven years left before the advent of Wikipedia, so a schoolboy, in search of the information he needed, turned to scientists: he wrote letters to them, introducing himself as a teacher or student.

Khan's reactor never reached critical mass, but the boy scout managed to receive a sufficiently high dose of radiation and many years later he was unsuitable for the coveted job in the field of nuclear energy. But immediately after the police looked into his barn and the Environmental Protection Agency dismantled the installation, the Boy Scouts of America awarded Khan the title of Eagle.

In 2011, Swede Richard Handl attempted to build a breeder reactor. Such devices are used to produce nuclear fuel from more abundant radioactive isotopes that are not suitable for conventional reactors.

“I have always been interested in nuclear physics. “I bought all sorts of radioactive junk on the Internet: old clock hands, smoke detectors and even uranium and thorium,”

He told RP.

Is it even possible to buy uranium online? “Yes,” confirms Handl.. “At least that was the case two years ago. Now the place where I bought it has been removed.”

Thorium oxide was found in parts of old kerosene lamps and welding electrodes, and uranium was found in decorative glass beads. In breeder reactors, the fuel most often is thorium-232 or uranium-238. When bombarded with neutrons, the first turns into uranium-233, and the second into plutonium-239. These isotopes are already suitable for fission reactions, but, apparently, the experimenter was going to stop there.

In addition to fuel, the reaction needed a source of free neutrons.

“There is a small amount of americium in smoke detectors. I had about 10–15 of them, and I got them from them,”

Handl explains.

Americium-241 emits alpha particles - groups of two protons and two neutrons - but there was too little of it in old sensors bought on the Internet. An alternative source was radium-226 - until the 1950s, it was used to coat clock hands to make them glow. They are still sold on eBay, although the substance is extremely toxic.

To produce free neutrons, a source of alpha radiation is mixed with a metal - aluminum or beryllium. This is where Handl's problems began: he tried to mix radium, americium and beryllium in sulfuric acid. Later, a photo from his blog of an electric stove covered in chemicals was circulated in local newspapers. But at that time, there were still two months left before the police showed up on the experimenter’s doorstep.

Richard Handle's failed attempt to obtain free neutrons. Source: richardsreactor.blogspot.se Richard Handle's failed attempt to obtain free neutrons. Source: richardsreactor.blogspot.se

“The police came for me before I even started building the reactor. But from the moment I started collecting materials and blogging about my project, about six months passed,” explains Handl. He was noticed only when he himself tried to find out from the authorities whether his experiment was legal, despite the fact that the Swede documented his every step in a public blog. “I don’t think anything would have happened. I was only planning a short nuclear reaction,” he added.

Handle was arrested on July 27, three weeks after the letter to the Radiation Safety Authority. “I only spent a few hours in jail, then there was a hearing and I was released. Initially, I was accused of two counts of violating the radiation safety law, and one count of violating the laws on chemical weapons, weapons materials (I had some poisons) and the environment,” said the experimenter.

External circumstances may have played a role in Handl's case. On July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik carried out terrorist attacks in Norway. It is not surprising that the Swedish authorities reacted harshly to the desire of a middle-aged man with oriental features to build a nuclear reactor. In addition, the police found ricin and a police uniform in his house, and at first he was even suspected of terrorism.

In addition, on Facebook, the experimenter calls himself “Mullah Richard Handle.” “It's just an inside joke between us. My father worked in Norway, there is a very famous and controversial mullah Krekar, in fact, this is what the joke is about,” explains the physicist. (The founder of the Islamist group Ansar al-Islam is recognized by the Norwegian Supreme Court as a threat to national security and is on the UN terrorist list, but cannot be deported because he received refugee status in 1991 - he faces the death penalty in his homeland of Iraq. - RP) .

Handle, while under investigation, was not very careful. This also ended with him being charged with threatening to kill. “This is a completely different story, the case is already closed. I simply wrote on the Internet that I have a murder plan that I will carry out. Then the police arrived, interrogated me and after the hearing released me again. Two months later the case was closed. I don’t want to go into depth about who I wrote about, but there are simply people I don’t like. I think I was drunk. Most likely, the police paid attention to this only because I was involved in that case with the reactor,” he explains.

Handle's trial ended in July 2014. Three of the five original charges were dropped.

“I was sentenced only to fines: I was found guilty of one violation of the radiation safety law and one violation of the environmental law,”

He explains. For the incident with chemicals on the stove, he owes the state approximately €1.5 thousand.

During the process, Handl had to undergo a psychiatric examination, but it did not reveal anything new. “I'm not feeling too well. I didn’t do anything for 16 years. I was given a disability due to mental disorders. Once I tried to start studying and reading again, but after two days I had to quit,” he says.

Richard Handle is 34 years old. At school he loved chemistry and physics. Already at the age of 13 he was making explosives and was planning to follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming a pharmacist. But at the age of 16, something happened to him: Handl began to behave aggressively. First he was diagnosed with depression, then with paranoid disorder. In his blog, he mentions paranoid schizophrenia, but stipulates that over 18 years he was given about 30 different diagnoses.

I had to forget about my scientific career. For most of his life, Handle has been forced to take medications - haloperidol, clonazepam, alimemazine, zopiclone. He has difficulty accepting new information and avoids people. He worked at the plant for four years, but also had to leave due to disability.

After the reactor incident, Handl has not yet figured out what to do. There will be no more posts about poisons and atomic bombs on the blog - he is going to post his paintings there. “I don’t have any special plans, but I’m still interested in nuclear physics and will continue to read,” he promises.

I present to you an article about how you can make a fusion reactor their hands!

But first a few warnings:

This homemade uses life-threatening voltage during work. First, make sure you are familiar with high voltage safety regulations or have a qualified electrician friend to advise you.

When the reactor is operating, potentially harmful levels of X-rays will be emitted. Lead shielding of inspection windows is mandatory!

Deuterium that will be used in crafts– explosive gas. Therefore, special attention should be paid to checking the fuel compartment for leaks.

When working, follow safety rules, do not forget to wear protective clothing and personal protective equipment.

List of required materials:

Vacuum chamber;
Forevacuum pump;
Diffusion pump;
High voltage power supply capable of delivering 40 kV 10 mA. Negative polarity must be present;
High-voltage divider - probe, with the ability to connect to a digital multimeter;
Thermocouple or baratron;
Neutron radiation detector;
Geiger counter;
Deuterium gas;
Large ballast resistor in the range of 50-100 kOhm and about 30 cm long;
Camera and television display to monitor the situation inside the reactor;
Lead coated glass;
General tools (, etc.).

Step 1: Assembling the Vacuum Chamber

The project will require the manufacture of a high quality vacuum chamber.

Purchase two stainless steel hemispheres and flanges for vacuum systems. We'll drill holes for the auxiliary flanges and then weld it all together. Soft metal O-rings are located between the flanges. If you've never boiled before, it would be wise to have someone with experience do the job for you. Because the welds must be flawless and free from defects. Afterwards, thoroughly clean the camera of fingerprints. Because they will contaminate the vacuum and it will be difficult to maintain plasma stability.

Step 2: Preparing the High Vacuum Pump

Let's install a diffusion pump. Fill it with high-quality oil to the required level (the oil level is indicated in the documentation), secure the outlet valve, which we then connect to the chamber (see diagram). Let's attach the foreline pump. High vacuum pumps are not capable of operating from the atmosphere.

Let's connect the water to cool the oil in the working chamber of the diffusion pump.

As soon as everything is assembled, turn on the fore-vacuum pump and wait until the volume is pumped out to a preliminary vacuum. Next, we prepare the high vacuum pump for startup by turning on the “boiler”. Once it warms up (which may take a while), the vacuum will drop quickly.

Step 3: "Whisk"

The whisk will be connected to the high voltage wires, which will enter the working volume through the bellows. It is best to use tungsten filament as it has a very high melting point and will remain intact for many cycles.

It is necessary to form a “spherical rim” of approximately 25-38 mm in diameter from a tungsten filament (for a working chamber with a diameter of 15-20 cm) for normal operation of the system.

The electrodes to which the tungsten wire is attached must be designed for a voltage of about 40 kV.

Step 4: Installation of the gas system

Deuterium is used as fuel for a fusion reactor. You will need to purchase a tank for this gas. Gas is extracted from heavy water by electrolysis using a small Hoffmann apparatus.

We'll attach a high pressure regulator directly to the tank, add a micro-dosing needle valve, and then attach it to the chamber. The ball valve should be installed between the regulator and the needle valve.

Step 5: High Voltage

If you can purchase a power supply suitable for use in a fusion reactor, then there should be no problem. Simply take the negative 40kV output electrode and attach it to the chamber with a large 50-100k ohm high voltage ballast resistor.

The problem is that it is often difficult (if not impossible) to find an appropriate direct current source with a current-voltage characteristic (volt-ampere characteristic) that would fully meet the stated requirements of an amateur scientist.

The photo shows a pair of high-frequency ferrite transformers, with a 4-stage multiplier (located behind them).

Step 6: Neutron Detector Installation

Neutron radiation is a byproduct of the fusion reaction. It can be fixed with three different devices.

Bubble dosimeter a small device containing a gel in which bubbles form when ionized by neutron radiation. The downside is that it is an integrative detector that reports the total number of neutron emissions over the time it was in use (it is not possible to obtain instantaneous neutron velocity data). In addition, such detectors are quite difficult to purchase.

Active silver moderator [paraffin, water, etc.] located near the reactor becomes radioactive, emitting decent fluxes of neutrons. The process has a short half-life (only a few minutes), but if you place a Geiger counter next to the silver, the result can be documented. The disadvantage of this method is that silver requires a fairly high neutron flux. In addition, the system is quite difficult to calibrate.

GammaMETER. The tubes can be filled with helium-3. They are similar to a Geiger counter. When neutrons pass through the tube, electrical impulses are recorded. The tube is surrounded by 5 cm of "slowing material". This is the most accurate and useful neutron detection device, however, the cost of a new tube is prohibitive for most people and they are extremely rare on the market.

Step 7: Start the reactor

It's time to turn on the reactor (don't forget to install lead-lined sight glasses!). Turn on the foreline pump and wait until the chamber volume is evacuated to pre-vacuum. Start the diffusion pump and wait until it is fully warmed up and reaches operating mode.

Block access of the vacuum system to the working volume of the chamber.

Open the needle valve in the deuterium tank slightly.

Raise the voltage high until you see plasma (it will form at 40 kV). Remember the electrical safety rules.

If all goes well, you'll see a burst of neutrons.

It takes a lot of patience to get the pressure up to the proper level, but once it's done, it's quite easy to manage.

Thank you for your attention!

Recently, the concept of autonomous energy supply has been increasingly developed. Whether it is a country house with its wind turbines and solar panels on the roof or a woodworking plant with a heating boiler running on industrial waste - sawdust, the essence does not change. The world is gradually coming to the conclusion that it is time to abandon centralized provision of heat and electricity. Central heating is practically no longer found in Europe; individual houses, multi-apartment skyscrapers and industrial enterprises are heated independently. The only exception is certain cities in the northern countries - where centralized heating and large boiler houses are justified by climatic conditions.

As for the autonomous power industry, everything is moving towards this - the population is actively buying wind turbines and solar panels. Enterprises are looking for ways to rationally use thermal energy from technological processes, building their own thermal power plants and also buying solar panels with wind turbines. Those who are particularly focused on “green” technologies even plan to cover the roofs of factory workshops and hangars with solar panels.

Ultimately, this turns out to be cheaper than purchasing the necessary energy capacity from local power grids. However, after the Chernobyl accident, everyone somehow forgot that the most environmentally friendly, cheap and accessible way to obtain thermal and electrical energy is still atomic energy. And if throughout the existence of the nuclear industry, power plants with nuclear reactors have always been associated with complexes covering hectares of area, huge pipes and lakes for cooling, then a number of developments in recent years are designed to break these stereotypes.

Several companies immediately announced that they were entering the market with “home” nuclear reactors. Miniature stations ranging in size from a garage box to a small two-story building are ready to supply from 10 to 100 MW for 10 years without refueling. The reactors are completely self-contained, safe, require no maintenance and, at the end of their service life, are simply recharged for another 10 years. Isn’t it a dream for an iron factory or a commercial summer resident? Let's take a closer look at those of them whose sales will begin in the coming years.

Toshiba 4S (Super Safe, Small and Simple)

The reactor is designed like a battery. It is assumed that such a “battery” will be buried in a shaft 30 meters deep, and the building above it will measure 22 16 11 meters. Not much more than a nice country house? Such a station will require maintenance personnel, but this still does not compare with the tens of thousands of square meters of space and hundreds of workers at traditional nuclear power plants. The rated power of the complex is 10 megawatts for 30 years without refueling.

The reactor operates on fast neutrons. A similar reactor has been installed and operated since 1980 at the Beloyarsk NPP in the Sverdlovsk region of Russia (reactor BN-600). The principle of operation is described. In the Japanese installation, molten sodium is used as a coolant. This makes it possible to raise the operating temperature of the reactor by 200 degrees Celsius compared to water and at normal pressure. Using water in this quality would increase the pressure in the system hundreds of times.

Most importantly, the cost of generating 1 kWh for this installation is expected to range from 5 to 13 cents. The variation is due to the peculiarities of national taxation, the different costs of processing nuclear waste and the cost of decommissioning the plant itself.

The first customer of the “battery” from Toshiba seems to be the small town of Galena, Alaska in the USA. The permitting documentation is currently being coordinated with American government agencies. The company's partner in the USA is the well-known company Westinghouse, which for the first time supplied fuel assemblies alternative to Russian TVELs to the Ukrainian nuclear power plant.

Hyperion Power Generation and Hyperion Reactor

These American guys seem to be the first to enter the commercial market for miniature nuclear reactors. The company offers installations from 70 to 25 megawatts costing approximately $25-30 million per unit. Hyperion nuclear installations can be used for both electricity generation and heating. As of the beginning of 2010, more than 100 orders have already been received for stations of various capacities, both from private individuals and from state companies. There are even plans to move the production of finished modules outside the United States, building factories in Asia and Western Europe.

The reactor operates on the same principle as most modern reactors in nuclear power plants. Read . The closest in principle of operation are the most common Russian VVER type reactors and power plants used on Project 705 Lira (NATO - “Alfa”) nuclear submarines. The American reactor is practically a land-based version of the reactors installed on these nuclear submarines, by the way - the fastest submarines of their time.

The fuel used is uranium nitride, which has a higher thermal conductivity compared to ceramic uranium oxide, traditional for VVER reactors. This allows operation at temperatures 250-300 degrees Celsius higher than water-water installations, which increases the efficiency of steam turbines of electric generators. Everything is simple here - the higher the reactor temperature, the higher the steam temperature and, as a result, the higher the efficiency of the steam turbine.

A lead-bismuth melt, similar to that on Soviet nuclear submarines, is used as a cooling “liquid”. The melt passes through three heat exchange circuits, reducing the temperature from 500 degrees Celsius to 480. The working fluid for the turbine can be either water vapor or superheated carbon dioxide.

The installation with fuel and cooling system weighs only 20 tons and is designed for 10 years of operation at a rated power of 70 megawatts without refueling. The miniature dimensions are truly impressive - the reactor is only 2.5 meters high and 1.5 meters wide! The entire system can be transported by truck or rail, being the absolute commercial world record holder for the power-to-mobility ratio.

Upon arrival at the site, the “barrel” with the reactor is simply buried. Access to it or any maintenance is not expected at all. After the warranty period expires, the assembly is dug up and sent to the manufacturer's plant for refilling. The features of lead-bismuth cooling provide a huge safety advantage - overheating and explosion are not possible (pressure does not increase with temperature). Also, when cooled, the alloy solidifies, and the reactor itself turns into an iron blank insulated with a thick layer of lead, which is not afraid of mechanical stress. By the way, it was the impossibility of operating at low power (due to the solidification of the cooling alloy and automatic shutdown) that was the reason for the refusal to further use lead-bismuth installations on nuclear submarines. For the same reason, these are the safest reactors ever installed on nuclear submarines of all countries.

Initially, miniature nuclear power plants were developed by Hyperion Power Generation for the needs of the mining industry, namely for processing oil shale into synthetic oil. Estimated reserves of synthetic oil in oil shale available for processing using today's technologies are estimated at 2.8-3.3 trillion barrels. For comparison, the reserves of “liquid” oil in wells are estimated at only 1.2 trillion barrels. However, the process of refining shale into oil requires heating it and then capturing the vapors, which then condense into oil and by-products. It is clear that for heating you need to get energy somewhere. For this reason, oil production from shale is considered economically unfeasible compared to importing it from OPEC countries. So the company sees the future of its product in different areas of application.

For example, as a mobile power plant for the needs of military bases and airfields. There are also interesting prospects here. Thus, during mobile warfare, when troops operate from so-called strong points in certain regions, these stations could power the “base” infrastructure. Just like in computer strategies. The only difference is that when the task in the region is completed, the power plant is loaded into a vehicle (airplane, cargo helicopter, trucks, train, ship) and taken to a new location.

Another military application is the stationary power supply of permanent military bases and airfields. In the event of an air raid or missile attack, a base with an underground nuclear power plant that does not require maintenance personnel is more likely to remain combat capable. In the same way, it is possible to power groups of social infrastructure objects - water supply systems of cities, administrative facilities, hospitals.

Well, industrial and civil applications - power supply systems for small cities and towns, individual enterprises or their groups, heating systems. After all, these installations primarily generate thermal energy and in the cold regions of the planet can form the core of centralized heating systems. The company also considers the use of such mobile power plants at desalination plants in developing countries to be promising.

SSTAR (small, sealed, transportable, autonomous reactor)

A small, sealed, mobile autonomous reactor is a project being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA. The principle of operation is similar to Hyperion, only it uses Uranium-235 as fuel. Must have a shelf life of 30 years with a capacity of 10 to 100 megawatts.

The dimensions should be 15 meters high and 3 meters wide with a reactor weight of 200 tons. This installation is initially designed for use in underdeveloped countries under a leasing scheme. Thus, increased attention is paid to the inability to disassemble the structure and extract anything valuable from it. What is valuable is uranium-238 and weapons-grade plutonium, which are produced as they expire.

At the end of the lease agreement, the recipient will be required to return the unit to the United States. Am I the only one who thinks these are mobile factories for the production of weapons-grade plutonium for other people’s money? 🙂 However, the American state has not advanced beyond research work here, and there is not even a prototype yet.

To summarize, it should be noted that so far the most realistic development is from Hyperion and the first deliveries are scheduled for 2014. I think we can expect a further advance of “pocket” nuclear power plants, especially since other enterprises, including such giants as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, are conducting similar work on creating similar stations. In general, a miniature nuclear reactor is a worthy answer to all kinds of tidal turbidity and other incredibly “green” technologies. It looks like we may soon see military technology moving into civilian use again.

Do you know what your son does in the evenings? Then when he says he went to a disco, or fishing, or on a date? No, I am far from thinking that he is injecting drugs, or drinking port with friends, or robbing belated passers-by, all this would be too noticeable. But who knows, maybe he is assembling a nuclear reactor in the barn...

At the entrance to the town of Golf Manor, 25 km from Detroit, Michigan, there is a large poster on which it is written in large letters: “We have a lot of children, but we still save them, so, driver, drive carefully.” The warning is absolutely unnecessary, since strangers appear here extremely rarely, and the locals don’t drive much anyway: for one and a half kilometers, which is the length of the city’s central street, you can’t really speed up.

Of course, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had reasonable intentions when it planned to begin sweeping the backyard of Mr. Michael Polasek and Mrs. Patti Hahn at 1 a.m. At such a late time, the residents of the provincial town had to sleep, and therefore it was possible to dismantle and remove Mrs. Khan’s barn with all its contents without raising unnecessary questions and without creating the panic that containers with the icon: “Caution, radiation! " But there are exceptions to every rule. This time it was Mrs. Khan's neighbor, Dottie Peas. Having driven her car into the garage, she went out into the street and saw that eleven people dressed in radio-protective silver spacesuits were swarming in the yard opposite.

Excited Dottie, waking up her husband, forced him to go to the workers and find out what they were doing there. The man found the elder and demanded an explanation from him, in response to which he heard that there was no reason to worry, that the situation was under control, the radiation contamination was small and did not pose a danger to life.

In the morning, workers loaded the last blocks of the barn into containers, removed the top layer of soil, loaded all their goods onto trucks and left the scene. When asked by their neighbors, Mrs. Khan and Mr. Polasek answered that they themselves did not know why the EPA was so interested in their barn. Gradually, life in the city returned to normal, and if it weren’t for meticulous journalists, perhaps no one would ever have known why Patti Khan’s shed so annoyed EPA employees.

Until the age of ten, David Hahn grew up like an ordinary American teenager. His parents, Ken and Patty Hahn, were divorced, and David lived with his father and his new wife, Katie Missing, near Golf Manor in Clinton Township. On weekends, David went to Golf Manor to visit his mother. She had her own problems: her new chosen one drank heavily, and therefore she had little time for her son. Perhaps the only person who was able to understand the teenager’s soul was his step-grandfather, Katie’s father, who gave the young boy scout the thick “Golden Book of Chemical Experiments” for his tenth birthday.

The book was written in simple language, it told in an accessible form how to equip a home laboratory, how to make artificial silk, how to obtain alcohol, and so on. David became so interested in chemistry that two years later he began reading his father’s college textbooks.

The parents were happy about their son's new hobby. Meanwhile, David built a very decent chemistry laboratory in his bedroom. The boy grew up, his experiments became bolder, at the age of thirteen he was already freely making gunpowder, and at fourteen he had grown to nitroglycerin.

Fortunately, David himself was almost unharmed during the experiments with the latter. But the bedroom was almost completely destroyed: the windows were blown out, the built-in wardrobe was dented into the wall, the wallpaper and ceiling were hopelessly damaged. As punishment, David was flogged by his father, and the laboratory, or rather what was left of it, had to be moved to the basement.

Here the boy turned around with all his might. Here no one controlled him anymore, here he could break, explode and destroy as much as his chemical soul required. There was no longer enough pocket money for experiments, and the boy began to earn money himself. He washed dishes in a bistro, worked in a warehouse, in a grocery store.

Meanwhile, explosions in the basement occurred more and more often, and their power grew. In the name of saving the house from destruction, David was given an ultimatum: either he moves on to less dangerous experiments, or his basement laboratory will be destroyed. The threat worked, and the family lived a quiet life for a whole month. Until one late evening the house was rocked by a powerful explosion. Ken rushed to the basement, where he found his son lying unconscious with singed eyebrows. A briquette of red phosphorus exploded, which David tried to crush with a screwdriver. From that moment on, all experiments within the boundaries of his father's property were strictly prohibited. However, David still had a spare laboratory, equipped in his mother’s barn, in Golf Manor. The main events unfolded there.

Now David's father says that Boy Scouts and his son's exorbitant ambition are to blame. He wanted at all costs to receive the highest insignia - the Boy Scout Eagle. However, for this, according to the rules, it was necessary to earn 21 special insignia, eleven of which are given for mandatory skills (the ability to provide first aid, knowledge of the basic laws of the community, the ability to make a fire without matches, and so on), and ten for achievements in any areas chosen by the scout himself.

On May 10, 1991, fourteen-year-old David Hahn handed over to his Scoutmaster Joe Auito a brochure he had written for his next merit badge on nuclear energy issues. In preparing it, David sought help from Westinghouse Electric and the American Nuclear Society, the Edison Electric Institute, and companies involved in managing nuclear power plants. And everywhere I met the warmest understanding and sincere support. The brochure included a model of a nuclear reactor made from an aluminum beer can, a clothes hanger, baking soda, kitchen matches and three garbage bags. However, all this seemed too small for the seething soul of a young boy scout with pronounced nuclear inclinations, and therefore the next stage of his work he chose to build a real, only small, nuclear reactor.

Fifteen-year-old David decided to start by building a reactor that converts uranium-235 into uranium-236. To do this, he needed very little, namely, to extract a certain amount of uranium 235 itself. To begin with, the boy made a list of organizations that could help him in his endeavors. It included the Department of Energy, the American Nuclear Society, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Edison Electric Institute, the Nuclear Industrial Forum, and so on. David wrote twenty letters a day, in which, introducing himself as a physics teacher from Chippewa Valley High School, he asked for informational assistance. In response, he received simply tons of information. True, most of it turned out to be completely useless. So, the organization on which the boy had the greatest hopes, the American Nuclear Society, sent him a comic book “Goin. The Fission Reaction,” in which Albert Einstein said: “I am Albert. And today we will carry out the fission reaction of the nucleus. I mean the core of a cannon, ich talk about the core of an atom..."

However, this list also included organizations that provided truly invaluable services to the young nuclear scientist. The head of the department of production and distribution of radioisotopes of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Donald Erb, immediately developed a deep sympathy for “Professor” Khan and entered into a long scientific correspondence with him. “Teacher” Khan received quite a lot of information from the regular press, which he bombarded with questions like: “Please tell us how such and such a substance is produced?”

After less than three months, David had at his disposal a list consisting of 14 necessary isotopes. It took another month to figure out where these isotopes could be found. As it turned out, americium-241 was used in smoke detectors, radium-226 in old clocks with luminous hands, uranium-235 in black ore, and thorium-232 in gas lamp screens.

David decided to start with americium. He stole the first smoke detectors at night from a boy scout camp ward while the rest of the boys went to visit girls who lived nearby. However, ten sensors for the future reactor were extremely few, and David entered into correspondence with manufacturing companies, one of which agreed to sell the persistent “teacher” for laboratory work one hundred defective devices at a price of $1 apiece.

It wasn’t enough to get the sensors; they also had to understand where their americium was located. In order to get an answer to this question, David contacted another company and, introducing himself as the director of a construction company, said that he would like to enter into an agreement for the supply of a large batch of sensors, but he was told that a radioactive element was used in its production, and now he afraid that radiation will “leak” out. In response to this, a nice girl from the customer service department said that, yes, there is a radioactive element in the sensors, but “... there is no reason for alarm, since each element is packed in a special gold shell that is resistant to corrosion and damage.” .

David placed the americium extracted from the sensors into a lead casing with a tiny hole in one of the walls. According to the creator's plan, alpha rays, which were one of the decay products of americium-241, were supposed to come out of this hole. Alpha rays, as we know, are a stream of neutrons and protons. In order to filter out the latter, David placed a sheet of aluminum in front of the hole. Now the aluminum absorbed protons and produced a relatively pure neutron beam.

For further work he needed uranium-235. At first the boy decided to find it on his own. He walked around the surrounding area with a Geiger counter in his hands, hoping to find at least something resembling black ore, but the most he managed to find was an empty container in which this ore was once transported. And the young man again took up his pen.

This time he contacted representatives of a Czech company that was engaged in the sale of small quantities of uranium-containing materials. The company immediately sent the “professor” several samples of black ore. David immediately crushed the samples into dust, which he then dissolved in nitric acid, in the hope of isolating pure uranium. David passed the resulting solution through a coffee filter, hoping that pieces of undissolved ore would settle in its depths, while uranium would pass through it freely. But then he suffered a terrible disappointment: as it turned out, he somewhat overestimated the ability of nitric acid to dissolve uranium, and all the necessary metal remained in the filter. The boy didn’t know what to do next.

However, he did not despair and decided to try his luck with thorium-232, which he later, using the same neutron gun, planned to transform into uranium-233. At a warehouse of discounted goods, he bought about a thousand lamp grids, which he burned into ash with a blowtorch. Then he bought lithium batteries for a thousand dollars, extracted the lithium from them with wire cutters, mixed it with ash and heated it in the flame of a blowtorch. As a result, lithium took oxygen from the ash, and David received thorium, the purity level of which is

9000 times higher than the level of its content in natural ores and 170 times the level that required licensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Now all that remained was to direct the neutron beam at thorium and wait for it to turn into uranium.

However, here David was faced with a new disappointment: the power of his “neutron gun” was clearly not enough. In order to increase the “combat efficiency” of the weapon, it was necessary to select a worthy replacement for America. For example, radium.

With him, everything was somewhat simpler: until the end of the 60s, clock hands, automobile and aircraft instruments, and other things were covered with luminous radium paint. And David went on an expedition to car junkyards and antique stores. As soon as he managed to find something luminescent, he immediately purchased this thing, since the old watch did not cost much, and carefully scraped the paint from it into a special bottle. The work proceeded extremely slowly and could have lasted for many months if David had not been helped by chance. Once, driving his old Pontiac 6000 along the street of his hometown, he noticed that the Geiger counter he had mounted on the dashboard suddenly became agitated and squealed. A short search for the source of the radioactive signal led him to the antique store of Mrs. Gloria Genette. Here he found an old watch with the entire dial painted over with radium paint. Having paid $10, the young man took the watch home, where he had it opened. The results exceeded all expectations: in addition to the painted dial, he found a full bottle of radium paint hidden behind the back wall of the watch, apparently left there by a forgetful watchmaker.

To obtain pure radium, David used barium sulfate. Having mixed barium and paint, he melted the resulting composition, and again passed the melt through a coffee filter. This time David succeeded: the barium absorbed the impurities and became stuck in the filter, while the radium passed through unhindered.

As before, David placed the radium in a lead container with a microscopic hole, only in the path of the beam, on the advice of his old friend from the Nuclear Settlement Commission, Dr. Erb, he placed not an aluminum plate, but a beryllium screen stolen from the school chemistry classroom. He directed the resulting neutron beam at thorium and uranium powder. However, if the radioactivity of thorium gradually began to increase, then uranium remained unchanged.

And then Dr. Erb came to the aid of sixteen-year-old “Professor” Khan again. “It is not surprising that nothing happens in your case,” he explained the situation to the false teacher. “The neutron beam you described is too fast for uranium. In such cases, filters made of water, deuterium or, say, tritium are used to slow it down.” In principle, David could have used water, but he considered this a compromise and went a different route. Using the press, he discovered that tritium was used in the production of luminous sights for sporting rifles, bows and crossbows. Further, his actions were simple: the young man bought bows and crossbows in sports stores, cleaned off the tritium paint from them, applying ordinary phosphorus instead, and returned the goods. He processed the beryllium screen with the collected tritium and again directed the neutron flux to the uranium powder, the radiation level of which increased significantly after a week.

Now it's time to create the reactor itself. The scout used a model of a reactor used to produce weapons-grade plutonium as a basis. David, who was already seventeen by that time, decided to use the accumulated material. Without any regard for safety, he extracted americium and radium from his guns, mixed them with aluminum and beryllium powder, and wrapped the “hellish mixture” in aluminum foil. What until recently was a neutron weapon has now become the core for an improvised reactor. He covered the resulting ball with alternating cubes of thorium ash and uranium powder, also wrapped in foil, and wrapped the entire structure on top with a thick layer of tape.

Of course, the “reactor” was far from what can be considered an “industrial model”. It did not produce any noticeable heat, but its radiation emission grew by leaps and bounds. Soon the radiation level increased so much that David's meter began to alarmingly crackle already five blocks from his mother's house. Only then did the young man realize that he had collected too much radioactive material in one place and it was time to stop playing with such games.

He disassembled his reactor, put thorium and uranium in a toolbox, left radium and americium in the basement, and decided to take all the associated materials into the forest in his Pontiac.

At 2:40 a.m. on August 31, 1994, Clinton police received a call from an unknown person who reported that someone was apparently trying to steal tires from someone's car. David, who turned out to be this “someone,” explained to the arriving police that he was just waiting for a friend. The police were not satisfied with the answer, and they asked the young man to open the trunk. There they found a lot of strange things: broken watches, wires, mercury switches, chemical reagents and about fifty packages wrapped in foil with an unknown powder. But the locked box attracted the most attention from the police. When asked to open it, David replied that this could not be done, since the contents of the box were terribly radioactive.

Radiation, mercury switches, clock mechanisms... Well, what other associations could these things evoke in a police officer? At 3 a.m., the district police office received information that in the city of Clinton, Michigan, local police had detained a car with an explosive device, presumably a nuclear bomb.

The team of sappers that arrived the next morning, having examined the car, reassured the local authorities, declaring that the “explosive device” was not really such, but immediately shocked him with the message that a large amount of radiation hazardous materials had been found in the car.

During interrogations, David remained stubbornly silent. Only at the end of November did he tell the investigation about the secrets of his mother’s barn. All this time, David's father and mother, frightened by the thought that their houses might be confiscated by the police, were destroying evidence. The barn was cleared of all “garbage” and instantly filled with vegetables. The only reminder of its former contents was now the high radiation level, more than 1000 times higher than the background level. Which was registered by FBI representatives who visited him on November 29. Almost a year after David's arrest, the Environmental Protection Agency obtained a court order to demolish the barn. Its dismantling and burial at a radioactive waste dump in the Great Salt Lake area cost the parents of the “radioactive boy scout” $60,000.

After the destruction of the barn, David fell into a deep depression. All his work went, as they say, down the drain. Members of his Boy Scout troop refused to give him the Eagle, saying that his experiments were not at all useful to people. An atmosphere of suspicion and hostility reigned around him. Relations with parents after paying the fine deteriorated hopelessly. After David graduated from college, his father gave his son a new ultimatum: either he goes to serve in the Armed Forces, or he is kicked out of the house.

David Hahn currently serves as a sergeant on the USS Enterprise, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. True, he is not allowed close to the nuclear reactor, in memory of past achievements and to avoid possible troubles. On the shelf in his cockpit are books about steroids, melanin, genetics, antioxidants, nuclear reactors, amino acids and criminal law. “I’m sure that my experiments took no more than five years of my life,” he says to journalists who occasionally visit him. “So I still have time to do something useful for people.”