Using Americium?

Hello, SawSS1June21,

yes, I know that the reactors have been run until 2000.

But the area is prohibited according to the article. I suppose that only enginers and workers required to run the reactors have been allowed to go there. And the article is speaking about the contamination of the region around the reactors - it may be that the level of radiation around the reactors is higher than inside them. The explosion had blown into the air the radiating elements so that their concentration inside the plant is less than outside.

It can be avoided to expose humans to the radiation if the Americium can be gathered and collected by robots.

Regarding the processing I seem to remember that it has been considered by the articles whonos and Marshall have listed earlier as well as by the researches quoted there. There are also the recycling plants for the nuclear fuel of reactors where the materials processed manually but under protection by very thick walls and windows or in between by using displays perhaps.

I have been concentrating on collection and gathering because the major question was where to get Americium at all. To think about processing doesn't make an sense if it is not known where and how to get what's going to be precessed.

It would be more interesting yet how to produce Americium controlled and intentionally. It would have to be done by using nuclear reactors which would have to be modified, altered and improved, Their focus wouldn't be on electricity generation only.



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

There are plenty of research reactors in universities around the world which could do that work without modification, since they are specifically constructed for the purposes of particle bombardment of material samples.

And there must be a commercial source for Americium somewhere, when I was a kid we bought smoke detectors for our home that contained Americium particle emitters. That technology (smoke detectors) no longer requires radioisotopes, but Americium is/was also used to make initiators for plutonium fission bombs; point being, someone knows how to make it in quantity and has done so and may still be doing so.

It really needs to be done in France. They have a much more evolved and mature outlook on nuclear energy.

Hello, SawSS1June21,

I have been looking for commercial informations about Americium and uo to this moment mainly found the follwing link: www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/americium.htm .

It doesn't tell any numbers about the amounts commercially use - neither per unit of use nor in total, neither in weight nor in volume. But it says that Americium is used in


I am not that convinced that the amounts in total would be sufficient to be used for propulsion as designed in the links others have quoted during this thread up to now.

I still have to read more links.



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

Some links on future nuclear power and alt. energy:
http://www.terradaily.com/news/nuclear-civil-05zzV.html Nukes

Nano tech
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-05zzzza.html Test rig
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarsails-05m.html Solar Sail

[http://www.spacedaily.com/news/antenna-05i.html Solar antenna
http://www.spacewar.com/news/energy-tech-05zzzzzzf.html No batteries

MISC.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050927_cool_math.html
atoms & Spaceships

How about Israel, where it was invented?
Ekkhard, you were right- The Negev is the southern region of Israel, of which BeerSheva is the largest city. It's also not too far from Dimona, where Israel's nuclear plant (and nuclear weapons making facility) is located.
Here are the links:
Ben Gurion University: http://www.bgu.ac.il/
Prof. Yigal Ronen
Born: 1940, Israel
Ph.D: 1970, Cornell Univ.; Prof. 1985.
Department of Nuclear Engineering - Professor
Faculty of Engineering Sciences - Dean
Research Interests: Nuclear physics;Reactor physics; Uncertainty analysis.
Research Projects: Deuteron model forN = Z nuclei; The 2Z-N nuclearcorrelations; High converting water cooledreactors with negative voide coefficient; Nuclear reactor with 242mAm as a nuclear fuel.
E-mail: yronen@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
If there are any questions, why don't people just e-mail him, and post the answers to the board?
P.S.
Israel rocks!

That would be best, but I would think their budget is more geared for survival. France might be able to put a bit more money in it.

The public budget - but it could be funded privately. Thank God, there isn't a lack of Jewish billionares.

That was just cheap.

Here is something interesting. Read near the bottom of this article:

Anti-matter: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cosmology-05zc.html

Misc.

Human mission for astronomy: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-05zh.html

Breakthrough: http://www.terradaily.com/news/stemcells-05g.html
Weird: http://www.livescience.com/scienceoffic ... ctals.html

This fits me:
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology ... anger.html
Cellborg: http://www.livescience.com/technology/0 ... ensor.html
Rocket-bug: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/pollution-05zn.html
No chlo: http://www.terradaily.com/news/life-05zzzzzzzp.html

Mini-rotor: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-05zzzzq.html

Since there was an article under www.space.com this week that reported that there might gases have outgased on the Moon that might be prodcuts of decaying or decayed Uranium the thought comes to my mind if Americium might be produced on the Moon.

Assumed that lunar Uranium really can be found and mined then it could be used in or by rockets without any threat to earthian people and environment simply by launching them from the Moon.

So what about production of Americium on the Moon under this assumption? Can nuclear reactors be optimized for the production of Americium and located on the Moon?



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

You might want to track down Carlo Rubbia for that. I'd also be interested to know if Hafnium could be useful...

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/000918.html

Just this moment I remembered that there was a natural nuclear reactor in Africa millions of years ago. Might it have produced Americium? I do not know the time of decay of Americium this moment but if it has been produced there might a bit be left of it yet because of accumulated large amounts?

A few scientists also seem to suppose that in the depths of the earthian mantle or even at the borders of the outer core nuclear fission is going on - so might Americium be there?



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

Most isotopes of Americium have half lives measured in minutes. Am 241, used in smoke detectors, has a half life of 432 years and Am 243 has the longest half life of all the isotopes, at 7,370 years. So it would be all gone in less than a million years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_americium