8 grams of thorium can nourish regular car over the course of a century.
Thorium is found mainly in 12 minerals. Deposits of these minerals are known in Australia, India, Norway, USA, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, Pakistan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan and other countries. Why do we remember him? Apparently, this is exactly the case when it was high time to give people such technology!
Today, more than one billion cars drive on the roads of the planet, which directly or indirectly cost trillions of dollars in material resources, time and toxic emissions. Now imagine that all these cars can run absolutely environmentally friendly for 100 years on just 8 grams of fuel each. Thorium is a step into a new energy age!
American inventor Lawrence Kulesus in 2009 at the Chicago Auto Show boldly put forward a proposal to use nuclear fuel instead of ordinary fuel. Inventor Charles Stevens and engineers at Laser Power Systems (LPS) in Connecticut picked up the idea, developed the concept of a nuclear engine, and successfully brought it to life. New Cadillac concept was named World Thorium Fuel or Cadillac WTF.
Laser Power Systems (LPS) in Connecticut is developing a new propulsion system that uses thorium because it is extremely dense and can produce incredible amounts of heat. LPS specialists are currently experimenting with small pieces of material that can generate a laser beam that heats water, generates steam and spins a mini-turbine.
Modern models of thorium engines weigh about 200 kilograms and easily fit under the hood of an ordinary car. And according to experts, just one gram of thorium contains more energy than 28,000 liters of gasoline and 8 grams of this substance will power an ordinary car for a century.
Thorium was first isolated by J. Berzelius in 1828 from a mineral later called thorite (contains thorium silicate). Thorium was named after the god of thunder Thor in Norse mythology.
The use of thorium will help to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the scale of which is already beyond all conceivable limits.
Various experts agree that "low or zero CO2 energy sources must be cheaper than coal or they will fail in their attempt to replace fossil fuels." The estimated cost of thorium is $80 per kilogram, and more than 30% of all deposits are concentrated in India, Australia and the United States.
Thorium could also be the answer to the question of global nuclear power. Just look at the dry facts:
Thorium produces 10 to 10 thousand times less long-lived radioactive waste;
Thorium mining produces only one pure isotope, while a mixture of natural uranium isotopes requires enrichment to work in most conventional nuclear reactors;
Thorium cannot support a nuclear chain reaction without special conditions, so that if necessary, its decay in the reactor stops automatically.
Hargraves also predicts a switch to thorium by factories and other industrial concerns. And in the very near future we can see it with our own eyes.
And one more important point: The production of fuel based on thorium is nuclear energy, and the great danger is that there will surely be evil geniuses who can use such a development as an atomic weapon. We hope that the developers will fully realize the full responsibility for their offspring and will be able to completely secure nuclear engines if such cars become available to every inhabitant of the Earth.
What happens if we say that an excess of emissions harmful substances as a result of the combustion of gasoline or conventional diesel fuel can be solved using a nuclear engine? Will it impress you? If not, then you don’t even have to start reading this material, but for those who are interested in this topic, you are welcome, because we will talk about an atomic engine for a car that runs on the thorium-232 isotope.
Surprisingly, it is thorium-232 that has the longest half-life among thorium isotopes and is also the most abundant. After reflecting on this fact, scientists from the American company Laser Power Systems announced the possibility of constructing an engine that uses thorium as a fuel and, at the same time, is an absolutely real project today.
It has long been determined that thorium, when used as a fuel, has a strong position and, when “working,” releases an enormous amount of energy. According to scientists, only 8 grams of thorium-232 will allow the engine to work for 100 years, and 1 gram will produce more energy than 28 thousand liters of gasoline. Agree, this can not fail to impress.
According to CEO Laser Power Systems Charles Stevens, a team of specialists have already begun experiments using a small amount of thorium, but the most immediate goal is to create the necessary for technological process laser. Describing the working principle similar engine, we can cite the work of a classical power plant as an example. So, the laser, according to the plans of scientists, will heat a container with water, and the resulting steam will go to the work of mini-turbines.
However, no matter how breakthrough the statement of LPS specialists may seem, the very idea of using atomic thorium engine not new. In 2009, Lauren Culeusus showed the world community his vision of the future and demonstrated the Cadillac World Thorium Fuel Concept Car. And despite its futuristic appearance, the main difference between the concept car was the presence of an energy source for battery life that used thorium as fuel.
“Scientists need to find a cheaper energy source than coal, with little or no carbon dioxide emissions when burned. Otherwise, this idea will not be able to develop at all ”- Robert Hargrave, a specialist in the field of studying the properties of thorium
On this moment Laser Power Systems specialists have fully focused their efforts on creating a serial model of the engine for mass production. However, one of the most important issues how countries and companies lobbying for "oil" interests will react to such an innovation. Only time will tell the answer.
Interesting:
- Natural reserves of thorium exceed those of uranium by 3-4 times
- Experts call thorium and in particular thorium-232 "nuclear fuel of the future"
The concept of a car with a power plant on radioactive elements was developed by Cadillac back in 2009. It has nothing to do with nuclear reactors, but it has the same huge potential and an almost infinite supply of fuel.
Thorium laser
The American company Laser Power Systems has developed an alternative laser design based on the use of energy from the weakly radioactive element thorium. Due to a number of features, it cannot be used as an analogue of industrial or scientific lasers. However, the installation radiates thermal energy of enormous power and, at the same time, has an extremely low flow fuel.
Based on it, Cadillac designers developed power plant new type for cars. A pseudo-laser beam heats water or similar coolant in a special tank, turning it into steam, which is then used to turn a turbine. It, in turn, can transmit torque to the wheels of a car or set in motion a generator shaft that will generate electricity. With a weight of 230 kg, the plant has a power of about 250 kW. It uses thorium salts as fuel, 1 gram of which is similar in terms of energy output to 7,500 liters of gasoline.
car concept
This power plant can be used in a car civil purpose Its prototype is currently being tested. A fundamental alteration of the running gear of the car is not required, however, the considerable weight of the installation and the specific cooling system significantly affect the shape and dimensions of the car body. Particular attention is paid to anti-radiation protection - although the system does not undergo nuclear fission, thorium itself is a fairly intense source of radiation that poses a threat to the human body.
No problems with maintenance and refueling of the car are expected - 8 grams of repetition is enough for 500,000 km of run, so the fuel will be installed at the factory 1 time during the operation of the car. Unlike plutonium or uranium, thorium is almost never used in nuclear power, and its ore reserves on the planet are 3-4 times higher. With their industrial development, the cost of thorium fuel can be low enough for a car to be profitable in production and operation. However, it remains open question on the disposal of spent fuel and the impact of such cars on the environment.
First car with nuclear engine January 23rd, 2013
In any case, science is moving forward! No matter how funny, unrealistic or ridiculous something seems to us, it is not a fact that this particular thing will not become commonplace. For example, the first concept car appeared, running on practically waste-free and environmentally friendly nuclear fuel. As conceived by the creators, the materials used and technical filling car will allow the owner not to worry about the repair of his "favorite" for 100 years, and this is with daily use!
As fuel, the development team used the weakly radioactive metal thorium (Thorium (Th)). For the first time the idea of using this element was expressed by American inventor Lawrence Kulesus in 2009 at the Chicago Auto Show. Well, the engineers at Laser Power Systems, led by inventor Charles Stevenson, were able not only to develop the concept of a nuclear engine, but also to successfully bring it to life. New concept was named Cadillac World Thorium Fuel (Cadillac WTF).
Thorium was first used during the Second World War, because it is considered the safest substance among other radioactive elements. According to scientists and developers, a gram of thorium will successfully replace about 30,000 liters of conventional fuel. Well, 8 grams is enough for the owner of the car for life. In addition, the excess energy released during the reaction is enough to recharge the battery and other devices.
Cadillac WTF is able to turn today's idea of cars upside down. task non-standard solutions that have found a place in the development of the concept car is the fight against damage environment. Modern cars not only have a short service life, but also have a negative impact on the environment during production, operation and disposal. While the novelty from Cadillac is designed to work without refueling and repair for a whole century.
All concept systems also differ from traditional counterparts. The energy of thorium most effectively activates all internal programs, acting akin to the human nervous system. The main components of the car have an insurance function in case of an unforeseen breakdown, so that the Cadillac WTF continues to function without repair.
The concept car has 24 wheels, 6 on each side. Each of them is quite narrow and is equipped with a built-in induction electric motor. Such wheels will need to be adjusted every 5 years, without the need for replacement.
The very design of the Cadillac WTF is very flexible, the car is able to transform like muscles, making control intuitive. For example, the angle of the wheels changes depending on the road surface. The car's reactor was placed at the rear of the concept car for safety reasons.
If thorium proves to be a positive energy source, and the concept car becomes a reality, then Australia and India could become world leaders in the field of energy. About 30% of the deposits of this metal from all the deposits of the planet are located on the territory of these countries.
Yes, by the way, for some reason I thought and remembered: WTF can be translated into Russian "what the hell?" , literally stands for "What The Fuck?" . That's the way it is on the internet! :-)
In 1949 Soviet Union became the second country in the world to successfully build and test a sample of an atomic weapon. On the one hand, this, of course, was a serious success for Soviet scientists and engineers. On the other hand, a no less serious blow to the pride of the Soviet leadership. Indeed, in the race of the two countries, the second place is the last. It was then that many leaders of the country began to think about those areas in which the USSR could break ahead. In particular, on projects for the peaceful use of atomic energy.
The 1957 Ford Nucleon was supposed to use a compact nuclear reactor as a power source. The cabin was moved beyond the front axle, and the heavy reactor, along with biological protection, was installed far behind. According to Ford engineers, the Nucleon could travel 5,000 miles (8,000 km) on a single load of fuel, after which the entire power plant had to be replaced entirely, while the owner could choose any power plant - more powerful or more economical.
The race for a peaceful atom
In 1949, the government of the USSR, listening to the arguments of scientists, among whom were Academician Pyotr Kapitsa, President of the Academy of Sciences Sergei Vavilov and the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" Igor Kurchatov, decided to build the first purely civilian nuclear facility - a nuclear power plant. In October 1954, the Obninsk nuclear power plant was officially included in the Mosenergo network, and ordinary people got the opportunity to light a light bulb from nuclear electricity. The Soviet Union won the first segment of the relay race for the "peaceful atom".
But the Americans were not idle either. In 1952, the Nautilus submarine was laid down at the Groton shipyards, which was supposed to be the first nuclear submarine in the world. By 1954, when the Obninsk nuclear power plant was built, the Nautilus was launched, and in January 1955 went to sea, becoming the first transport (though not civilian) vehicle driven by the energy of atomic decay.
Atom in harness
When developing Volga-Atom, the design of the existing GAZ-21 chassis could not be strengthened in any way. As a result, the layout idea was borrowed from the 1962 concept car. year Ford Seattle-ite XXI with two front axles. All four front wheels of the Volga-Atom were steering (two of them were driving). Despite the long hood, space for bio-protection and cooling systems in engine compartment was not enough. I had to use the front of the cabin, and driver's seat placed at the back.
However, the Union was already ready to respond. In 1953, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to build a nuclear icebreaker. The ship was laid down in 1956 at the Leningrad shipbuilding plant named after V.I. Marty was launched a year later, after which the installation of a nuclear power plant developed by the team of the Nizhny Novgorod Experimental Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (OKBM) under the leadership of Igor Afrikantov began. In December 1959, the Lenin nuclear icebreaker was officially handed over to the USSR Ministry of the Navy, and although by that time the Nautilus was already in operation and even managed to reach the North Pole under its own power, the score could be considered at least equal. It is important that the icebreaker "Lenin" was a purely civilian ship, and "Nautilus" a military ship, because in the eyes of the international community, the weight of civilian nuclear projects was significantly higher. A few years later, several more nuclear-powered civilian ships entered the ocean - the American Savannah (1964) and the German Otto Gan (1968) (the Japanese ship Mutsu was very late due to technical problems and was delivered in 1990). But, figuratively speaking, they came to the start when the race was already over.
The design of the first generation is a classic "cannon scheme". Subcritical uranium washers on the piston and end of the cylinder approach each other, increasing criticality, and the fission reaction heats up working body(helium) in cylinders. The helium expands and pushes the piston, doing work. The camshaft advances the cadmium absorber rod, the reaction is damped. In the second generation, gas-phase uranium hexafluoride is used as fuel, which is also a working fluid. The graphite moderator is made porous so that the gas is more efficiently mixed and the fission reaction takes place in it.
Clean design and stuffing
Nevertheless, the ideological victory in the atomic race still could not be considered completely clean, and Soviet scientists, engineers and leaders were looking for an opportunity to consolidate their success. Out-of-the-box ideas were required, and one of them came through diplomatic channels.
In 1957 Ford company presented to the public one of the most ambitious concepts in its history - the Ford Nucleon. The designers depicted their vision of the car of the future, and not even on a full-size layout, but on a 3:8 scale model. Nucleon looked extremely futuristic, but the most unusual was not its appearance at all, but the alleged energy source - a very compact nuclear reactor. Further scale model and its conceptual description did not go well, but it is generally accepted that the Ford Nucleon became a kind of symbol atomic age.
dead end branch
Faced with scaling issues, Kamnev suggested creating by-product- an atomic machine for road construction, more precisely - an atomic road roller. Slavsky voiced the idea to Khrushchev, and he was delighted when he learned that with the help of such a skating rink it was possible, using the excess heat generated by the reactor, to build a road as straight as an arrow and as smooth as a mirror even in the densest forests at minimal cost. One such skating rink was built by the end of 1959, an eyewitness describes it like this: “Even in the most big quarries I have not seen such giants. Mahina, as high as a seven-story house and 20 meters wide, lays a straight line in the forest and flat road by simply sintering the top layer of soil at over 500 degrees.” Tests carried out in Siberia left a 25-kilometer stretch of the most magnificent road right through the taiga about halfway between Tomsk and Novosibirsk. The road would have been paved to the end, but trouble happened: the tired operator of the rink fell asleep behind the levers, and the only one of its kind construction machine drowned in a swamp, at the bottom of which she still lies. A perfect road lonely begins and ends in the middle of the taiga - like a monument to the atomic fantasy of a bygone era.
Ford Nucleon was presented at various exhibitions, and in 1958, at one of the American car dealerships, he was seen by the second secretary of the Soviet embassy, Vladimir Sinyavin. He was a great enthusiast of technological progress and enthusiastically described the idea of a car in his report. Since the atomic project was mentioned there, the report was carefully studied at home. He was not interested in the military, since they considered what was described as an empty fantasy, but just in case, the report was sent to the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building, which then oversaw everything nuclear projects. He was seen by one of the deputy ministers, the legendary Yefim Pavlovich Slavsky. This is how it started unknown history amazing car, which could turn the entire global automotive industry.
The nuclear engine produced a lot of heat, which required efficient system cooling. The engineers were inexperienced with such designs, so they looked to 1950s American concept cars such as the 1951 Buick Le-Sabre (pictured) or the 1958 Ford X 2000 to find solutions. For all their pretentiousness, they had an important advantage: they made it possible to fit the huge air intakes of the cooling system into the overall design of the body.
Achieve the impossible
Slavsky seemed interested in the idea, and he confidentially asked several atomic physicists to study the possibility of implementing such a project. The answer was quite unequivocal: "Empty fantasies!". At the next meeting in the Kremlin, Slavsky casually jokingly mentioned this - that's what the Americans are doing. He expected Khrushchev to laugh with him, but the reaction was completely different. Nikita Sergeevich listened to the minister and suddenly said seriously: “Why don't we make such a car? After all, it worked out well with the icebreaker! Attempts to convince the general secretary were unsuccessful, Khrushchev dismissed all objections with a wave of his hand: "If these physicists cannot, find others."
And such physicists have been found. To design a car driven by atomic energy, the Automobile Design Bureau (AKB) was created under the leadership of Alexander Eduardovich Kamnev. AKB was engaged in the development of a nuclear power plant.
1958 Ford X 2000
According to the cannon scheme
The physicists of the battery, taking the nuclear power plant of the Lenin icebreaker as a basis, quickly became convinced that it could not be scaled down. It was unthinkable to build a car for the existing reactor - the car turned out to be so huge. Physicists worked on this problem until 1960, but without much success, until at the next meeting someone exclaimed in their hearts: “It doesn’t work, even put uranium in the engine cylinders!” - and this led Kamnev to an idea that turned out to be very fruitful.
The idea was the following. A conventional reactor requires a fairly significant amount of radioactive uranium. With a decrease in the mass of fuel, the neutron multiplication factor falls, and the reactor ceases to be critical - it “fades out”. Meanwhile, the criticality of a reactor depends not only on the mass of radioactive material loaded into it, but also on its design and configuration. Kamnev suggested using the classical "cannon scheme", well known to nuclear physicists for the design of the first atomic bombs from uranium (more advanced plutonium bombs were made according to a different scheme - implosion). The essence of her work is that when two pieces of enriched uranium approach each other, a chain reaction begins, the neutron multiplication factor increases, and the reaction becomes self-sustaining. In a bomb, it goes even further - a growing chain reaction begins, and an explosion occurs. But work conventional engine internal combustion— it is a series of small explosions! It is only necessary to stop the reaction in time to close the cycle of the engine.
atomic heart
By the end of 1961, the design was basically worked out. The A21 engine was a completely traditional four-cylinder unit, in which washers made of uranium enriched in the 235 isotope were located at the ends of the pistons and cylinders. At the end of the cylinder was also located a washer made of graphite - a neutron moderator. The working fluid was helium pumped into the cylinders. As the compression progressed, the uranium masses approached each other, and the neutron multiplication factor began to increase. Due to heat release, the helium warmed up and began to expand, pushing the piston up - this was the working stroke. It was possible to control the speed and stop the engine with the help of absorber rods, which were located in place of the valves and were advanced by an independently rotating camshaft with variable cam phases. As the nuclear fuel was consumed, the phases shifted to compensate for the "burn-up" of the fuel. As an emergency "quenching" of the reactor during supercritical accidents, the injection of a solution of boric acid into the cylinders was envisaged. The entire unit was placed in a fully sealed bio-protection shell, only the pipelines of the secondary cooling circuit and the magnetic clutch that rotated the gearbox were brought out.
The nuclear-powered Ford Seattle-ite XXI concept car was inspired by many ideas for the car of the future: navigation, cruise control, electric steering, panoramic interior glazing with adjustable dimming. But for a real nuclear car, the three-axle chassis turned out to be the most useful.
After six months of adjustments and experiments, the engine installed on the test bench worked perfectly normally for three months, while the conditional mileage was about 70,000 km. It was time to put it to the test. Engineers from a specially created working group were involved in the design of the chassis. Gorky Automobile Plant(GAS). The task at hand took them by surprise. The suspension needed to be significantly strengthened: the A23 weighed not 200 kg, like the standard GAZ-21 engine, but almost 500. At the same time, the engine had absolutely fantastic characteristics for those times: power 320 hp. and torque more than 800 N m at low revs(60 rpm). The requirements also stipulated the complete exclusion of access under the hood, the absence fuel system And mounted units, and especially - the presence of a productive cooling system.
Volga-Atom
In April 1965, the car drove to the test site near Seversk. According to the memoirs of Valentin Semenov, who took part in the development of the engine, who managed to drive a car (or a car?), The sensations were very unusual: the car was very heavy, but the engine power compensated for the increased mass. Acceleration was brisk, but braking was worse. And the engine got very hot, and in the car, despite the cool Siberian spring, it was very hot.
The tests carried out showed that the design is quite working, while real resource mileage was more than 60,000 km. However, after that all power unit it was necessary to change, and this is very troublesome and wasteful for civilian equipment. Therefore, physicists began work on the second version of the engine - with gas-phase fuel in the form of uranium hexafluoride instead of solid uranium. Hexafluoride simultaneously served as a working fluid instead of helium, which also caused a lot of trouble in the first version, escaping through the smallest gaps in the seals and even through the walls (to maintain its level, the engine was equipped with a helium cylinder and automatic system cost compensation). True, the graphite moderator had to be made porous so that the gas was more efficiently mixed and a fission reaction took place in it. New engine was less powerful (200 hp, 600 N m), and the mileage on one load of fuel decreased to about 40,000 (according to test results). But for "refueling" now it was not necessary to change the entire engine, it was enough to pump a new supply of uranium hexafluoride into the cylinders.
It was originally planned to make several experimental machines to demonstrate them at exhibitions and ride guests of honor. However, while the designers were developing the engine and the car itself, the situation changed. Khrushchev resigned as General Secretary, and Brezhnev, who replaced him, had no such ambitions. So the project was closed without much noise. And two prototype cars (without engines that were removed for decontamination and burial) for a long time stood at the landfill, and then were disposed of. With them went the boundless and reckless enthusiasm of that era in which people were not afraid to grab the atom by the tail.
