Day: June 7, 2023

The Integral Molten Salt Reactor And The Benefits Of Having A Liquid Fission Reactor

June 7, 2023 by 48 Comments

Although to most the term ‘fission reactor’ brings to mind something close to the commonly operated light-water reactors (LWRs) which operate using plain water (H2O) as coolant and with sluggish, thermal neutrons, there are a dizzying number of other designs possible. Some of these have been in use for decades, like Canada’s heavy water (D2O) reactors (CANDU), while others are only now beginning to take their first step towards commercialization.

These include helium-cooled, high-temperature reactors like China’s HTR-PM, but also a relatively uncommon type developed by Terrestrial Energy, called the Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR). This Canadian company recently passed phase 2 of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s (CNSC) pre-licensing vendor review. What makes the IMSR so interesting is that as the name suggests, it uses molten salts: both for coolant and the low-enriched uranium fuel, while also breeding fuel from fertile isotopes that would leave an LWR as part of its spent fuel.

So why would you want your fuel to be fluid rather than a solid pellet like in most reactors today?

Continue reading “The Integral Molten Salt Reactor And The Benefits Of Having A Liquid Fission Reactor” →

Billion Year Clock Is LEGO Genius Or Madness

June 7, 2023 by 24 Comments

If you are a fan of LEGO bricks or Rube Goldberg, you should have a look at [Brick Technology’s] billion-year LEGO clock. Obviously, it hasn’t been tested for a billion years, and we wonder if ABS would last that long, but the video below is still worth watching.

Even if you aren’t a LEGO fan, the demonstration of a pendulum clock and escapement is worth something and really shows the practical side of things. Of course, making a pendulum clock that keeps time isn’t anything magic — people have been doing that for centuries. But then more and more elements join to keep track of more time.

You might wonder how the pendulum keeps going for a billion years. Well, honestly, it can’t. But a solar panel charges a battery that rewinds the clock when the drive weight reaches the bottom. We imagine the solar cell and battery would be maintenance items if you expected the billion-year life cycle.

Some will ask why, but we get it. If you must explain why you build everything you do with LEGO, you are doing it wrong. The clock even keeps track of the galaxy’s rotation which, apparently, completes every 230 million solar years.

We’d be impressed with this clock even if it weren’t made with LEGO. Sure, it isn’t as posh as the fancy clock in Denmark. But it does work longer — at least, in theory — than most other LEGO clocks we’ve seen.

Continue reading “Billion Year Clock Is LEGO Genius Or Madness” →

Harvesting Rechargeable Batteries From Single-Use Devices

June 7, 2023 by 63 Comments

The price of lithium batteries has plummeted in recent years as various manufacturers scale up production and other construction and process improvements are found. This is a good thing if you’re an EV manufacturer, but can be problematic if you’re managing something like a landfill and find that the price has fallen so low that rechargeable lithium batteries are showing up in the waste stream in single-use devices. Unlike alkaline batteries, these batteries can explode if not handled properly, meaning that steps to make sure they’re disposed of properly are much more important. [Becky] found these batteries in single-use disposable vape pens and so set about putting them to better use rather than simply throwing them away.

While she doesn’t use the devices herself, she was able to source a bunch of used ones locally from various buy-nothing groups. Disassembling the small vape pens is fairly straightforward, but care needed to be taken to avoid contacting some of the chemical residue inside of the devices. After cleaning the batteries, most of the rest of the device is discarded. The batteries are small but capable and made of various lithium chemistries, which means that most need support from a charging circuit before being used in any other projects. Some of the larger units do have charging circuitry, though, but often it’s little more than a few transistors which means that it might be best for peace-of-mind to deploy a trusted charging solution anyway.

While we have seen projects repurposing 18650 cells from various battery packs like power tools and older laptops, it’s not too far of a leap to find out that the same theory can be applied to these smaller cells. The only truly surprising thing is that these batteries are included in single-use devices at all, and perhaps also that there are few or no regulations limiting the sale of devices with lithium batteries that are clearly intended to be thrown away when they really should be getting recycled.

Continue reading “Harvesting Rechargeable Batteries From Single-Use Devices” →