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05-01-2020, 09:03 PM
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Denver
Posts: 4,163
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Enrico Fermi and Nuclear Energy
I posted a short piece on Fermi's contribution to nuclear reactors on the religion thread.
I am familiar with Enrico Fermi's work and have visited his reactor No.1 in Washington state on the Columbia river. Actually I had somewhat of a VIP tour because I was working on some nuclear energy issues for my clients, so I was shown a lot of stuff other people don't get to see. The small reactor that produced some of the plutonium that was used in one of the atomic bombs dropped in Japan. That reactor is being used as a museum now.
They have a storage area where the reactors from retired ships and submarines. They have also been working on a containment system where used high level nuclear material could be stored inside special glass that kept the radiation from escaping (called vitrification). Easy storage, easy transport.
I also toured a nuclear plant on the Chesapeake Bay. Fascinating to see how it all works. I left with the feeling nuclear energy was not only a good way to generate electricity but a safe way.
Fermi, unlike most physicists, was exceptional in both theoretical and experimental physics. His calculations were considered second to none and were used in the development of the nuclear reactors in Chicago and Richland. The story of how he escaped Italy with his wife and children is fascinating.
The Russians, of course, kept tabs on Fermi. Chicago Pile 1 was the world's first nuclear reactor, built in 1942 by Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi. The reactor was built underneath the University of Chicago's Stagg Field football stadium in an abandoned squash court. When the Russians needed to send a report to Moscow on Fermi's activity, they found themselves stymied by how to translate squash court into Russian. So they wrote that Fermi was building a reactor in a pumpkin patch.
He was very much the equal of Einstein.
Einstein was a pacifist and wrote a famous letter to Roosevelt suggesting that great thought should go into the decision to use such a lethal weapon. Of course, Roosevelt died before the the bomb was dropped and the decision was left to Harry Truman.
I would strongly recommend looking at the biographies of Fermi. Very interesting life.
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05-02-2020, 11:15 AM
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#2
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Librocubicularist
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Ohio
Posts: 10,466
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HalvOnHorseracing
I left with the feeling nuclear energy was not only a good way to generate electricity but a safe way.
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Three Mile Island! Fukushima! Chernobyl! They all scare the hell out of me.
__________________
Sapere aude
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05-02-2020, 11:19 AM
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 46,887
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Actor
Three Mile Island! Fukushima! Chernobyl! They all scare the hell out of me.
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Build a safe room to minimize risks.
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Consistent profits can only be made on the basis of analysis that is far from obvious to the majority. - anonymous guru
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05-02-2020, 11:51 AM
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#4
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Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 9,893
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HalvOnHorseracing
I posted a short piece on Fermi's contribution to nuclear reactors on the religion thread.
I am familiar with Enrico Fermi's work and have visited his reactor No.1 in Washington state on the Columbia river. Actually I had somewhat of a VIP tour because I was working on some nuclear energy issues for my clients, so I was shown a lot of stuff other people don't get to see. The small reactor that produced some of the plutonium that was used in one of the atomic bombs dropped in Japan. That reactor is being used as a museum now.
They have a storage area where the reactors from retired ships and submarines. They have also been working on a containment system where used high level nuclear material could be stored inside special glass that kept the radiation from escaping (called vitrification). Easy storage, easy transport.
I would strongly recommend looking at the biographies of Fermi. Very interesting life.
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Is this the Hanford site? I know a little company that is involved in the clean-up process, along with much larger contractors. Did you tour Hanford? Protocols, if it is even allowed?
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05-02-2020, 01:41 PM
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#5
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Librocubicularist
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Ohio
Posts: 10,466
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Quote:
Originally Posted by boxcar
Build a safe room to minimize risks.
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__________________
Sapere aude
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05-02-2020, 03:09 PM
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#6
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The Voice of Reason!
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Canandaigua, New york
Posts: 113,006
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Electricity running through the walls used to a big concern.
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Who does the Racing Form Detective like in this one?
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10-26-2020, 10:13 PM
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Denver
Posts: 4,163
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Actor
Three Mile Island! Fukushima! Chernobyl! They all scare the hell out of me.
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Fukushima was a plant built in the wrong place. That certainly doesn't make nuclear energy a bad thing. Chernobyl was a built with Russian technology, which is just above Ethiopia in nuke plant building. Three Mile Island showed the safety measures worked. I've been in a nuclear plant.
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10-26-2020, 10:52 PM
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Mukwonago, WI
Posts: 3,219
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As a kid, I could see the Fermi Lab from my bedroom window in Illinois.
https://www.fnal.gov/
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"I don't always frequent message boards, but when I do, I prefer PaceAdvantage."
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10-26-2020, 11:31 PM
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#9
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: St. Louis suburb
Posts: 1,764
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__________________
"I like to come here (Saratoga) every year to visit my money." ---Joe E. Lewis
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