Elementary, My Dear Reader

[avatar (Alistair Young)]

Comments migrated from WordPress:

@Buggy <buggy1997123@yahoo.com> on 2019-05-25 23:39:28 wrote

Did they have a word for something along the lines of “Precursor Metal”? Something to use to refer to the (apparently) impossibly strong and light substance that a lot of the artifacts lying around might be made of?

@Marcel Müller <nc-muellema44@netcologne.de> on 2019-05-26 05:29:47 wrote

Why should Uranium be warm to the touch? Its heat conductivity is low for metals but not really low and it is quite dense, so it should be cold to the touch. If you are thinking of decay heat that is waaaaay to low to be felt. Except of course in a critical assembly…

@Alistair Young <us@arkane-systems.net> on 2019-05-26 16:07:03 wrote

Bear in mind that due to differences in planetary and system formation - young, third-generation G2 dwarves with a supernova remnant contributing directly to the original proplyd - Eliéra is considerably enriched in power metals and isotopes compared to, say, Earth. Enough so that processed and even some unprocessed ores could support criticality without enrichment.

Raw andralis - hardly today’s purified U - from ancient sources was quite definitely above room temperature.

@Buggy <buggy1997123@yahoo.com> on 2019-05-26 16:45:10 wrote

Yeah, while it may sound unusual, natural nuclear reactors rcan absolutely occur. Considering the substantial deposits of heavy metals on Eliéra, they’d be all over the place.

@Marcel Müller <nc-muellema44@netcologne.de> on 2019-05-27 13:32:59 wrote

“Enough so that processed and even some unprocessed ores could support criticality without enrichment.”

Cool as the concept sounds, I am pretty sure this does not make sense. You do not feel the warmth of an unshielded critical assembly and live to tell the tale. Remember that e.g. the demon core delivered a lethal dose within fractions of a second. If you mine into a natural fission reactor you are dead as a doornail within minutes due to intense neutron and gamma irradiation. If they were common on Eliéra perhaps death metal or cursed metal would be a better name :)?

And even if you managed to extract the material it would quickly cool to room temperature as soon as it is no longer part of the critical assembly. (Or if there are enough highly active fission products to keep the stuff warm you, again, can’t approach.

If you want radioactive stuff that is warm due to it’s activity but can directly be handled by biologicals you need a PURE alpha emitter with a half life below ten thousand years. Anything above (e.g. 239 Pu half life 24000 years is cold afaik. 238 Pu, half life 90 years is red hot in appreciable quantities.) Since you cannot go from supernova to planet (let alone life bearing planet) in less than 10000 years planets cannot have radioactive isotopes that produce enough warmth to be felt.

Critical assemblies on the other hand cannot be pure alpha emitters, since they need neutrons form their reaction to make a chain reaction. Neutrons are highly penetrating ionizing radiation and thus are lethal in quantities high enough to generate appreciable warmth.