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This Alaskan Air Base Will Host An Experimental Mini Nuclear Reactor
the drive ^

Posted on 10/24/2021 2:20:44 PM PDT by algore

The U.S. Air Force recently announced that it has picked Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska as the base to host a new small nuclear reactor as part of a pilot program.

The U.S. military, as a whole, together with the Department of Energy has been increasingly looking into micro-reactor designs as possible ways to meet ever-growing electricity demands, including for units on the battlefield, as well as to help cut costs and improve general operational efficiency by reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

The Department of the Air Force announced the selection of Eielson as the host facility for this pilot reactor on Oct. 18, 2021. The base is situated deep within the interior of Alaska near the city of Fairbanks and is around 110 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

It is home to the active-duty 354th Fighter Wing, which flies F-35A Joint Strike Fighters and F-16 Viper aggressor jets, as well as the Alaska Air National Guard's 168th Air Refueling Wing with its KC-135 tankers, among other units.

“Energy is a critical asset to ensure mission continuity at our installations,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Environment, Safety, and Infrastructure Mark Correll said in a statement.

“Micro-reactors are a promising technology for ensuring energy resilience and reliability, and are particularly well-suited for powering and heating remote domestic military bases like Eielson AFB.”


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: lenr; nuke; reactor; safe
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To: null and void

Make that reSources of course.


21 posted on 10/24/2021 2:56:20 PM PDT by seowulf (Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos...Will Durant)
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To: seowulf

*sigh* I was hoping to be in a position to avoid having neighbors...


22 posted on 10/24/2021 3:03:29 PM PDT by null and void (LGBTQ = Let's Get Biden To Quit, FORK-N-A = First Uttery Cancel Kamala-Nancy-Axed)
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To: algore

Calling Jane Fonda. Calling Jane Fonda. Help us stop this before its another 3 Mile Island../s


23 posted on 10/24/2021 3:08:42 PM PDT by Don Corleone (leave the gun, take the canolis)
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To: algore

Hopefully things have gotten better since SL-1

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0zT9ARfsT4


24 posted on 10/24/2021 3:16:41 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit)
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To: algore

Nuclear reactors have been powering aircraft carriers for years. Why they haven’t already been used to provide secure, off grid power to military bases is beyond me.


25 posted on 10/24/2021 3:20:02 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative.)
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To: Tallguy

Yes there was a mini nuke at Camp Century in Greenland circa 1959 to 1967
It was part of Operation Iceworm, a secret under ice base


26 posted on 10/24/2021 3:23:25 PM PDT by BansheeBill
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To: hinckley buzzard

I’ve often wondered why we didn’t just commission the Navy to run a bunch of nuclear power plants based on naval tech. We get power and the Navy gets more trained personnel.


27 posted on 10/24/2021 3:24:22 PM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: algore

Wouldn’t it be nice to think we could deploy these in
population centers to ease energy needs?

I give it less than few years before some wing-nut group
would try to tap them for dirty bomb materials.


28 posted on 10/24/2021 3:24:22 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Democrats, fixing things that haven't been broken, so they don't work, for over 197 years.)
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To: asinclair

Nuscale smr is light water


29 posted on 10/24/2021 3:32:57 PM PDT by ckilmer
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To: asinclair

Nuscale smr is light water


30 posted on 10/24/2021 3:33:04 PM PDT by ckilmer
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To: asinclair
According to the article they plan on using an Xe-100 type reactor. According to the X Energy web site (https://x-energy.com) the fuel is uranium (no mention of enrichment) encapsulated in layers of carbon and silicon carbide and is claimed to function as it's own containment Specific details are lacking, indicating to me they are still in the licensing process and trying to protect proprietary information. The basic design looks like a “pebble bed” helium cooled High Temperature Gas cooled Reactor (HGTR) providing the energy to operate a conventional steam cycle, not a fast breeder.

As an aside the NuScale reactor is a small scale Pressurized water Reactor (PWR), using light water as the coolant.

Admiralty I've been out of the industry for seven years or so, but I am not aware of anyone pursuing licensing of a molten salt reactor using thorium as the fertile material to breed U-233.

31 posted on 10/24/2021 3:37:30 PM PDT by nuke_road_warrior (Making the world safe for nuclear power for over 20 years)
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To: algore

I was stationed there TDY back in 1968-1969. Loved my time there. Crew Chief remained drunk the whole time. He never got off base while I visited Fairbanks several times.

When leaving one night to fly back to “The World”, he was griping that he had been in Alaska for two weeks and had never even seen the Northern Lights.

I simply said...”Well, look up!”


32 posted on 10/24/2021 3:46:22 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (4th time in FB prison this year. Reason? I wrote a quick synopsis of why I was in the last 3 times.)
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To: hinckley buzzard

If the military used these in Afghanistan, Biden would have left them to the Taliban.


33 posted on 10/24/2021 3:49:23 PM PDT by Reeses
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To: algore

I’d have to assume that the first device of this kind has already been operational deep in the bowels of the WH...


34 posted on 10/24/2021 3:53:13 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is another Sam Adams now that we desperately need him?)
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To: moovova

They had an AIDS outbreak at Ft Wainright back in the 1980s and it still looks like it could be a hotbed of HIV.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-02-23/spike-hiv-infections-alaska-blamed-military-men-finding-sex-online

https://www.newsminer.com/alerts/state-warns-of-unusually-high-number-of-hiv-cases-in/article_5f8b105a-e007-11e9-9bf3-1ff931526432.html


35 posted on 10/24/2021 3:53:34 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (4th time in FB prison this year. Reason? I wrote a quick synopsis of why I was in the last 3 times.)
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To: algore

F-16 Viper? I hate how the modern Air Force renames their aircraft for a new model letter. The F-16 is a FALCON.

Image calling the C model of the P-51 Mustang the Chevy.


36 posted on 10/24/2021 3:53:54 PM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Rush, we're missing your take on all of this!)
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To: hinckley buzzard

Exactly. I suppose it’s just a “cost/risk/reward” thing. The reward for an air craft carrier is HUGE.

This is a fun old story:

https://youtu.be/DZHONQAMV48?t=669

I linked at the time stamp where it gets especially weird, but the whole thing is interesting. Kinda reminds one of the final part of Dr. Strangelove.


37 posted on 10/24/2021 3:58:57 PM PDT by cuban leaf (My prediction: Harris is Spiro Agnew. We'll soon see who becomes Gerald Ford, and our next prez.)
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To: algore

If they can run a nuclear sub and aircraft carrier why couldn’t they run small cities?

It’s the big nuclear plants that pose the major risks.

The small ones you could bury underground.


38 posted on 10/24/2021 4:05:25 PM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Whoa..that’s pretty scary. And a lot of those cases were men-to-men sex.


39 posted on 10/24/2021 4:39:45 PM PDT by moovova (I'm dismayed that most of the world hates me for being non-vaxxed. Honest. No, really.)
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To: Tallguy

The one in Antarctica was shut down after only a few years of unreliable service and terrible maintenance costs.


40 posted on 10/24/2021 4:54:32 PM PDT by GingisK
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