Remember When

The salesman forgot to mention then if you treat it right you might get 2 million miles out of it which some people did. These early Corollas were absolutely incredible cars and at the time nobody knew it. I knew a girl who drove a Honda and we made fun of her constantly. because Honda's made motorcycles not cars. Everybody called it a 'Honda car' because we all laughed at Japanese cars.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/msJqYgaYFZY

Quote: EvenBob

The salesman forgot to mention then if you treat it right you might get 2 million miles out of it which some people did. These early Corollas were absolutely incredible cars and at the time nobody knew it. I knew a girl who drove a Honda and we made fun of her constantly. because Honda's made motorcycles not cars. Everybody called it a 'Honda car' because we all laughed at Japanese cars.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/msJqYgaYFZY
link to original post

I have been driving my Corolla a lot more than I expected. I think I am now at about 2000 miles this year and 1500 of it are back and forth to doctors appointments.

Speaking of lightbulbs, I didn't know until yesterday they had regular size lightbulbs with battery backup inside for outages. Says the normal size bulb will last up to 3 hours on its battery. Didn't buy it though.

rxwine,

Does the battery recharge when power is restored? If not, I'd hate to have to disassemble the lightbulb to replace the battery 😄

Dog Hand

Quote: DogHand

rxwine,

Does the battery recharge when power is restored? If not, I'd hate to have to disassemble the lightbulb to replace the battery 😄

Dog Hand
link to original post

I was actually wondering if the battery will last as long as the life of light.

Quote: DRich

Are you permitted to speak on the projects you worked on at Livermore. My best friend from college worked there as a computer scientist working on distributed systems for nuclear simulations.
link to original post

I worked on an advanced uranium enrichment process called Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation. We vaporized metallic uranium and then passed a laser beam thorough the vapor that selectively ionized the U-235 isotope; the ions were then removed from the vapor by electric fields. I became the lead designer of the process for a few years.

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: DRich

Are you permitted to speak on the projects you worked on at Livermore. My best friend from college worked there as a computer scientist working on distributed systems for nuclear simulations.
link to original post

I worked on an advanced uranium enrichment process called Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation. We vaporized metallic uranium and then passed a laser beam thorough the vapor that selectively ionized the U-235 isotope; the ions were then removed from the vapor by electric fields. I became the lead designer of the process for a few years.
link to original post

Thank you, that sounds both fascinating and exactly like a project that I would expect LLNL to be working on.

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: DRich

Are you permitted to speak on the projects you worked on at Livermore. My best friend from college worked there as a computer scientist working on distributed systems for nuclear simulations.
link to original post

I worked on an advanced uranium enrichment process called Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation. We vaporized metallic uranium and then passed a laser beam thorough the vapor that selectively ionized the U-235 isotope; the ions were then removed from the vapor by electric fields. I became the lead designer of the process for a few years.
link to original post

how does it selectively pick the isotopes you want? Or does this still involve a centrifuge?

Quote: odiousgambit

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: DRich

Are you permitted to speak on the projects you worked on at Livermore. My best friend from college worked there as a computer scientist working on distributed systems for nuclear simulations.
link to original post

I worked on an advanced uranium enrichment process called Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation. We vaporized metallic uranium and then passed a laser beam thorough the vapor that selectively ionized the U-235 isotope; the ions were then removed from the vapor by electric fields. I became the lead designer of the process for a few years.
link to original post

how does it selectively pick the isotopes you want? Or does this still involve a centrifuge?
link to original post

The isotopes of Uranium, U-235 and U-238, have different nuclear masses and their resonances for absorption of photons (by their electrons) are at slightly different frequencies. You must be able to tune the frequency of the lasers precisely enough that the U-235 atoms absorb the light and knock off an electron without doing the same to the U-238 atoms. Once the U-235 atoms have lost an electron they have become ions with a positive electrical charge and can be swept sideways out of the flowing uranium vapor by electric fields where they deposit on "collector plates." The uranium on the collector plates is enriched in U-235 and the flowing vapor of uranium becomes depleted in Uranium 235 and is collected elsewhere.

There's lots of complicated technical details that are sensitive and that I am restricted from discussing but that is the fundamental concept.

Sounds like an activity which goes on, on the range.

Quote: gordonm888

There's lots of complicated technical details that are sensitive and that I am restricted from discussing but that is the fundamental concept.
link to original post

I have to imagine that just about any knowledge of U was classified at one time. The googlebot says it was the 1940s before it was known that "early defense research determined that Uranium-235 is fissile [and] the more common isotope, Uranium-238 ... is non-fissile"
Note "defense research" ... they weren't blabbing about it

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: odiousgambit

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: DRich

Are you permitted to speak on the projects you worked on at Livermore. My best friend from college worked there as a computer scientist working on distributed systems for nuclear simulations.
link to original post

I worked on an advanced uranium enrichment process called Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation. We vaporized metallic uranium and then passed a laser beam thorough the vapor that selectively ionized the U-235 isotope; the ions were then removed from the vapor by electric fields. I became the lead designer of the process for a few years.
link to original post

how does it selectively pick the isotopes you want? Or does this still involve a centrifuge?
link to original post

The isotopes of Uranium, U-235 and U-238, have different nuclear masses and their resonances for absorption of photons (by their electrons) are at slightly different frequencies. You must be able to tune the frequency of the lasers precisely enough that the U-235 atoms absorb the light and knock off an electron without doing the same to the U-238 atoms. Once the U-235 atoms have lost an electron they have become ions with a positive electrical charge and can be swept sideways out of the flowing uranium vapor by electric fields where they deposit on "collector plates." The uranium on the collector plates is enriched in U-235 and the flowing vapor of uranium becomes depleted in Uranium 235 and is collected elsewhere.

There's lots of complicated technical details that are sensitive and that I am restricted from discussing but that is the fundamental concept.
link to original post

Very cool. I was involved in something that rhymes with that, separation of lanthanides in solution. They all ionize at different wavelengths and you can make them precipitate out of solution one at a time.

But doing it on the isotopic level- wow- that must be one heck of a monochromatic beam where 3 neutrons makes the difference if it ionizes or not! Beams like that are used for a few types of spectroscopy but that's at metrological rather than chemical processing power levels.

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: odiousgambit

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: DRich

Are you permitted to speak on the projects you worked on at Livermore. My best friend from college worked there as a computer scientist working on distributed systems for nuclear simulations.
link to original post

I worked on an advanced uranium enrichment process called Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation. We vaporized metallic uranium and then passed a laser beam thorough the vapor that selectively ionized the U-235 isotope; the ions were then removed from the vapor by electric fields. I became the lead designer of the process for a few years.
link to original post

how does it selectively pick the isotopes you want? Or does this still involve a centrifuge?
link to original post

The isotopes of Uranium, U-235 and U-238, have different nuclear masses and their resonances for absorption of photons (by their electrons) are at slightly different frequencies. You must be able to tune the frequency of the lasers precisely enough that the U-235 atoms absorb the light and knock off an electron without doing the same to the U-238 atoms. Once the U-235 atoms have lost an electron they have become ions with a positive electrical charge and can be swept sideways out of the flowing uranium vapor by electric fields where they deposit on "collector plates." The uranium on the collector plates is enriched in U-235 and the flowing vapor of uranium becomes depleted in Uranium 235 and is collected elsewhere.

There's lots of complicated technical details that are sensitive and that I am restricted from discussing but that is the fundamental concept.
link to original post

Very cool. I was involved in something that rhymes with that, separation of lanthanides in solution. They all ionize at different wavelengths and you can make them precipitate out of solution one at a time.

But doing it on the isotopic level- wow- that must be one heck of a monochromatic beam where 3 neutrons makes the difference if it ionizes or not! Beams like that are used for a few types of spectroscopy but that's at metrological rather than chemical processing power levels.
link to original post

According to that bastion of all human knowledge, Wikipedia:

"Modern systems typically use the ²³⁸U absorption peak of 502.74 nanometers which shifts to 502.73 nm in ²³⁵U."

Dog Hand

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: odiousgambit

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: DRich

Are you permitted to speak on the projects you worked on at Livermore. My best friend from college worked there as a computer scientist working on distributed systems for nuclear simulations.
link to original post

I worked on an advanced uranium enrichment process called Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation. We vaporized metallic uranium and then passed a laser beam thorough the vapor that selectively ionized the U-235 isotope; the ions were then removed from the vapor by electric fields. I became the lead designer of the process for a few years.
link to original post

how does it selectively pick the isotopes you want? Or does this still involve a centrifuge?
link to original post

The isotopes of Uranium, U-235 and U-238, have different nuclear masses and their resonances for absorption of photons (by their electrons) are at slightly different frequencies. You must be able to tune the frequency of the lasers precisely enough that the U-235 atoms absorb the light and knock off an electron without doing the same to the U-238 atoms. Once the U-235 atoms have lost an electron they have become ions with a positive electrical charge and can be swept sideways out of the flowing uranium vapor by electric fields where they deposit on "collector plates." The uranium on the collector plates is enriched in U-235 and the flowing vapor of uranium becomes depleted in Uranium 235 and is collected elsewhere.

There's lots of complicated technical details that are sensitive and that I am restricted from discussing but that is the fundamental concept.
link to original post

Compare this to the other moderators resume which apparently involves driving around the country eating at every fast food restaurant he goes by. I heard he was a corn broom salesman but I've never been able to confirm it

Quote: EvenBob

Compare this to the other moderators resume which apparently involves driving around the country eating at every fast food restaurant he goes by. I heard he was a corn broom salesman but I've never been able to confirm it

Speaking of corn broom salesman, if you have never been to the Corn Palace in Mitchell South Dakota you are missing out.



Me at the Corn Palace