Nuclear Energy in T2k

[Canadian Army]

Recently, I have been doing allot of research about military power generation and what type of equipment would be used for power generation in Twilight 2000. I found some interesting equipment that might be useful in a campaign. Hope you find them useful!

[Mohoender]

Interesting :), very :) :)

[Graebarde]

Good stuff there. Grae

[Canadian Army]

Please note that the TQG were only started to field in FY 91/92 so at the outbreak of the TW 2000 War only the 82nd, 101 Airborne, 10 Mountain, 75th Rangers and Special Operations Unit would have it

[chico20854]

I just talked to one of the nuclear vessel custodians here. While my agency has custody of Sturgis, it belongs to the Pentagon still. It was defuelled when it was returned to the US from Panama, so it would need some shipyard time to reactivate. It was also never licensed to operate in the US, and does not meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's requirements to generate power for the US electrical grid. The conversion of the ship to a power plant included removal of the power plant and screws, and when it was brought out of service the pylons and other structural parts to link it to shoreside power were removed.

All this, however, does not invalidate its usability in a T2k context. The shipyard in Newport News, right down the James River from Ft. Eustis, has the capability to refuel it, and there are several shipyards in the area that could do the structural work. Sturgis' generating capacity is too small to make the effort needed to put her back into service worthwhile prior to a nuclear exchange; after the exchange (in which the Newport News yard gets hit, with a carrier nearing completion in the largest drydock and two Seawolf-class subs under construction) it is definitely worth the effort, and finding the needed materials and workers to do so would make an interesting adventure.

[Marc]

Sturgis' generating capacity is too small to make the effort needed to put her back into service worthwhile prior to a nuclear exchange; after the exchange (in which the Newport News yard gets hit, with a carrier nearing completion in the largest drydock and two Seawolf-class subs under construction) it is definitely worth the effort, and finding the needed materials and workers to do so would make an interesting adventure.

I agree with you. And interesting adventure. I haven't any previous idea about the existence of the Sturgis, but my curiosity has brought me to the link below. There are some details about the stuff removed from the reactor after its final shutdown.

http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/CEPA/PUBS/apr01/story8.htm

[rcaf_777]

Not to be outdone my brother here what I have on file

[rcaf_777]

AI just talked to one of the nuclear vessel custodians here. While my agency has custody of Sturgis, it belongs to the Pentagon still. It was defuelled when it was returned to the US from Panama, so it would need some shipyard time to reactivate. It was also never licensed to operate in the US, and does not meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's requirements to generate power for the US electrical grid. The conversion of the ship to a power plant included removal of the power plant and screws, and when it was brought out of service the pylons and other structural parts to link it to shoreside power were removed.

ll this, however, does not invalidate its usability in a T2k context. The shipyard in Newport News, right down the James River from Ft. Eustis, has the capability to refuel it, and there are several shipyards in the area that could do the structural work. Sturgis' generating capacity is too small to make the effort needed to put her back into service worthwhile prior to a nuclear exchange; after the exchange (in which the Newport News yard gets hit, with a carrier nearing completion in the largest drydock and two Seawolf-class subs under construction) it is definitely worth the effort, and finding the needed materials and workers to do so would make an interesting adventure.

While this is these are vaid points Sturgis could easily brought back on line and then place in reserve for use after the strikes, while it is too small to bring a city or town, it perfect for a Military Enclave or base of operations, as for not meeting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's requirements to generate power for the US electrical grid, I hardly think that would matter after the bombs fell, I think it could used to power MILGOV Base in New Jersery?

[WallShadow]

Breathing new life into a seriously comatose thread, I recently read a new blurb about a nuclear reactor at Penn State University Park that was created in the mid-50's and is still in operation today (2015). It was upgraded to 1 MW output in 1965 and is used in testing materials in radiation exposure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_State_University_Radiation_Science_%2 6_Engineering_Center
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS-Another_twenty_years_for_USAs_oldest_reactor-1112097.html

While 1 MW isn't a whole bunch, it provides a helluva big improvement over a portable generator.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

It's worth mentioning too that certain laboratories that serve the mining and geological industries make use of small nuclear reactors for a sampling technique known as Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA).
The technique was discovered in 1936 and developed from the mid 1950s after reactors became more readily available for non-military use. In the decades up to the 1980s it was largely propelled by it's use for non-destructive analysis of archaeological materials.
While these services were often done at universities with access to research reactors, sometime in the 1980s and 1990s, laboratories serving the mining industry started to acquire small reactors to provide NAA services.
There's a few labs in North America that would have reactors available in the 2013 timeline. There probably wouldn't be any in a 1980s timeline and a mere handful in the 1990s timeline.

[kalos72]

How did I miss this one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLOWPOKE_reactor


Ok so portable is the wrong word maybe, but damn small at least. :)

[rcaf_777]

I'm about a 20 min drive from slowpoke 1, it listed as nuclear strike point, not sure why? I guess the authors must though it was a power plant and not a research plant.

[swaghauler]

Just like the Army's Nuclear Power Program that ran from the 50's to the end of the cold war. There were reactors in Antartica, Ft. Greely Alaska, Greenland, and Panama. The last one, an MH-1A 10 Megawatt Reactor, was still serviceable after they removed it from Panama in the late 70's. These were all transportable by a 10-Ton truck.

[kalos72]

Yeah but did you see the size of that thing? Its like a 55 gallon drum versus a 300 ton ship.

I see the factual basis for a new Popovich project.

[swaghauler]

Yeah but did you see the size of that thing? Its like a 55 gallon drum versus a 300 ton ship.

I see the factual basis for a new Popovich project.

What did you expect from 1950's technology? The newly revived program should prove more interesting.

[Raellus]

Although I've seen canon materials on the use of nuclear power plants, and communities using the reactors of submarines and/or warships to generate power, this is the first I've heard of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs).

https://jalopnik.com/ussr-sprinkled-more-than-2-500-nuclear-generators-acros-1850501190

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[bash]

Although I've seen canon materials on the use of nuclear power plants, and communities using the reactors of submarines and/or warships to generate power, this is the first I've heard of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs).

https://jalopnik.com/ussr-sprinkled-more-than-2-500-nuclear-generators-acros-1850501190

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RTGs are pretty dangerous little things. Their core is "thermionic", heat causes electricity flow in a solid state material. RTGs use the decay of plutonium to generate the heat. They don't produce a lot of the power for their mass but they're solid state so don't require much if any maintenance and will run for a couple decades before the heat of decay gets too low to generate power.

They're dangerous because they have a little chunk of highly radioactive plutonium. If made into a dirty bomb (even by accident) it could spread highly radiative material over a very large area.

That being said they could make a great MacGuffin for a weapon. Their output is just enough to run some electrical equipment (lighthouse, LORAN beacon, etc) rather than a town or military base. But as a WMD they might be very desirable.