NationStates Jolt Archive

The following announcement has today been placed in military magazines and other such publications worldwide:

DPUO, USSNA test new nuclear reactor


Following a protracted development period, the United Socialist States of the New Age and DontPissUsOff are pleased to announce that their combined efforts have resulted in the development of a fantastic new type of nuclear reactor, one that promises to be simple, cheap, clean and lightweight, and that we are confident will revolutionise the use of nuclear power.

A demonstration of the abilities and size of this reactor will be taking place on the 6th of October. All who wish to observe are welcomed.

Current attendees:

IDF
Communist Rule
Illior
Samtonia
Vastiva
Sarzonia
Kotterdam
Kryozerkia
SPYDUDES
Sovriegns
New Empire

I would like to attend on behalf of the Incorporated States of Sarzonia. Please make the arrangements for me to attend.

Tracy Obenga
Vice President for Science and Technology
Incorporated States of Sarzonia

Official USSCR Statement:
Naval High Command will be arriving to observe the test. AMDG.

We are making preparations for your attendance, ma'am. Rest assured you will be accorded the best possible accommodation in Balgorsk, the port from which the demonstration will be run.

We are also preparing for the arrival of Communist Rule's party. How large will this group be?

Official USSCR Statement:
Expect approximately 15 individuals. AMDG.

Very well. A rather large delegation, but we shall endeavour to keep them all comfortable. (OOC: If people want they can RP the arrival of their delegate/s, but meh, I'm not fussed.)

OOC: ooh something new for me to eat, no not really
IC: The Nation of Illior would like to send the Sub INS Newport, all it requires is a dock somewhere close to the site, note this sub only has countermeasures and is "fast as lightning" *said like in the Geico commercial*
The Captain, Mrs. Helen Kars and Sir Henry Ryan shall attend the test

OOC: a little background on both
Helen Kars is the sister of Erica Kars, introduced on the IDF cruise thread. Like her sister, she is the daughter of a prestigious naval admiral and now Chairman of illior, Mr. Kars. She was at first a leutenant in the army having graduated from Newport Army College with a PHD in Nuclear Physics. She obtained this in the 4 years she was there, an amazing pace for anyone. She then swicthed over to the navy due to her great knowledge of Nuclear power, armaments and reactors. She again graduated from Grenwal Naval academy in 4 years with a BA in political science, another BA in business, and a BA in nuclear engineering.

Sir Henry Ryan has about the same credentials except he is twice Mrs. Kars age, has PHDs in (almost)everything nuclear, and saved his battalion in the first Markovin war.

Venom Corporation and its member corporations would like to sell uranium or plutonium for this endeavor. If you are in need of these materials please contact us. Our prices are in our storefront (link in signature, please don't post in the storefront as it is under construction.)

Thank You.

Illiorian delegates will be welcomed. The vesel you're bringing is perfectly welcome, just so long as it's not too heavily armed. That said, the base is the home port of the Northern Fleet.

ITD, we will not be requiring uranium or plutonium for this demonstration, though thank you for the offer.

The Dominion of Kotterdam would very much like to send observers to the test site onboard the DNS Perch, an unarmed intelligence gathering vessel. For the purposes of the test, the Perch shall be carrying a wide range of scientific instruments to monitor the activation and operation of this new powerplant. Our own investigations into helium fusion have borne serious fruit and most of our current nuclear power research is directed along those lines, but this does not mean that we are uninterested in other developments such as this.

As we understand the possible reluctance of your nation to admit a known intelligence-gathering vessel into one of your primary military bases, we welcome DPUO troops onto the Perch to oversee the our observers and to guarrantee that they aren't... Observing anything they shouldn't be. There will, of course, be areas of the Perch that shall be off-limits to your officers, but on their arrival for reasons of national security, but the equipment within shall not be neccesary for the purposes of the Perch's observation mission and shall be sealed under the watch of your men as an act of good will.

Bump

The Kryozerkian delegation would also like to be present for this.

We would like to see what DPUO came up with that revolutionise nuclear power.

Samtonia will of course be sending scientists and minor government functionaries to observe this momenteous occasion.

Expect around ten in the Samtonian delegation.

Samtonian Council of Thirteen

(bump)

Bump, all those who asked can come.

bump

ON BOARD INS DIPT (DIPLOMATIC IMPORTANT PERSONS TRANSPORT)
"James, how close are we now?"
"not too far mrs. Kars, we'll be surfacing in a moment."
"alright, thank you."
"you are very much welcome... COB, ascend to sea level, 2 degree up angle,"
"Aye, steersman, make your depth 000 feet, 2 degree up angle,"
"000 feet, 2 degree up angle aye,"
"coms, this is conn, give our friends a little welcome message,"
"coms aye,"

ATTN DPUO PORT AUTHORITY:
THE INS DIPT SHALL ARRIVE IN YOUR TERRITORIAL WATERS IN APPROXIMATLEY 4 HOURS, EXPECTING ESCORTS/TUGS TO BRING US IN
*Starts playin one fine day over all frequencies, except emergency freqs*

I would like to attend this demonstration

-signed, general Wex Vexla F.S.D Army

The Holy Rupublic of Sovriegns shall send its finest Cruiser on behalf of The Nether Plane to view this historic moment.

Ab-shalom and greetings to our ally in NATO;

Our Chief Scientist, Dr Nebiat Berhe, would be thrilled to attend. Sadly, he is deeply involved in actions at our scientific base at Sisu Arshu.

As such, we would like to send Dr Trinh T Ngo of our nuclear power division, and Dr Nhi Tek Shan of our domestic power research division.

Sultan Sinjin Lefkowitz al-Din, Sultan and State of Vastiva

Bump

bump

We would be very interested in observing this reactor, should it be more safe/clean/efficient/lightweight than our Pebblebed Reactors or Hafnium QNRs, we would like to have it on reference for future acquisitions.

A representative from the DOE, Navy, and Air Force will be attending.

OOC: BUGGER! Now I have to think of something. Fast. Excuse me for a moment.

IC: You are welcome to attend.


Balgorsk

"You're sure it's ready?" the scientist asked nervously.
"Positive. I've checked over all the settings God knows how many times."
"I hope you're right," replied the scientist, an air of superiority in his tone. "I really do. I don't want this messed up by a technical cock-up."
"Will you relax?" asked the reactor technician. "I've done this for years, remember? This thing isn't all that different from the originals. A damned sight safer, too."
"And more powerful."
"True. Did you hear about the trial boat?"
"No." Caution.
"Man! Where've you been? She made 59 knots, flat-out, first run. They had to shut her down, the hull plates started to rupture." The tech whistled and shook her head. "Jesus."
"Where'd you hear that?" asked the scientist innocently.
"Ah, some guy over in the ASB told me. Says they're gonna have to use a different ship for the sub exhibit. The other one leaks too much now."

A Flagship of the USSCR fleet, a Sovyetskiy Soyuz-II class superbattleship (not a godmode-naught) had seperated from the escort fleet. Its Captain skillfully guided it into a berth, where 15 men in white summer uniforms, all of them admirals or higher, disembarked and took an official transport to the vicinity of the test spectation.

The SS-II was met by Burnyy, third of the Soyuz-class, as it berthed. A hoot of the big air-horn and wave from the crew assembled on the foredeck greeted the CR delegates.

"DPUO docking authorities, please respond," the comms man said over and over into the radio,"we are holding 10 miles out on the bottom, over, request permission to dock ASAP"
"what's going on down their Comms?"
"no Idea Con, they havn't reponded though I've heard their radio chatter on most frequencies"
"keep trying, in 10 minutes, get on the Emergency frequncies, we didn't plan on sitting out here for long, we're supposed to replenish supplies here."
"arright sah, I'll keep at it..."

"Attention Illior vessels, apologies for the late response, we've had a communications failure due to a carelessly-placed cup of coffee. You're clear for berth 16, please allow the tugs to move you into place. Do you require an escort to your accommodation?"

"Attention Illior vessels, apologies for the late response, we've had a communications failure due to a carelessly-placed cup of coffee. You're clear for berth 16, please allow the tugs to move you into place. Do you require an escort to your accommodation?"
"no, the tugs will be fine, Surfacing in vector 211 1 mile from berths to allow tugs maneuvering room, Over and Out."

Commander John Webley was the father of the Snarc program, and as he watched the submarine running, he was quite proud of it. It was about the same weight of a normal Orca SSN, but the Snarc had much more weaponry. He and the official from the Department of Energy, Jason Kolper, were there to observe the 5 man crew in their operation of the submarine. The SSNR-1 was the most automated combat submarine on earth, with a carbon computer. However, for this cruise, it was minimally armed. Few of it's 80 660mm torpedo tubes were loaded, the ASHUM defense system being the only fully loaded weapon. It's massive VLS sat empty. They had surfaced to recieve the Air Force Colonel, Aleksandr Yuhlkov.

They were in open ocean already for sea trials, and soon they would be in DPUO waters. They were reluctant to surface, but extended their 'BIGMOUTH' to communicate their arrival.

To DPUO:
We will be happy to attend. We will send Eric Kaldin, our Secretary of Defense. We would like to think this won't turn out like the Doujin conference we had, but we would rather be safe than sorry. A dozen elite Deep Six Legion operatives will attend with the secretary and we will have measures and plans for a quick and safe extract.

-President Vale Odgers, Armed Republic of Binthor

The VAL 74SL passed the outer markers

"Good evening, we are about thirty minutes from landing, and will shortly be beginning our final descent...."

"Final descent. Why do they use words like 'final descent' on an airplane?"

Four hours of this nutcase is three hours fifty minutes too many... Trinh - "Tina" to her friends - didn't look up from her magazine.
"For the same reason they don't worry when when planes lose engines."

"What, we lost an engine?"

Tina looked placidly out the window. "Yep."

"No! AUGH! I'm too young to die! How far do you think the others will take us?"

Tina grinned to herself. "All the way to the scene of the crash. I think we'll beat the paramedics there by half an hour."

Nhi - "Nick" - began breathing into a paper bag, fortunately stored in the pocket of the seat in front of him.

"Sucker." thought Tina.

OOC: Roll up! Roll up! The test starts...um...soon!

IC: The waterfront at Balgorsk was normally a grimy place, the dock wall coated in oil from the bilges of numberless ships, and the waterside itself clogged with the various provisions for the myriad warships that docked there. Now, it was totally empty, except for men sweeping the stone and putting the finishing touches to paint and polish. The huge ships that normally filled the port were now out to sea, anchored offshore to provide security - and to impress. Their hulking grey forms stood out darkly against the slate-like sky behind them, anvil clouds reaching upwards to the stratosphere. It would not be a nice, warm, sunny day.

But it would be a momentous one.

Bump!

Bumpage

IDF Naval Commander Hyman G. Rickover IV will attend as he is interested in nuclear power being in the nuclear sub fleet and the CO of the new sub ISS HALIBUT. His great-grandfather, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was the father of the nuclear navy and a legend in the nuclear field.

Rickover will leave his newly commissioned boat in port in charge of his XO.

Bümp!

OOC: By the way, this test will take place tonight (probably around 1:30 AM GMT).

"Ahh sir, such a lovely day, don't you think?"
"Mrs kars, we'll need to be going in a minute, the DPUO Authorities are sending by a car to pick us up.. AH HA! here it comes! now, it'd be best we go,"
"yes it would..."
OOC: DPUO, hopefully you don't mind that I had one of your Gov cars pick up my VIPs and take them to the demonstration

OOC: Sure, sure. I prefer to take it as read that that kinda thing's sorted out :)

IC: Alarms shrilled wildly, cutting through the peace of the early morning like shells arcing through the crisp air. Red strobes flashed urgently as the great doors of the submarine pen swung open. Guarded by four Grisha-V corvettes and the distant silhouette of a destroyer offshore, the small submarine was drawn from its shelter by a tug. Once cleasr of the shallow water, she engaged her batteries, fully charged overnight, and set off at a stately three knots towards the bay.

OOC: Right, well, even if nobody's around, may as well press on.

IC: "Ladies, gentlemen, and those of you who are in between," commenced the chief scientest on the reactor project. Dr. Valery Markov. "I welcome you all to our country on this not exactly outstanding day for what will I hope be an interesting, perhaps even, er, enlightening...demonstration of this new technology we've been building." He coughed, looked up from his prepared speech nervously, and went on. "We've er, we've been working on this reactor for some time. It's...a progressive development of the Hafnium QNR reactor used by some of you here" - he gestured toward the New Empire delegates - "but with some improvements, which I'll explain after the demonstration. So, without further ado, if you could turn you attention to the craft now approaching from the right side of the bay." To assist the audience, a pair of large low-power laser beams were played over the ship in question.

Rokossovskiy was an ageing ship. She had been, once, the pride of the Northern Fleet, and could still be seen on many a poster, flags waving happily from her lines, battle colours out as she streamed into the wind. But now she had a greater purpose than that crude propaganda. As a Kirov-class missile cruiser, her official maximum speed was 32 knots, and that was with her two oil-fired superheaters running at full power. She was currently making 15 knots, which was, all the delegates knew, the top speed at which she could run solely on her nuclear reactors.

Except that it wasn't.

In the confines her machinery spaces, the great drum-like nuclear reactor that had powered her had been removed, as had the pair of superheaters that had given her her top speeds. Where they had once stood was now a largely empty space. The enormous bulk of the old reactor was nowhere to be seen. In its' place sat a trio of tall, narrow cylinders, about 2 feet wide and 4 feet tall. The pipes that had formerly carried away heat to the heat exchangers were gone. The room was, indeed, eerily spacious with only the two humming, white-painted tubes in it, positioned next to the steam turbine casings.

On Rokossovsky's bridge, her skeleton crew were in a state of fearful anticipation. If this worked, it was the start of a new era; if not, they were all going to be fools, fools for ever more. The Captain nervously ordered the emergency diesels shut off, then range down for flank speed and full power, and waited.

Inside the tubes, there were the usual arrays of the Hafnium QNRs: the X-ray emitters, the large fuel rods of Hafnium. As flank speed was ordered, the X-ray emitters, which had had their output boosted by 20% for this new design, suddenly threw out enormous amounts of electromagnetic energy. A continuous storm of X-rays washed over the Hafnium-178 fuel, and the nuclei of the Hafnium molecules began to split, releasing vast amounts of gamma-rays. The gamma-rays heated the water around them as they speared through it, losing enormous amounts of their energy to it, but retaining residual energy enough to penetrate the thin casing separating the inner reactor and the new loop, the outer reactor.

Within the outer reactor, a layer of Lutetium fuel rods stood, arranged vertically to intercept the incoming gamma-rays. Within the Lutetium, the gamma-rays transferred their remaining energy to the nuclei of the molecules, and they to began to split apart, releasing in their turn another gamma-ray burst. This one, however, was weaker than the first, and was stopped by the four-inch composite-and-plastic reactor walls that lined the outer vessel.

Superheated steam swirled through the reactor vessels, pressed itself to the tops of them, and sought escape through the pipelines that lined the roofing. The steam surged forward in a swirling fist of hot gas, running along the tubes to the heat exchangers.

The heat exchangers had to be mounted as close to the reactor as possible to minimise heat loss during the passage of the live steam. Accordingly, the new reactor design had the heat exchangers in the form of ring around one side of the reactors. The steam from the reactor loop was carried along the pipes, insulated to prevent heat loss, and surged into the heat exchangers, where it began to give up energy to the conductive metal pipes. The energy evaporated the water in the outer loop. Steam began to form in the outer loop's pipes and rushed down onto the waiting turbine blades.

Rokossovsky accelerated, more rapidly than he was used to. He watched the speed gauge as it climbed past 20 knots, on to 25, then to thirty. Without hesitating, the speed climbed to 35 knots. Whooping and cheering filled the bridge as the speed of the giant cruiser continued to climb. Forty knots, forty-three, forty-five, forty-seven, fifty knots. The Captain looked at the gauge in astonishment. All of the backups too told him that his ship was making 55 knots, and still accelerating. The bridge was shaking now, vibrating to the touch of his fingers and setting his sping tingling, nerves jangling. He began to worry, as the speed gauge read off the unbelieveable figure of 59.4 knots bfore his eyes. It climbed slowly. Point five. Six. Now seven. Point eight...nine...another great cheer as the speed gauge, with a great heaving effort, clicked round to sixty knots.

OOC: Reactions anyone?

Aufgebümp

OOC: I'd like a...bit clearer of an explanation of the reactor if you have the time. Through any source of messaging.

IC: The USSCR Naval Command had watched the display with a neutral expression on their face, once in awhile leaning over to whisper two or three words in a comrade's ear. The initial impression from the Admirals was little confidence in just another new, experimental, and probably vastly expensive reactor.

However, eyebrows were raised as the large cruiser plowed through the waves at 60 knots. The engineers and architects in the group, however, immediately wrote criticisms and other thoughts about what was being shown.

OOC: Yarr, sure. Well as best I can anyway. Bear in mind I've had to muck about a bit with the spec, but since I might go space soon anyway, I'm not too fussed about being overly hyper-accurate.

OOC: Yarr, sure. Well as best I can anyway. Bear in mind I've had to muck about a bit with the spec, but since I might go space soon anyway, I'm not too fussed about being overly hyper-accurate.
OOC: damn... I want that reactor...
/bump/bumpthingy/bumpalicious

OOC: Hey, be my guest. It does however have some problems:

1) The speed that cruiser made was thanks to the fact that any ancilliary weight had been taken out, and she was being powered by four of them. In reality you're more likely to get a speed of about 50 knots, tops. Also, the speed did severe damage to the hull plating, and ruptured the bilges in several places.

2) The new modification generates a fair bit of extra heat, but the surface area available for heat dissipation isn't increased all that much. Thus the new reactors require extra cooling water to keep them from meltdown.

3) The additional size of the secondary reactor and the requisite added cooling equipment restricts its' use. Hafnium QNRs can be used in aircraft and tanks; the new type can be used in a larger aircraft, but the extra cooling systems add weight.

4) Lutetium is comparatively difficult to isolate and extract, increasing operating cost considerably.

5) The Lutetium fuel doesn't last as long as the Hafnium, by and large. It still has a long lifespan (probably about 220,000 miles of steaming), but the reactor uses up the secondary fuel more rapidly than the primary.

6) Lutetium is a rare element, and thus it's quite feasible for fuel supplies to run short.

I hope in this way to avoid it being a godmode (since it's not an RL tech, so I haven't any information to use with it).

The captain of the Perch for this cruise was no stranger to impressive sights afloat. He'd performed the shakedown cruise on the first SSRN in the Dominion's arsenal. He'd overseen the integration of helium fusion power cores into the Dominion fleet. He'd even watched the sea trials of the proof-of-concept hydrofoil high-speed coast guard cutter, but he'd never seen anything like this. An old Kirov-class breaking fifty knots? He grunted softly to himself, even as the sailors around him made obscene and often blasphemous declarations of disbelief. Raising his pipe to his lips, he lit it with an old fashioned kitchen match.

"Well. Don't that beat all..."

*tag*

Commander Hyman Rickover was amazed by the performance of the new reactor. He had just successfully lobbied the IDF Navy to build a new class with improved liquid sodium reactors that were an improvement on the ones developed by his grandfather for the Seawolf SSN-575 class. Rickover's new Halibut with the new reactor could go over 45 knots, nothing compared to 60.

He would have to find more about this new reactor. He wouldn't mind trading some IDF SONAR and metallurgy technology for technology on that new reactor. Perhaps he would mention the idea of exchanging technology with this ally. The US and Britain did it years before after all.

Dr Bertrand Neushand, age 76, going bald, with white hair whose form was not helped by the windy day, was astounded. Perplexed. Amazed, that such an effective reactor could be developed. Mouth agape, he watched the ship accelerate, making near 60 knots.

As the other scientists, engineers, and functionaries around him applauded and talked excitedly, Neushand simply gazed, mouth slightly open.

Suddenly, with seemingly titanic effort, he snapped his mouth shut, marched to the DPUO scientist in charge, smiled, and began to speak.
"Dr, if you could be so kind as to escort me inside. After all, I am an old man and I can't stand as well as I used to. And another benefit, besides comfortable chairs, is privacy. Samtonia has something to discuss with you."

The scientist smiled. "But of course, sir." He held the old man's arm and began to take him inside. "We have at least three private rooms available here."