Technical interlude

All of this social and political stuff gets a bit tedious at times.

Time out!

Let's take a look at something that may mean something or mean nothing at all.

An idea occurred to me that ionizing radiation could be used to produce hydrogen from water.  If such be the case, the production of ionizing radiation could be a way to produce non-carbon forms of fuel, especially for fuel cells.

A question that I have, which I haven't been able to answer in my peregrinations through the web is this: how much hydrogen could be produced this way?  Is it very much or very little?

It so happens that cobalt-60 is used in certain applications, but not for this.  Could the current applications be modified to produce hydrogen?  Cobalt-60 produces gamma rays that may do the trick, but that is not at all clear.  But the hydrogen bond doesn't require all that much energy to break, while the gamma ray is much more powerful.  This would indicate that a potential exists to use it this way.  But I am not sure.

A glance at the Wikipedia page leads me to believe that it may not be energetic enough for this purpose.  Again, I'm not sure.


One problem with cobalt-60 is that it is quite radioactive and needs special handling.  Don't know if it needs guards, guns, and gates.  The main problem is those gammas.

Cobalt-60 will decay to stable nickel 60 with a half-life of more than 5 years.  That means it will take 50 years ( 10 half-lives ) to make it safe.  ( maybe)

It can be produced in a CANDU nuclear reactor by using it as a control rod.  The cobalt control rod will replace the stainless steel control rod.  The neutron flux in the reactor activates the cobalt.

Maybe that isn't the best way to produce hydrogen.  According to this, hydrogen can be produced for less that $2.00 per kg.  However, it must be shipped.  That entails expenses that could be avoided if the hydrogen can be generated on the distribution site.

You could try making nuclear methane this way as discussed in an earlier post.  The LFTR could provide the necessary process heat.