Interesting. Bring on the A-bomb foundries! Had this been discovered during the exploration phase of atomic bomb use we probably would have seen A-bomb foundry proposals.
There is a hypothesized process in this paper that sounds like a graduate thesis on its own.
No, I mean using atomic bombs to manufacture these alloys at scale. In the 50s a-bombs were proposed for all sorts of workaday uses. Imagine using a small a-bomb for mining just as we use ANFO today.
I am sure that somebody will take up the task of reproducing these alloys using intense heat from a non-atomic source. New alloys can be quite lucrative but developing them requires just as much experimentation as making new drugs. I'd imagine that getting to an alloy of 7 metals through progressive experimentation would take awhile. Now we know it's possible and have a possible production path. That is enough to spur some experiments down that road.
tokai 1 hours ago [-]
I bet a nuclear foundry can be bundled with atomic mining ala Project Plowshare. Guess we are lucky we didn't get the future the atomic age promised.
MeteorMarc 46 minutes ago [-]
This is really worth a read. Although the origin is an airblast, ground structures and soil is evaporated too into an inhomogeneous plasma. The relative fast cooling adds to the crystal formation.
HPsquared 2 hours ago [-]
Not the most economical manufacturing process, it has to be said.
boothby 1 hours ago [-]
The paper explains it more as an experimental process than a manufacturing process. Each granule of hiroshimaite captures a "unique" micro-environment. One could imagine an ethical version of this involving conventional explosives in a controlled environment containing a variety of metallic samples of different compositions.
hparadiz 56 minutes ago [-]
Metals refining in space or a no atmosphere place like the moon. If an alloy is discovered that has properties we want I can see some future civilization popping nukes like pellets to produce it.
tuetuopay 2 hours ago [-]
You can probably skip the town in the ingredient list.
sawjet 1 hours ago [-]
There were some nuclear fracking experiments where the nukes cost in the range of a few hundred thousand dollars. It's probably cheaper than you think.
indrora 1 hours ago [-]
It's a real blast, though.
(In all seriousness, I hope we never, ever in this lifetime cause humans to suffer like we did on that day)
wredcoll 1 hours ago [-]
I mean, I'm probably just being contrarian and I too would appreciate it if people stopped suffering, but like, people are suffering worse than that right now as we type this.
catlover76 27 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
metalman 2 hours ago [-]
Hey! ,this is great! next we can have moskitonium, londinium(heh), and washingtondcinite, rare valuable collectables for some far future alien travellers
Rendered at 17:51:54 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
There is a hypothesized process in this paper that sounds like a graduate thesis on its own.
https://www.ans.org/news/article-1858/elk-river-rural-americ...
I am sure that somebody will take up the task of reproducing these alloys using intense heat from a non-atomic source. New alloys can be quite lucrative but developing them requires just as much experimentation as making new drugs. I'd imagine that getting to an alloy of 7 metals through progressive experimentation would take awhile. Now we know it's possible and have a possible production path. That is enough to spur some experiments down that road.
(In all seriousness, I hope we never, ever in this lifetime cause humans to suffer like we did on that day)