Putting a nuclear bomb in a box?

Question

As we all know A-bombs and Hydrogen bombs are mighty powerfull and if you could harness all that energy gradually, you could power a lot of homes, would there be any feasable way of harnessing that energy by exploding the nuclear bomb inside a huge spherical container hence heating it for a very very long time, if the sphere was big enough and heatproof enough i dont think you would need to be worried about the radiation. How big and strong would the sphere need to be?

Answer 1

There are some countries (not the us) that are seriously considering this route. What they want to do is build a huge underground chamber with a radius of a mile or more. Then line the chamber walls with some sort of coolant. The idea is that you explode a bomb in the middle of the chamber and it heats the coolant which can be used to run generators.

Personally as a nuclear engineer i think this a stupid idea. There are a lot of flaws with this idea such as there are no real means to control this reaction, the chamber will will become radioactive, the structure stability of the chamber is also questionable, etc.

Answer 2

JOHNNIE B answered part of this accurately. Design the atomic bomb so that the fission is controlled rather than unlimited, and you have a nuclear reactor, an excellent source of power. That's much harder to do with nuclear fusion, which is what powers the hydrogen bomb. But it is being worked on. Containment is the hard part. No known mechanical device would survive, so things like magnetic containment are being developed. If you can solve that part and patent it, expect a very comforable immediate retirement.

Answer 3

The size and strength of the sphere will depend on the power (or yield) of the A- or H-bomb. Even the smallest nuclear device will require a large and powerful sphere, perhaps miles across and feet thick.

A couple of science fiction books have been written on vaguely similar concepts. One that comes to mind is Ringworld by Larry Niven. It's a pretty good book.

Answer 4

There was an episode of the twilight zone where they contained a nuclear explosion within a domed sphere. There was a guy, survival freak trapped inside, who thought the rest of the world had ended.

And that one with the pocket watch found by the woman who could stop time. Episode ended with a nuclear missile heading towards her town, and she stopped time just before it hit. I think they parodied it on The Simpsons, one of the halloween specials.

As for how big the sphere, not sure.

Answer 5

That would only give you a short burst of energy and your sphere would have to be the size of the earth! But physicists I understand have considered a small nuclear device to trigger nuclear fusion in some way. That would produce continuous energy - but I have no idea how it would work.

Answer 6

Its been theorized that future civilizations or advanced aliens could build a spherical structure around a star and harness fussion

Answer 7

The atomic power plants control the rate of reaction with control rods and release the power slowly and produce steam to drive turbines to generate electricity.

Answer 8

it quite is not at all going to final 15 years!!! And and and...the place is the electrical powered energy coming from to skill the xbox and recharge laptops etc? if reality be told, what's the component to bringing a pc, there is unlikely to be any cyber web connection.

Answer 9

Your on FBI files now, asking a question like that

Answer 10

the problem would be one of pressure not size