Chương 81: Book 3 - Chapter 12 A

The next morning, after breakfast, Matt and I were again loaded into big black Suburbans for the three-hour drive to San Diego. I arrived at about 11am, and met Dr Agnew at the door.

"Welcome back, Dr Cook," he greeted warmly.

"I'm glad to be back. Is everything ready?" I asked him.

"It is. Your thank-you lunch is ready to go and people are already starting to arrive."

"Wonderful. Let's go in and see," I suggested. At noon, after mingling with the employees who had come for the thank-you luncheon, Dr Agnew tapped on a drinking glass with a spoon.

"If everyone will be seated, please?" he asked. The smiling group found their seats. We were using the same room we had that first meeting in. This time the chairs were distributed around cloth-covered tables. I stood, taking a hand-held microphone.

"Hello everyone. I'm happy to report complete success in Kiev. I've had a report from the city and no radiation is being detected in the Dnieper River downstream of the dam." There was enthusiastic applause. I waited a moment for it to die down.

"Let me again express how thankful I am that all of you volunteered to help. This lunch is just a small token of my appreciation. After lunch, if you go to the table in the back, manned by Ms Marks, you'll find an envelope with your name on it.

"Now before the waiters bring out our food, I want to mention something to be thinking about. We will soon have another company-wide meeting to discuss what can be done to improve nuclear power safety, with the goal of listing technologies to pursue and merge into a new intrinsically safe meltdown free design.

"I hope over the next week you can ponder on what technologies can be leveraged for the next generation of nuclear power plants." The food came out and everyone was in good cheer. The conversations were bright and animated as my employees and their families enjoyed their food.

"It's five thousand dollars!" came the exclamation from the first person to check their envelope. That led to several others getting up to check as well, even though they weren't finished eating.

"Dr Cook, this is too much!" one of the younger unmarried engineers said as he came to the table at the front where I was happily eating. A quick glance showed that the others thought he was an idiot and were happy that I gave as much as I did.

"I reward excellence. Last week, everyone here showed me their very best, from design and fabrication to simply sticking around to see the finished product shipped out.

"Are you concerned that you didn't really give your best that night?" I asked him.

"Well, no. I was here until the final truck drove off," he said, confused by the question.

"Then you have my thanks. If it really is too much, then find a good charity," I told him.

"Thank you, Dr Cook."

"You're welcome, Dr Stevens," I told him, seeing the surprise on his face that I knew his name. No one else objected to the windfall. After calling home to wish Mom a happy Mother's Day from the hotel, I spent the afternoon in La Jolla with Matt getting surfing lessons. The following Monday, I attended a big meeting with the department heads at GA. Dr Agnew began the meeting.

"First a big round of applause for Dr Cook and his successful humanitarian mission to Ukraine." When the applause died down he continued.

"We know from experience any nuclear accident tends to make the public distrust nuclear power. Dr Cook has already done his part to help allay those fears but what else can be done?" Dr Dean raised his hand.

"We've contributed to INPO and gave them authorization to quote Dr Cook's statements on the safety of American nuclear power."

"I'm unfamiliar with INPO," I said speaking up.

"Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, which is the nonprofit funded by the nuclear power industry to speak out on safety and promote clean and safe nuclear power," Dr Dean explained.

"Nuclear power is a core component here at GA," I said.

"Do we expect any change in our current contracts?"

"No, everything is proceeding unchanged. No one has been pressured to cut back yet," Dr Dean said.

"Excellent, keep an eye on that and if anything changes, notify me immediately," Dr Agnew requested.

"I'd like to make a request," I interrupted.

"Go ahead, Dr Cook."

"I'd like to do a review on all alternative and safer nuclear power plants. Bring in anyone with an idea, no matter how bizarre or unconventional. Technology is rapidly advancing and what was impossible a few years ago is conventional today."

"We can do that. Would you like to hold it as a multi-party presentation, or roundtable discussion, and when would you like to do that?"

"A roundtable discussion seems best and I'd like to do it in a week, perhaps in the lecture hall? We can do the roundtable on the stage and then any interested audience members can participate as well with a question-and-answer period." This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Dr Agnew looked over his shoulder at his secretary.

"Sheila, set that up for next week please, and send a memo to everyone. We'll make it open to any who want to attend." She nodded then smiled at me. I smiled back. A few more things were discussed between the department heads, and I got to meet Dr Como who was in charge of the balloon project. I spent the next week with Dr Fen at the computer center, getting to know the people and hardware involved.

"Dr Karin might be in charge of the day-to-day of running this facility but our Cray X-MP/48 is like the child I never had," Dr Fen told me.

"Dad, stop telling people that!" was shouted from across the room. I ignored the giggles, it was obviously a regular joke.

"I've been reviewing the kinds of things that have been successfully modeled and it is just mind-boggling," I told him.

"The San Diego Supercomputer Center has been a huge success so far. With UCSD and NSF funding, we've been carefully managing it so that we get maximum use for all those that apply for supercomputing resources," Dr Fen said. His assistant spoke up, excited to show me around.

"I'm particularly excited by a new program trying to model protein and enzyme energies."

"That would be useful. I can do it in my head but that is not something I can just show people." There was an awkward silence. Dr Fen cleared his throat and continued.

"We have been having an issue with a parallel computing algorithm. I understand you can program in FORTRAN?"

"Sure, I'll have a look at your algorithm and code. Maybe there's something that'll jump out at me." The following week we had our meeting on nuclear energy.

"So in summary," I said as the meeting came to an end.

"We have the example of the German pebble-bed reactor, and thorium fluoride salt reactors as future technology directions. There are also alternatives to pressurized water reactors such as using CO2 as the working fluid with a direct brayton cycle as primary.

"The problem I see is the graphite used for containment in the pebble-bed. Graphite doesn't have the mechanical strength for long-term use. That is why we use it in pencils. Have we considered using diamond?"

"That seems a little impractical, Dr Cook," began the response from the room.

"Wouldn't that increase the costs? How big would the diamond need to be?"

"What about using your graphene, doesn't that have excellent wear resistance?"

"Carbon felt has the same neutron absorption rate as graphite. Could that be used?" I paused all the questions.

"Hypothetically speaking, if we could create diamond capsules for the nuclear material, could that be used for a pebble-bed reactor?"

"That would take huge diamonds, it would never be practical." I tossed a hundred-carat diamond onto the table. It landed with a rolling clatter on the conference table.

"I made that in my lab in Tulsa. At room temperature, and a simple vacuum chamber. That particular diamond took twelve hours of production time." They picked it up and handled it, passing it between them. I tossed a second one onto the table, to a much larger clatter. It was the size of a golf ball and visibly marked the wood.

"The bigger they are the faster they grow. That's a twenty-four hour production, it is four times bigger," I continued.

"Now who can tell me how a diamond does in a hot, neutron-rich environment?" I requested.

"Some minimal dimension changes due to heat, but otherwise no change, no degradation. Diamond is an ideal material for nuclear fission," came the answer I was waiting for.

"I like thorium because the design can also be used to burn weapons-grade materials for disposal and its waste products are minor. Only a small percentage have a half-life of three hundred years. The rest are measured in months. Uranium byproducts have a ten-thousand-year half-life. I like pebble-bed because we can use carbon dioxide as the thermal carrier. It doesn't need a big containment chamber and a diamond coated pebble won't burn if oxygen enters the system.

"Can we have the guys split into two teams and work on designs for next-generation reactors? One on thorium, one on pebble-bed," I asked Dr Agnew.

"Yes, that is an excellent idea. Are there any limitations to the use of diamond as a construction material: Size or shape?"

"Go wild, if it is a difficult size or shape we will just have to figure it out. The size of the vacuum chamber is the only a practical engineering limit for size." I sat with Dr Agnew and Dr Dean in Dr Agnew's office after the review. Both men had eyes filled with excitement.

"When you showed me the diamond before, I never considered its use in nuclear power." Dr Dean had the larger diamond in his hand, seemingly mesmerized as it sparked under the overhead lights.

"Where can we build a prototype reactor?" I asked.

"There's a nearly complete nuclear generator in Washington State. It's been in 'extended construction delay' since 1983. It'll probably never get funding for completion. I think it is about seventy-five percent finished," Dr Agnew said. Dr Dean looked up from the mesmerizing diamond in his hands.

"Satsop Washington," he said knowing exactly what reactor Dr Agnew was describing.

"The cooling towers are finished and one generation unit is at seventy-six percent. The second planned generation unit was canceled at sixteen percent."

"Why was it canceled?" I asked him"Some serious financial issues and a reevaluation of actual electrical demand."

"Do you think we could buy the facility? It already has planning permission, and has permits from the NRC, right?"

"I'll check. It might be expensive. There's a lot of debt left over in those canceled projects," Dr Dean said.

"Problems that money can solve are not problems," I commented, taking back my diamond from Dr Dean with a grin.

"Can I have permission to see how we can apply the diamond to out first wall problems on the D eye three D?" Dr Dean asked.

"What is that?" I asked.

"D I I I dash D, it's the name of the fusion reactor at the National Fusion Facility. It is the big building to the north. We've just started new upgrades."

"Sure. I can see the value of diamond as the first wall for heat shielding from the plasma and because it won't absorb the tritium. But you'll probably want to use it for the windows as well."

"That is an excellent idea," Dr Dean said.

"Windows and even heat sinks for the magnetic confinement."

"Are you using YBCO for your containment magnets?" I asked him.

"I'm not familiar with that," he said.

"I'm surprised. It is part of what got me my Doctorate. It is a high temp superconductor with incredible field strength. It becomes superconducting at 93K and has field strengths of 100 tesla. I just gave a lecture at Berkely about it earlier this year."

"That's incredible. I wonder if Dr Ohkawa knows about that?" Dr Dean said.

"I'll be sure to ask him," Dr Agnew said. I flew back home to Tulsa, where Mom had something to say the moment she saw me.

"You aren't allowed anymore adventures until you're thirty!" Dad chuckled, when I turned to him for help, and shook his head no.

"I expected you to come right home after being on Carson."

"Mom, my work at General Atomics got sidetracked with the trip to Ukraine. I had to go finish up and thank them for the help they gave me."

"They helped?" she asked.

"Yes, they helped organize and load the cargo plane and a few last-minute additions."

"I should have just gone with you," she said.

"You know you can. I wouldn't mind having my favorite Mother with me when I go work or travel around the entire planet to help save thousands of lives."

"I'm your only Mother!" she said with narrowed eyes as I scampered to the safety of my room laughing.